fabric-town

I decide to hire a bicycle. A friend from England, Damien, decides to join me. We grab two300 bicycles for the day and cycle in the direction of Ueno. On the way, we pass a random stage on Kappabashi kitchen Street. Men and womendressed in traditionaltaiko clothing hitmassive taiko drums. A security guard stands watch, eyeing me up as I take a photograph.nnWe cycle around Ueno Station and toward Ueno Park. Today and tomorrow there is a festival here, the Philippine Festival. The festival is sponsored by international money transfer company, Western Union. The space for the festival hasnt been very well utilised. There are two rows of small stalls on both sides, and a third row through the middle which completely obstructs the view of the small stage.nnnnI promised a friend I would bring her a souvenir from the festival. To my dismay, all of the stalls appear to be for financial institutions or property letting companies. There is a stall offering tax refund, there are stalls for various banks, there are stalls selling insurance. There is not one stand that seems to offer anything remotely souvenir.nnWe take a seat near an ice cream shop opposite the festival. I rant to Damien about how much the festival has annoyed me, he is in agreement. A woman starts to sing from the stage that you cant even see. The song from Frozen, Let It Go. I almost go on anotherangry rant, but decide to just let it go.nBack on the bikes, we head to Nippori Station, cycling through Textile Town and Fabric Town on the way. We cross the railway tracks and head to a big area of green on my map, thinking it will be some kind of park or temple.nnYanaka Reien is massive. Over seven thousandtombstones are here. The cemetery is so big that it contains a police station and a childrens swing park. The Tokugawa Family Graveyard is here too. The last shogun, Tokugawa Yoshinobu, rests here alongside fourteen other Tokugawa shoguns. There is one area that slightly confuses me, it is marked on the map as The First Three-dimensional Deposit Facility. We have no idea what this means.nWe head back toward Ueno Park, stopping off at the Daimyo Clock Museum to kill some time, before returning to Asakusa. Outside the Don Quixote store, there is the Rokku Hanamichi Flower Festival taking place. Music is being performed on a small stage,but the flowers are notable by their absence.nOur next stop is over the Sumida River, to a place I visited when filming a cycle tour; Mukojima-Hyakkaen Gardens. The entrance fee is still 150. Today is Mushi-Kiki-no-Kai, which I am told means, Enjoying the sound of insects. The event today describes itself as, An exhibition of various kinds of chirping insects, their chirping sounds, and the fantastic garden scenery. The insects arent quite as attractive as the description of the event, but the sounds they makeare.nnA Japanese lady in a Kimono approaches us as we stare at the crickets. Where are you from? Ah, England! Do you like tea ceremony? BothDamien and I are yet to experience a traditional Japanese tea ceremony, so we go along with it and are invited into a tatami mat room, shoes off, kneel down, join the others. The other thirteen people attending are Japanese.nWe wait a while before the process begins. When it finally does, we pass around a tray containing sweets filled with a red bean filling. I thank the person to my right for passing me the tray, I bow, I thank Damien to my left for letting me take a sweet before him, I bow, I take a sweet, I eat it. It is all very methodical. Next, it is tea time. Young women in Kimonos kneel one at a time in front of people, bow, and place a bowl of green tea in front of them. They movein a clockwise order.nBefore drinking, I ask the woman to my right if she would like any more tea, and politely, she refuses. No one ever says, Yes, at this stage, it is purely a formality. I lift the bowl of tea, place it on my left hand, turn it clockwise twice, then drink it all in one go. Then when the bowl is collected, I bow once again.nThe sweet was delicious, the tea was cold. I always preferred hot tea. The woman that invited us to the ceremonysaid that they would usually offer hot tea, but because it is a hot day, they decided to serve it cold. After the ceremony, we are allowed to inspect the beautifully crafted bowls and the container that containsthe green tea powder.nnThe tea ceremony, I later find out, should have cost us 2000 each, but we were neverasked to pay anything.nRead the next part of my Journey in Japan, where I explore a very unusual bridge, get a little lost, visit an exhibition of art pertaining to the use of animal skulls, and introduce the famous legend of Hachikby clicking here.nOr alternatively, click here to begin the journey from part one.

Journey in Japan Part 35: Some Like It Hot Tea

Journey in Japan Part 59: A Wild Frog Chase