road work

A construction crew blowtorches (seals?) the new surface of a left turn lane on Meiji dori.

It's a gas gas gas...

We don't have a car here, but occasionally I will be riding with a friend when they need to stop off at the petrol station (hanging out with Brits all the time has really screwed with my vocabulary) and I'm always impressed by the experience. When the attendant sees you coming he leaps into action, guiding you to the precise spot where he wants you to pull in. He grabs the dangling nozzle (pure genius, pumping fuel from overhead) and sticks it in, and while the tank is filling up, he cleans the windshields for you. It's always full service at 'Dr. Drive', baby! Almost makes me want to get my license. Almost.

autumn leaves are hanging on

what you see when you walk out the front entrance to my friend Sophie's apartment building in Shoto...

um... ho ho ho?

Roppongi Hills, Sunday, Dec. 6, 2009

team work on Cat Street

Reaching for the C.C. Lemon, the third-most popular soft drink in Japan after Coke and Pepsi. A 500 ml bottle contains 70 lemons' worth of Vitamin C!

swine flu boy

When you turn up at the pediatrician's office here and say your child has a fever, and probably the flu, they immediately put a mask over his face. Our school makes you stay home for 5 days, minimum, following a fever (they must be fever free for 2 days before they can return) and the same goes for siblings, even healthy ones. Conor was perfectly happy to spend an inordinate number of hours playing his DS over the course of his brother's illness...
Here they are in Dr. Che's waiting room on Nov 21 (everybody's all better now). Dylan's Doraemon socks match the Doraemon office slippers.

hair bands

Shopping for my niece the other day at Kiddyland ("For the Human Smile"; "Serving Happiness since 1946") I discovered yet another department in that 7-story novelty mecca that I had previously overlooked: the one with all the hair clips, hair ties, combs, barrettes and scrunchies. There were fuzzy things, furry things, lacy and glittery things; plaids, animal prints, metallics and skulls-and-crossbones. I did not buy a fake hair braid but I kinda wanted to.
I could work this look...couldn't I?

fashion watch

'tis the season... for pink shoes...

hair clips for 2000 yen

The vending machine outside Toni & Guy in Harajuku where I get my hair cut sells cans of hot coffee, milk tea, and hair products!

live band karaoke!

Terry singing Rock Around the Clock at Jan Ken Pon in Ebisu

so I was at the supermarket buying apples...

The bright red flesh of this dragon fruit - it's magenta, really -- belies its rather bland flavor. Closest thing to it is probably a kiwi. Whole, though, it made a nice centerpiece on our table for awhile. Then it stained my fingers.

autumn, chrysanthemum season

Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden
Sat. Nov.9.09

festival day at Meiji shrine

Shichi-go-san (Japanese for 7-5-3) is an annual event here, when kids of said ages don their finest kimono and visit a Shinto shrine with their families to be celebrated and prayed for -- "to express their thanks to the tutelary deities" for their good health and to pray for future blessings, according to one official website.

We witnessed a bit of this last Saturday at the Meiji Shrine, one of three major Shinto shrines in Tokyo that see most of the action. (The festival date is actually Nov. 15, so I presume there will be more Shichi-go-san outings this weekend -- unless the weather is truly awful, and things have turned a bit cold and gray here...)

This young honoree really stood out, especially next to her mother and older sister who stuck with a more modern look. In other family groups, everybody was in traditional formal wear.

We didn't expect to see any wedding processions that day, but there they were: the happy couple walking under the big red umbrella, behind Shinto priestesses (in the bright orange bottoms) with Shinto priests out front.

the courtyard in late afternoon

A mother makes final adjustments before her daughter has her picture taken in front of some enormous chrysanthemums. (I wasn't the only shutterbug of no relation, horning in on the action.) Click on the image to enlarge it and you should be able to see just how high this little girl's sandals are. Fancy geta, with their fabric thongs and elevated -- and sometimes elaborately painted -- wooden soles (gold dragons covered the sides of one girl's pair), are particularly difficult to walk in, as they are sharply angled in the front.

Another wedding party, the bride in traditional white kimono and hood. The guy in the blue uniform, at left, keeps the path clear. My understanding is that couples are wed not in the main Meiji shrine building but in one of the smaller shrines off to the side. (The ceremonies here are private, unlike at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City, where our friends Jen and Bill exchanged vows in front of family, friends and hundreds of strangers). The main shrine is blocked but not hidden; you can get as close as the coin boxes and the big taiko drum to wish for good health, happiness, fertility and fortune.

My favorite feature in the whole 200-acre compound, though, is this giant torii, a shrine gate made of 1,500-year-old cypress.

Our friends James and Dorothy from Boston lead the way out through the entrance by Harajuku station.

Deck the halls with... purple, pink, turquoise and chartreuse?

Here at Tokyu ("Play Home!") Hands, the Creative Life Store, you don't have to go all red and green and gold.

I'm not.

The Gap is ready.
The new Gap across from Harajuku station is a bright and cheery monstrosity featuring baby clothes designed by Stella McCartney, plus the usual piles of jeans, a good number of them in a size 0. And studded...

something old, something new

Fortune Cat with the girl from Big Love, outside Opening Ceremony, a department store in Udagawa-cho (Shibuya shopping district)

Tokyo Metro: please put your face on at home

powder puffs as public nuisance

keeping Tokyo tidy

I've seen workers in this city scrape gum off the sidewalk, empty -- then polish -- the ash bins in public smoking areas, and wipe the handrails on metro station escalators (they just stand at the bottom holding a cloth to the thing as it loops around). Of course every fallen leaf or bit of litter is swept up forthwith...

Shibuya station, Hachiko exit

life's essentials

Saw Franz Ferdinand tonight (they were great!) with Mark and Claire; then it was on to Andy's Shin Hinomoto, a well-known izakaya tucked under the JR tracks in Yurakucho, for sashimi and tempura, grilled John Dory, sauteed asparagus and mushrooms and a glimpse of this fine T-shirt.

"Beer, Sex, Chips 'N' Gravy"

photo of the day

school children on the 06 bus that runs along Meiji dori to Shibuya station, October 2009

Shibuya style watch

Today, like so many other days, I took a lot of pictures of other people's shoes. I snapped entire outfits from the back. But then after lunch -- I finally found the kaiten-sushi counter near Asbee's that my friend Rena told me about (120 yen per plate!) -- I got bolder. Rather than stalk my prey from behind, I stayed put on a shopping street not far from Shibuya crossing and captured full frontals, my iphone set to silent mode.

I think it's my best Tokyo Street Fashion series yet. My favorite is the girl in the gray beret and bright blue eyeglasses. The one in the purple plaid shirt, fuzzy fedora and pink Mary Janes with polka-dot socks is a very close second...

BST boy

A Happy Habit indeed

We gave Conor a box of lollipops from See's shop in Harajuku for his birthday last week, right before taking him to dinner at Barbacoa, where you can feed your face with all cuts of meat.

Not sure if this is the pork loin, or the leg of lamb, or the roast beef... but it all came 'round eventually, along with garlic steak, pepper steak, roast chicken and sausages. Did I mention the ribs?

Dylan tried -- but did not care for -- the quail eggs from the salad bar.

'No, no I couldn't possibly have any more...well, alright, maybe just one more hunk.'


Our firstborn carnivore topped off his megameal with this special birthday dessert plate. (Though he was mortified when three waitresses came over to sing Happy Birthday.)

Barbacoa Grill, just off Omotesando (north side) on the Harajuku 2-chome shopping street, offers an all-you-can-eat churrasco menu for half price on weekdays, if you arrive at 5:30pm (last order 7 pm). A great deal.

'tis the season

Japan loves Christmas, if mainly for the decorations. Seems Halloween gets the same respect.
topiary bedecked in tiny jack-o-lanterns, outside an office building on Meiji-dori in Ebisu

a seasonal specialty at Kobeya kitchen

Chi-Chi-Chi-Chiba!

For Tokyoites looking for a quickie beach getaway, Chiba beats Shimoda, hands down. It takes only 90 minutes to get there (by train, which is the only way we roll), so it's more convenient for a weekend (even just Sat-Sun) thing. And while the sand was a bit muckier ('white sand' it ain't) it didn't matter, because the water was beautiful and the hotel where we stayed --Sayan Terrace-- has a great big deck overlooking the seashore and the little stream/ditch area where our boys played for hours in plain sight. The rooms were nice and the rates are decent, and you can set up your own barbecue on the beach in front. The kitchen staff even grilled our leftover sausages for us for Sunday lunch, sparing us from having to set up the bbq again. (Thanks Lisa for conveying our request with your brilliant Japanese! My pathetic sukoshi-Nihongo plus sign language would never have cut it.)

Whoever's in charge of the hotel really should consider putting nice big gas grills out there for guests to rent. They should also sell platters of raw meat and other fixings out of their own kitchen. Who wouldn't pay a bit extra to avoid having to lug all that stuff out there? We didn't do any lugging as we had friends going by car, but if we went on our own, we'd be stuck ordering off the hotel restaurant menu (fine for adults, lacking for kids) or wandering into the town to find grub. As it turned out we had some very fine lamb chops (thanks to Kate) and some tasty steaks (U.S. prime sirloin from Cost-o-co Japan!) and some skewered chicken (thanks Clare and Louise) and lots of other stuff. When they weren't chowing down, the kids kept busy running around in the sand or in the drained pool (not as dangerous as it sounds).

This boutique hotel is located in Onjuku-machi, Isumi-gun, Chiba Prefecture, a 3 minute shuttle-van ride from the Onjuku JR train station (take the Wakashio Ltd. Exp. train from Tokyo station, then call the front desk and they come pick you up!). It's a surfing beach, so lots of day trippers who park on the little side streets, pull into their wetsuits and go.

Thanks to Clare for organizing, and thanks to the weather gods for clearing things up for us.

It was still drizzling when we arrived at Onjuku


Before long it had stopped raining, but I still found it too chilly to go in without a wetsuit that first day.

a pre-dinner game of (American) football

the flaming torches were one of Sayan Terrace's many nice touches

getting the fire started

6 kids play tag in the pool under Terry's watchful eye

Dylan and pal Charlie share a bag of Doritos on the deck

David, grillmaster, distributes the sausages

View from our hotel room late Sat nite


heading home on Sunday


OH and P.S., Onjuku has some sort of sister-city deal going with Acapulco, Mexico!
(sign posted by the Onjuku train station, facing the platform waiting area)

vending machine selling milk by the quart

across the street from the one selling batteries (see next)

vending machine selling batteries

Umegaoka area of Setagaya-ku

street sign in Umegaoka

But is the cigarette that this cigarette is smoking also smoking a cigarette?

how I loathe this ad

Lark's "mint splash" cigarettes

and the poster is up everywhere
(view from pedestrian crossover, Shibuya-bashi, looking north)

mod metro platform seating

Mizuho -- BST mum, local shopping guru, tennis champion -- waiting with me for the Fukutoshin line at Meiji-Jingumae station, heading to Shinjuku. It's a new line, completed only last year, which is why we get to wait for its trains in such style.

It really does have everything

Spotted during a recent trip to Tokyu Hands, next to Takashimaya in Shinjuku...

This high tech umbrella won't turn inside out, even in a typhoon. The TV next to Spidey is showing footage of a man struggling to stay upright while holding the thing in a wind tunnel/test lab.

Rocking horse made of recycled cardboard, only 16,000 yen. (I really wanted one of those chairs.)

Training chopsticks for the kiddies (Carolyn, didn't you ask me about these, like, a year ago??)



this orange towel will put out your next kitchen fire


I keep seeing Mike Myers, in this kind of harness, wearing a helmet and dragging a whole jungle gym down the road after eating chocolate... Philip, the hyper hypo! sorry, old SNL reference.


padded tape, to baby proof those hard household edges

trying to blend in

silly purchase of the week: jeggings!

jean leggings, 990 yen at Uniqlo...

Totoro fan

'wiggly thing'

Dylan, my 7-yr-old, really likes this handrail at the Meiji Jingumae metro station and asked me to take a picture of it. So this is for him.

Miss (Tokyo Metro) Manners Lesson No. 19

Beware of the splattering ramen broth!