Day 3 - Yasukuni Jinja, Chidorigafuchi, Kichijoji

28 March 2009

This day was Cherry Blossom viewing (hanami はなみ) day! Cherry blossoms, or Sakura (さくら) are celebrated and even obsessed over in Japan - as they are exquisitely beautiful, but only last for about 1 week after full bloom. We deliberately planned this trip to coincide with the blooming period - but as the weather took a turn for the cold (lucky us, haha), blooming was slightly delayed. We were there when the sakura was partially bloomed - not as magnificent as they would've been in full bloom, but still breathtakingly pretty anyway.

First stop - Yasukuni Jinja (靖國神社)

Yasukuni Jinja is a shrine built to honour the Japanese people who died in War - the innocent civilians, the everyday soldier, and, most notoriously, the well-known convicted war criminals of World War II. As this place has sparked such controversy over the past few decades, I thought I'd check it out. Turns out that it looks like any other shrine - no huge statues of the war criminals or anything like that. The streets leading towards the shrine were lined with food stalls. Yum. :) We bought some takoyaki (the takoyaki are SO HUGE), and enjoyed them under some partially bloomed Sakura trees.

The imposing entrance to the shrine

Takoyaki swimming in a sea of sauce, mayo and fish flakes ^^

Pretty pretty blossoms

Pink!

An overjoyed mummy

The infamous shrine

A Dango stall - a rice flour dumpling popular during Sakura season

Next stop - Chidorigafuchi (千鳥ヶ淵)

Just across the road from Yasukuni Shrine, is the Chidorigafuchi Moat - a beautiful sakura viewing area located within the Imperial palace grounds. So pretty, the branches of cherry blossoms waving gently over the pond.

So so pretty

So very pretty (haha, you know I'm not referring to myself)

Tayasumon gate - mummy and huge stone slabs

Last stop - Kichijoji (吉祥寺)

Kichijoji is a suburb to the west of the Tokyo city centre, which houses another popular hanami spot - Inokashira Park. We got to Kichijoji station, followed the crowd, and arrived at a park crowded with people (mostly drunk), picnicing on any available surface. The Japanese like to have hanami parties - fun, food, flowers and BOOZE. We could actually smell the stench (haha) of alcohol in the air.

So mummy and I decided to have a little picnic of our own! We sat down on an available bench, looking out at the flowers and the lake, and ate pudding. Pudding is a popular thing in Japan - so milky, so soft and smooth and creamy and melt-in-your-mouth, with a thin layer of almost-bitter caramel at the end. It's delectable. I think we spent every day after that trying out the different types of puddings we found in stores. Heh.

Drunken people drinking sake

Our pudding came in a brown paper bag that says:

"How to cook a husband" xD heehee

Pudding is YUMMAY!

Emo shot

A beautiful weeping cherry blossom tree

Me again! :)

After this we decided to return to the Kichijoji shopping district to look for Steakhouse Satou - a restaurant that sells Menchi-katsu, deep fried minced beef cutlets that ROCK your SOCKS. Got lost looking for it, asked for directions, and this kind lady actually brought us there. SO NICE! This would never happen in Malaysia. Anyways, back to the minced beef cutlets. It's made using Matsuzaka beef - which is said to be as good as Kobe beef. Truly, I have never enjoyed beef so much. The minced beef was mixed with onions and fried to perfection - crispy on the outside, juicy and flavourful on the inside. No hint of oilyness at all. Well worth the 30 minutes of queueing.

Yum yum.

*drool*

Then, we decided to go home to enjoy a long and languorous dip in the open-air bath. Cam-whored a little (but not going to show you! haha). We were so lucky to not bump into anyone the three days we were there. I don't think I would've been as relaxed if there were strangers naked next to me.

Nice and rosy after the bath.

After that, we popped over to the sushi restaurant opposite our hotel, since we hadn't had any sushi since arriving in Japan yet. And how can you not have SUSHI when you are in JAPAN? The restaurant is called Kiyo Sushi, it's this small shop managed by a husband and wife. Very cozy and quaint. The husband, the sushi chef, reminded me of the Hayashi rice chef in Ryusei no Kizuna. Warm and crinkly-eyed, he folded a little paper crane chopstick holder for me, which I sadly forgot to bring back. :( He asked us where we were from and I actually managed to hold a conversation with him in Japanese! Other patrons of the restaurant chimed in on the conversation... one guy was hilarious, he mentioned the so-called "HARIMAU", with his hands stretched out like claws to make himself understood. HAHA. Funny to know that people associate Malaysia with tigers. ^^ The other guy kept calling me "kawaii" (which means cute), which was incredibly flattering... but I think he was drunk. Haha. And really old. Haha.

Anyway, I digress. The sushi was amazing. So fresh - no hint of fishiness at all, so creamy and tasty and good. They don't give you wasabi - the wasabi is already in between the fish and the rice. We ordered an extra from the set - Ootoro - fatty tuna belly - the most exquisite, soft and rich piece of sushi I've ever had. It was expensive. Oh well. Haha. Sushi back here will never taste the same again - it will never be fresh enough, the atmosphere will never be authentic enough. I left the restaurant content, and had a wonderful night's sleep.

I miss you!

Our beautiful slab of Ootoro