✌✌ More after the break!
Kanamara Matsuri (Penis festival), I was talking about, held each spring Kawasaki. The legend of 'teeth' comes from here, that movie where the chick has a set of teeth in her vagina that castrated douchebags. But the legend was that she castrated young men in her wedding nights so she got help form a blacksmith who fashioned a steel phallus which broke the teeth, so now there is a shrine for it.
There were many various endearing little gardens made up of different pots of succulents outside of people's houses in Japan. This one was outside our apartment, we added one to it when we left!
Dreamcatchers in Shimokitazawa. Cool trendy, laid back suburb with a few awesome vintage stores, where we liked to go for shisha and drinks. The bunny cafe is also in the neighbourhood! We visited a jewellery store which was also the designer/silversmith's studio.
Tokyo Disney Land beats the Hong Kong one a trillion times and more! All the different themed worlds were breathtakingly detailed, it's a whole other universe! We could be kids for a day and hit all the roller coasters, chow on junk food and cookie ice creams.
Stepped out of bustling Tokyo for a few days for some fresh air, 'shrine crime' and traditional sentiments in Kyoto.
We didn't make it to the golden temple, instead sipped on some holy water and wandered through Kiyomizu-dera Temple, sipped on some holy water and visited the love stones (apparently if you make it 18 metres from one to the other with your eyes closed then your love wishes will come true), and when we made it past all the tourists saw the beautiful temple jutting our from the mountains and trees in a secluded spot of our own.
The walk up to the temple is filled with traditional tea cup/ceramic and souvenir stores as well as desserts and cakes! It's bustling with tourists but directly parallel runs a quieter alternative with humble ceramic stores and a few museums and a few tiny restaurants.
Osaka was like the Brisbane of Japan; we felt everything worth checking out was within close quarters of each other, it was slower and people were super easy going. To start the day we fanned out at Osaka Pokemon Center, healed our little guys and acquired more pokeballs! Found Kaka Vaka and an awesome vintage clothing store as well, that's on the lower floor of the same building! After lunch in Dotonbori, (felt like a theme park), amongst the larger than life themed signs above the restaurant of giant puffer fish and dragons weaving in and out of buildings or moving cartoon pigs, we drank and ate Takoyaki by the river, under Ebisubashi bridge. We thought it would be a good idea to wait for the Glico guy to light up so we could feel like we're in Bladerunner but later found out it lit up around 8pm (when our train left)! Next time I would be keen to spend a few nights here...
Friends took us to a film festival night at Zushi beach! As the sun went down, we indulged in craft beers, spiced wine, taco rice and awesome thai food. We also drooled over the skaters on a skate ramp for a few good hours. We even raised money (200 yen bahah) and got one of our dear friends to skinny dip in the freezing cold ocean later in the night!
Cute flower store in Harajuku; the shopping here will never be beaten! You've got your Tokyo Bopper and Avantagarde (that's legs taken car of) then Nadia, Dog, GR8 in la foret, that's the essentials, (for me anyway).
Hanami was early this year! It's where you picnic and drink in the parks under the Sakura trees, this happens frequently and becomes your favourite past time untill they finish blooming!
Most nights we end up at Takenotsuka! Stay tuned for part two coming right up...