Coffee in a Can

Coffee in a can in a vending machine - its a thing.I have been drinking coffee in a can occasionally - it can be black or milky, strong or extra strong - but with my level of Japanese its all guess work and taste and try.I think the aluminium cans are recycled, so it may be better than drinking soft drinks in PET bottles.

Skinny Buildings

Land is at a premium in Tokyo and buildings for homes and businesses and built on small narrow blocks.

Tuesday Temple - Stone Lantern

Mossy stone lanterns - toro - at Taiyuin shrine at Nikko. 

Hong Kong - Tartan

Sham Shui Po was the heart of Hong Kong's textile industry last century.  It is still popular with designers with streets lined with wholesale venders for buttons, zippers and clasps and ribbons and textiles and fabric samples - tartan seemed very popular.

Victoria Harbour Hong Kong

Buildings crowd the edge of Victoria Harbour in Hong Kong.  A short ride on the Star Ferry takes you from Hong Kong to Kowloon.

Delicious Duck

Delicious Duck in a restaurant window in the Sham Shui Po area of market on Kowloon  was a contrast to the glitzy glass skyscrapers of other areas of Hong Kong.

Hong Kong - A working bicycle

A solid working bicycle with carriers at the back and front and maybe tired riders resting in the background.

Tuesday Temple - Hong Kong

The contrast of the tradition and the modern in Hong Kong.  The Chi Lin Nunnery is a large complex established in 1934 and includes a complex of elegant wooden buildings, lovely gardens and some huge golden Buddha statues. Both buildings and gardens were similar in style to those in Japanese temples clearly showing the impact of Chinese culture on Japanese temple design.

Hong Kong Lights

The lights of Hong Kong - bright and large.

Another Peony

Just because I can - and because I am a bit obsessed with these Peonies -so Japanese!!!

More Roses - Orange

More roses at Jindai Botanical Gardens.  I took this photo to show the unusual metal trellis the roses were trained over to form a horizontal display.  However I chose for today's photo as there are some orange roses and I am hoping orange will indicate a Helen Haines win in Indi today.

More Wisteria

More wisteria - just because I love it and it fits in with the flower theme so far this week and plus I took so many photos at Kameido temple two weeks ago.

Peony

There was also a display of Peonies at the Jindai Botanical Gardens - beautiful.
I missed the wisteria there - 14 different varieties.  Need to go next year!

Roses

On Sunday afternoon I cycled along the No river and ended up at Jindai Botanical Gardens.  It was very Japanese - busy (not super crowded) and there was a festival.  A rose festival.  The displays were beautiful they even had a "Rose Hall of Fame" and a rose flavoured soft serve ice cream.

Tuesday Temple - Lamp

The orange torii gates in Kyoto are in the grounds of Fushimi Inari shrine which is the most important of several thousands of shrines dedicated to Inari, the Shinto god of rice. Aside from the amazing torii gates the temple buildings were also beautiful, interesting and ornate and orange.  The lamps at one of the temples were beautiful.

From Bridge to Bridge

A panorama photo of the Tama River looking towards Kawasaki.  Busy on a Saturday afternoon - trains, traffic, cyclists and runners and on baseball players on the far bank.

Shrines on a Saturday in Spring

Saturday afternoon I cycled along a small waterway leading to the Tama River.  I stopped whenever there was something interesting to look at. These three different shrines were all unexpected finds, pleasant and calm places to stop and explore for a moment.

Dogwoods

After the Sakura the dogwoods bloomed.  More lovely flowering trees along the canal near school.

Kids on the Move

One way to move a group of toddlers around.

Back to School

After 10 days off for "Golden Week" Japan went back to work and to school on Tuesday.  Kids on bikes and elementry students in their yellow hats walking to school.

We had two days off over the time, but in Japan the government has arranged a series of public holidays in order to make people have a holiday - yet they complain about not knowing what to do!

Am I in Australia?

Billboards in Tokyo for products/services not at all related to Australia.

Temple Tuesday - Washing

Prior to entering a Shinto Shrine worshippers wash their hands and rinse their hands at washing basins called chōzuya . First washing their left hand, then right hand, mouth and using the handle of the bamboo or wooden ladle to purify themselves. 

Yanaka Ginza

Yanaka Ginza  has many small tradition shops and is part of Yanaka in the historical Shitamachi area -under city- Tokyo's original downtown area where poor people lived in cramped and unhygienic conditions.

Irises

Irises!  An absolutely divine exhibition of Japanese folding screens (on gold-foiled paper)  from the Edo period  (17th century) featured iris screens and others with summer flowers, by a master screen artist Ogata Korin. They were stunning, glowing, serene and beautiful.  The screens are considered a National Treasure and are in the collection of  the Nezu Museum. The museum gardens were as stunning (even in the rain) as the screens and had irises too.  Iris by a pond! Iris surrounded by maples!  So Japanese!   So Beautiful.

Poster for Nezu Museum Ogata Korin's Irises - Felicitations in Edo-Period Paintings.

Azaleas in the street

Many of the streets in my neighbourhood and other parts of Tokyo have Azaleas as street plantings, hedges, along the streets and canals.

More Wisteria

 Tokyo never ceases to amaze with the contrast of tradition and modern, secular and spiritual, floral beauty and banal buildings - all in the moment!

Wisteria and Tree

The wisteria shrine was near Tokyo Skytree which dominates the skyline in the Asukusa. Now a modern area but the location of the original settlement - Edo - in about 700 AD.

Playing with Lightroom effects.

Wisteria

Another day, another temple with a floral festival.  Wisteria - masses of trellised wisteria - at Kameido Tenjin Shrine in Tokyo in the old centre of Tokyo.  The vine trunks were old thick and twisted. Apparently wisteria were planted here during the Edo period - 1603-1867.

There were wisteria themed ema wishing plates too.