sakura walk (tamagawa, ikegami)

Today it was forecast for clouds and maybe some sun.

Unfortunately from tomorrow it is forecast for rain...so I got out and about to see some cherry blossoms.

I went to Tamagawa (Tama River)

It wasn't in full bloom, but it was still nice to see

A tiny pocket park nearby in Ikegami.

If there is a sunny day later this week, I'll try to check more cherry blossoms out

yokohama

Yesterday was forecast for sun, so I made sure to get out and about

I debated about whether to check out the Royal Palace's sakura or go to Yokohama.

I decided to check out Yokohama, because I had seen something online about 800 trees along the Oooka River

The bummer thing about IG these days is that they got rid of the "recent" feature on reels, so you can't tell what is actually current

Anyway, Maita Park is located in a part of Yokohama that I hadn't been to before so I was interested to see what was what

Unfortunately not many trees were in bloom at the park, so I walked along the river

Luckily there were many early blooming sakura trees

I also stumbled upon some street art

This area was also part of their red light district so parts were a bit sketchy...

This year everyone’s cherry blossoms started early so the weather dude said by April it should be hot & humid (oh joy! not!)

With global warming all the “good” seasons (Spring & Autumn) seem to be getting shorter and shorter

The next couple of days are forecast for rain, so it was nice to be able to see some cherry blossoms

hanzomon to shinjuku

Been wanting to walk this route ever since I saw the road back in 2019

From Chidorigafuchi it goes straight to Shinjuku

The interesting thing is the number of the road did not change, only the naming changed from Kojimachidori, to Shinjukudori to Koshukaidori!

We started from Hanzomon Station and made our way to Shinjuku

Love this mosaic! inside the metro Hanzomon station

There were lots of cool buildings to see along the way...this was a Starbucks

The curvy building was a Korea Center

huge fire station with a fire museum located in it also

stumbled upon a dragon ball z pop up at marugame udon

lunch at suzuya

one of their popular items is their tonkatsu chazuke, which we heard about from Satoshi's friend, O, many moons ago

this dish started as the makanai (family meal) at a time when there was no microwave to reheat food

the workers wanted a way to "reheat" the tonkatsu and came up with chazuke

Nowadays, the tonkatsu comes out on a hot plate 

choose your sauce, we chose their shoyu based sauce

the tonkatsu is drizzled with this sauce, then topped with cabbage and nori

when you are ready to eat the tonkatsu as chazuke, ask for the tea

there are also some pickles and miso soup, for you to eat with your tonkatsu

it was a nice but different experience and different, we were glad to try it

this shop also serves regular tonkatsu and other fried items, if chazuke isn't your thing.

After lunch, Satoshi had several things he wanted to check out before his upcoming tours

We were lucky to see some early blooming cherry blossoms in front of the Tokyo Prefecture Offices

And a beautiful weeping cherry near a university

Even if the weather was sunny it was still a little chilly

Suzuya

1-23-15 Kabukicho, 5F

Shinjuku, Tokyo

Hours: 11:00-23:00

ueno

In order to get to Think, I walked through Ueno Park
 

I noticed this huge tree on the grounds of the Tokyo National Museum luckily it could be seen from between the slats of the outer fence 

Tokyo University of Arts

So stinky but so pretty

tokyo toilet part 3

From Ebisu, we took the Hibiya line to Hiroo

This one is located in Hiroo East Park and designed by Tomohito Ushiro

Loved the huge rhododendron trees at the edge of University of Sacred Heart property, which is next to the park

Back at Ebisu station, at the West exit is this one designed by Kashiwa Sato

Ebisu East Park designed by Fumihiko Maki

Loved that there was a cherry tree right above, all the petals fluttering was nice

tako (octopus) slide at the park

always see this building from the train, was cool to see it up close

Higashi 3-chome by Nao Tamura.

This one seemed really compact.

And lastly Ebisu Park designed by Masamichi Katayama

we also visited Ebisu Shrine

It was nice to see different parts of Shibuya ward, it was also nice to learn that Shibuya has quiet areas and is not just sensory overload.

We’re not sure when we’ll be able to go see the movie, have you seen it?!

Anyway, if you visit Tokyo, and happen to find yourself in Shibuya, I hope you'll check out one or more of these public toilets.

We enjoyed this adventure and I hope you did as well.

tokyo toilet part 2

Yoyogi Hachiman, by Toyo Ito looked like mushrooms

we then went up to visit Yoyogi Hachiman Shrine
 

Down the hill is Haru no Ogawa Park, by Shigeru Ban

The walls are supposed to be transparent and then when you are going to use them the walls turn opaque, but according the the memo on the toilet, the cold weather slows the walls from turning the walls opaque, so for “winter” they had the walls turned opaque even if no one was using the toilet.

love the colors! and that there were many cafes around this park

Yoyogi Fukamachi Mini Park, also by Shigeru Ban

Love the colors here as well.

The walls here were opaque as well

Nabeshima Shoto Park, designed by Kengo Kuma.

Tokyo People: nice day to gaze at the pond

The insides had nice wooden decor

And then we walked through the "heart" of Shibuya

 way too many people

Jingu Dori Park by Tadao Ando

We were kind of starving, so we ducked into this pasta place, Pan Con Tomate for lunch...

I had their cold salad pasta, bummer they noted tuna on the menu but there was none to be found in this AND it was dressed way too much with dressing...1750 yen (tax included)

would try something else if I come back here

I hadn't been to Harajuku since before the pandemic, so I was surprised to see this monster building...Harakado, which opens this week.

Togo Shrine's azaleas were beautiful

Jingumae by Nigo, looked like a house

Painted rocks at an art gallery

so many tall buildings

Urasando designed by Marc Newson

From here we caught the JR Yamanote from Yoyogi to Ebisu.

Our feet were pretty tired at this point...but only 5 more to see!

Pan Con Tomate

6-17-15 Jingumae, B1

Shibuya, Tokyo

Open daily: 11:00-15:30 (lunch), 17:30-21:30 (dinner)