I went out for my first day on the Bike in Tokyo. I made it to the end of my street before this appeared. I don't know what Matsuri (festival) this is for or why they went down an off the beaten path kind of in the middle of nowhere residetial street but i'm glad they did. its the first time i've seen this kind of procession. will learn someday about what they are carrying. As for festivals there are tons every week in Japan. In Tokyo alone there has been 3 or 4 everyday of the weekend that i have seen listed in the foreigner mags. I'm sure there a lot more cuz i stumbled onto one unlisted on later this night. Anyway i want to participate someday, looks fun, everyone has been drinking and they're all merry.
rode wherever the wind took me which ended up being Ebisu. i read there are a lot of "vertical gardens" going up around tokyo. i guess here is an example
i remembered the Yebisu Beer Museum is in Ebisu so i went to take a look. i crossed the Yebisu Sky walk which was super unimpressive, it was annoying actually, like going to your boarding gate at the airport and walking on all those flat escalator things.
loving the japanese design again, i posted about this can before and they did a nice job with the vertical poster too.
at the end of the super spectacular sky walk you are met with a kind of Utopia enclave Beer garden/museum area.
beer museum entrance. also note that this is a Sapporo Beer museum so no Kirin or Asahi up in here!
how awesome would this bee in your room?
or this. or those door curtains below
this looks straight out of willy wonka and the chocolate factory, the 70s version.
beer ingredients, water, barley, hops, yeast. wat is hops? i will learn when im an adult some day
love the old japanese beer ads.
the one on the right, is that japanese artist being influenced by degas who was influenced by old school japanese wood block prints? reminds me of his ballerina works. or i guess could be french moulon rouge art inspired but those guys sweated japanese woodblock prints too.
the amazing sapporo magic theatre or something like that. saw something like this in shanghai. people somehow projected onto this tiny diorama.
at the end of the museum is the tasting lounge. i tried some amber ale because i already have tried everything else. they didnt have the limited edition seasonal brews.
rode around for a while being lost ended up going in a circle which was ok cuz i wanted to eat a bagel at this place. it tasted like a lenders bagel from the freezer, well a little better than that. Oh how i miss a real new york bagel. maybe equally as much as real new york pizza, or bolonga sandwiches from the bodega in harlem. My V8 craving has been satiated since there are a few brands that make close products.
then i went to try to find this bathhouse that i read somewhere that was supposed to be cool. hard to find. from the street you might never find it. luckily i stumbled upon it from the back where it really looks like a bathhouse. thats a smoke stack coming out the back.
right men, left women. lockers for your shoes. once inside you get naked, put your clothes in a locker and then go wash up before you get in the baths. its the rules and they even post them on the walls of all the bathhouses i've been to. I dont know if its just today but the water was so hot! like too hot for me, the one i went to in omotesando was a good temperature. me and bob both cant really do massages, saunas, hot tubs, etc... for some reason. i will keep trying bath houses though. maybe not this one again. This one was suppoed to have cool oldschool tile art which it did have a little but then above that around the whole place was bad modern western style landscape paintings. there is only one big tub too. so i went for the oldness but wasn't too impressed. This is also called Shimizu Yu, its in Sangenjaya.
the shortest train i've seen. 2 cars. after research its actually a tram and only runs in this ku (district?). its the Tōkyū Setagaya Line. the station is also about two cars long. weird looking. anyway i found it being lost after the bath house which is ok because that is wats great about being on a bike and getting lost. you discover stuff. like this awesome festival i stumbled upon below!
after research i found out this is Komadome Hachiman Shrine. I think it was some kind of kids festival, i think i heard them say something about kodomo matsuri maybe.
old ladies struttin on stage
giant bells the size of big pumpkins that you ring after you throw money into the prayer box thing.
deliciousness. some kind of okonomiyaki i think
back of the shrine, kids playing
chestnut bread things i think. guy cleaning out the press.
dont know, looked like candied fruits in ice.
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