New Year 2009

Salesgirls offering up good luck charms for the coming year pose amiably for my CH.

No, I haven't fallen off of the face of the planet, nor have I abandoned my blog. I've just been so busy during December that I felt like I was going to drop over from exhaustion and lack of sleep (due to back pain and related problems). However, hopefully, I'm well on my way to normality and can come back to blogging.

This year was pretty much the usual for the CH and I. We took no note of the festivities around us at night and he ventured out and took photos the next day. The full collection (of which the pictures here are but a sampling) can be accessed via my Picasa web gallery. You can access the Asagaya 2009 collection in this post or you can use the links to the galleries on the right.


At the shrine, there was the usual surreal mix of the trivial with the spiritual as exemplified by this chocolate covered banana stand just outside the entrance to the shrine.


One has to wonder if prayers go more smoothly with colorful sprinkles on one's banana.


This seemed a big year for dogs to be taken to the shrine. If you peruse the entire collection of pictures, you'll see a lot of people dressed their dogs for the occasion. Of course, the dogs above were rather indifferent to the surroundings and did what dogs naturally do.

People write their wishes on the back of these wooden placards (only 500 yen/$5.51) and hang them near the shrine.

This year is the year of the ox, or the cow if you prefer. The CH bought me one of these placards (the more stylized one) as well as a small ceramic cow bell to add to my collection. I have a dragon and a tiger already since I was born in the former and the CH in the latter.

I want to write a post about the past year and the upcoming year, but I don't have the motivation after uploading and dealing with the web album. However, we did buy a fukubako ("lucky box") this year and I reviewed it on my Japanese snack reviews blog. If you'd like to see what goodies were in this year's Mister Donut box, you can mosey on over there and read it.

Asagaya Tanabata Festival 2009

Lanterns by Asagaya JR (Japan Railway) station announcing the festival and the dates it will run (August 6 - 10).

Every summer during the Asagaya tanabata festival, my students ask me if I attend the festival. Every summer since I've started private teaching (about 2.5 years back now), the answer has been "no". If you've perused my Picasa album for last years festival and you look at my album for this year's festival, you'll be clued in to why that is the case. While the decorations change every year as merchants make new wire frame figures, the basic food, souvenir, entertainment, etc. options are pretty much the same.

Wishes written on colorful paper strips for the festival.

Also, honestly, I believe the Asagaya festival is mainly for kids. I asked one of my students if she had any interest in these sorts of festivals and she said that she did when she was a child, but hasn't attended one since becoming an adult. That is not to say that there is nothing of interest for adults nor that it's not an interesting thing to do simply to walk around and look at the overwhelming display of decorations, but there is a trade-off to be had between the novelty and the discomfort. The day these pictures were taken, it was 95 degrees F./35 degrees C. and humid. The street is also very crowded, sometimes to the point of having to literally push past people to squeeze by. I think that, after many years of festivals and at 44 years of age, I'll choose the cool, calm, and unfettered comfort of my apartment over the interesting aspects of the festival.

"You wanna get high?" This is the oddest figure from the festival. South Park isn't even all that popular in Japan and Towelie seems a strange character to choose.

Fortunately for me (and any interested readers), my husband is less troubled by the heat and crowds and he took pictures this year. I have set up a Picasa public album with a full gallery of all of the 127 shots he took. The album has been added to the sidebar, but you can also find it just by clicking here. If anyone has any questions about the pictures, please feel free to ask them in the comments section for this post.

Apparently, you can make anyone look like Jack Sparrow with enough make-up, the proper wig and the right clothes.

It struck me this year more than most that the festival is an interesting meeting of the old and the new. There is a lot of pop cultural referencing in the decorations, but also a lot of traditional Japanese food, dress, and customary behavior. I guess part of the reason for that was how many relatively newish, Western cultural figures seemed to be a part of the festival.

This little boy has such a sweet look on his face. I can't help but feel kind of sad thinking that there's a good chance he'll grow up to be some poor, over-worked salaryman.

The day these pictures were taken was the opening day for the Olympics, so you'll see some shots in the Picasa gallery of people standing around watching television. I believe that one of the panda wire frame figures was also related to the Olympics in China.

I hope you enjoy the pictures.

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There is also a small set of photos taken at the same time in a new album which my husband snapped around Shinjuku. These photos have no particular theme, but are just evening life in Tokyo as usual and some station shots. That album has also been added to the listing on the sidebar, but you can also access it here.

Picasa Web Albums

Some of you may or may not have noted that I added a Picasa web album link to the side. I'm endeavoring to upload all of the pictures my husband has taken since I started blogging nearly 3 years ago. They include shots from my former blog as well as pictures that didn't make the cut for featured posts.

In my previous blog, I tried to embed a lot of pictures in posts when my CH took a bunch of shots, but I've decided not to do so much of that here as it's cumbersome in Blogger. For now, I have made few comments on the photos, but I hope to slowly go back and add some information to the pictures.

Some of them aren't the best, but I couldn't be bothered to pick and choose. I hope the visually-minded enjoy them.

The Fukutoshin Line

The Fukutoshin line opened up on June 14, 2008. My husband took pictures and explored the line on June 17, 2008.

Tokyo is notorious for overcrowded trains. By now, anyone who isn't familiar with the fact that part of the job of a rush hour train conductor is to cram people into cars like sardines has not been paying attention. In fact, the way in which people allow themselves to be crammed in would be considered cruelty to animals if it were done with any animal other than a human.

Every station has a cheesy stained glass window design. This one appears to be abstract rabbits.

The Fukutoshin line is a new subway meant to relieve some of the congestion of one of the major lines, the Yamanote line. It starts in Saitama, which can be considered a suburb of Tokyo in terms of being a cheaper place to live which isn't so far away from the central areas that a commute is still possible. It leads into some the most heavily-trafficked shopping and work districts in Tokyo.


The line has both "local" (stopping at all stations) and "express" (stopping at only the most popular stops and bypassing others) trains. This is nothing new, but the uncommon thing is that the express trains are 10 cars long and the local ones only 8 cars in length. I'm guessing that the express trains stops are the only stations with platforms long enough to accommodate the longer trains. There are signs specifically explaining the car length issue and messages flashing at regular intervals on the displays in the stations.

Clear plastic chairs with flower designs in one of the stations.

New stations like these are always a fascinating contrast to the older ones. They are pristine, clean, and their designs appear fresh and cutting edge. This week's shiny new station is next year's dingy, dirty, and dated look.

There are two aspects to every train line in Tokyo. One is how you go and the other is where you go. My husband bought a day pass for about $7 (¥740) and took the camera and investigated the lines, stations, and the areas that the stops lead to. Sometimes, they opened into vast shopping areas. At others, they opened into a whole lot of nothing. He took nearly 200 pictures and you can view them in a Picasa album here. Be forewarned though that the pictures are not picked over and some may not be all that interesting or recognizable.