Braving the rain - Strolling through Kyoto's Gion district

Some of you might recognise the pictures from... oh dear, three years ago!? Now there is an article to go with. Written for Taiken Japan: http://taiken.co/single/braving-the-rain-strolling-through-kyotos-gion-district. Enjoy!

Best of Tokyo by Night - 8 Sites with Breathtaking Atmosphere

Another article for Taiken Japan, you can find it here: http://taiken.co/single/best-of-tokyo-at-night-8-sights-with-breathtaking-atmosphere
Enjoy!

Still on time for the sakura snow!

Another short article I wrote for Taiken Japan, about one of my favourite places in Tokyo:

http://taiken.co/single/a-different-cherry-blossom-experience-in-yanaka-cemetery

Cat Café

I went to my first cat café the other day, Nekorobi in Ikebukuro, Tokyo. I took a day off on a Friday so it wasn't crowded, which is good. The café is quite nice. Well, it's not exactly a café per se, nobody comes and serves you drinks, but there is a free vending machine (yes, free!!) and you can have all sorts of beverages. You can also play cards, board games, watch YouTube or Hulu Japan on TV (maybe even sing karaoke? I don't know, I was too shy to ask but I really wanted to), do your Wii workout (who remembers those days?) or use the free WiFi while playing with the cats.
The twelve or so cats are beautiful, really well taken care of and most of them are... huuuuuuge. I have to say I was a little bit intimidated around them! Kudos on the owners to keep the place absolutely immaculate. I might go back to play with the black and white kitten with the funny moustache whose name I don't know. He was the cutest poupie ever.

A Sunday morning at the Toshimaen amusement park flea market

http://www.bijoucaillou.com/a-sunday-morning-at-the-toshimaen-amusement-park-flea-market/

Mito Kairakuen - Part 4: Queues

It's been more than a month since plum blossom, so let's wrap up Mito Kairakuen. Since this is Japan the garden comes with its shrine (you can see one of the tree shops in the background) and of course the shrine comes with its queue :-)

Just beside the shrine, more food stands. Mito is famous for nattō, which there was plenty of.
(More natto images, just for fun…)

One of the rare queues that wasn't about food. Waiting to get the chance to get your photo taken with the characters of Mito Kōmon, the longest standing Japanese TV drama in history.

While standing in line you can listen to the soundtrack of the series (yes it's coming out of that plastic "machine" inside that plastic bag) :-)) So much for Japanese high tech.

Of course we did it :-))

Mito Kairakuen - Part 3: Bento, tea and flowers

Time to sit down and have lunch with this bento box bought at the entrance of the garden. It's going to be Gyudon (beef bowl) today.

A few meters away, free beverage. I say beverage because I don't know exactly what it was. I've had it before and I almost spat it out because I expected tea but it was more like a salty sour seaweed broth. Not fab.

The free green tea stand. Ah, that's much better, thanks!

Those babies have just been watered, and yaay, we've found the bonsai shop!

So beautiful and very hard to resist. Bao Zhen and I both adopted one of those. Well, one of those at the bottom of the stand, younger and cheaper.

This is Broken on his first day back home. The plum tree's branches are so fragile, I had no idea and was careless, I admit.
Broken did produce very beautiful and fragrant blossoms, though, and he's doing well. One month later and he now has a few more friends to share the balcony with. You can follow their progress here.

Another tree shop.

See you in Part 4…

Mito Kairakuen - Part 2: Inside the garden and the bamboo grove

When we saw this couple's plum bonsai wrapped up in a plastic bag we thought it was so beautiful. We HAD to find the shop! More about this later on...

Do you remember the days when you took a picture of the square code with you mobile phone and it linked you to a website giving you all the information you need about that particular topic? Is that a Japanese thing? Not that I would know. My mobile phone is from stone age (possibly ice age), I don't think it even "does" pictures :-))

Some specimens had an incredible aura. This one looks like a woman in bikini lying on the beach with a hand behind her head. Her hair is a cascade of flowers. Quite an incredible tree.

And this one. I don't know how old it is but in its lifetime it bent to a ninety degree angle four times!! And it's still alive, there might be more to come!

Yuka touching the "lucky tree" as instructed.  Let's see if luck comes her way soon :-))

OK girls, let's have a walk in the bamboo grove!

No idea what the bamboo-boxes-in-the-bamboo-forest are for...

Bamboo trees and many cedars as well (wonderful place but hello allergies…).

To be continued…