Posted by Jess
20 October 2010
My documentation of Kikifest 2010 continues with Sunday's excursions. On Sunday morning, Ella, Abby and I headed to a co-worker's house for a 1 year old's birthday party. There were a lot of kids there but unfortunately not really any other adults that I knew and since Kiki had stayed home to relax away some more jet lag, it left me a little lost at the party. But I am very proud to say that of all 12 kids at the party, my two are the ONLY two who did not cry during the 2 hours we were there! Yay! The girls got to eat some yummy chocolate cake and each came home with a mylar balloon - one elmo, one ariel. And I'm surprised that today, 10 days later, those balloons are still floating around our apartment.
We headed home in time for naps and lunch and afterwards took advantage of nice weather and headed to the Meiji Shrine, a famous shrine of the Shinto Religion. The shrine was built in honor of Emperor Meiji and his wife after their deaths. The shrine is very large and only about a 20 minute walk from our house. We walked up the main shopping street by our house (Omotesando), past Harajuku station and through the outer gates. Along the way we were able to see some of the high school age/twenty-somethings hanging out in their strange costumes, signs (free hugs) and street performances (I can sing a song in your language guy). These young guys and gals are usually there on Sundays - there wasn't too many of them though since it was getting to be a little bit later in the day. I digress...
We headed through the outer gate - called a torii - to the shrine and started our walk in. It was a longer walk than I was expecting. The shrine is adjacent to Yoyogi Park, so its nicely shaded. We walked past a wall of wine casks that were given to the Emperor from famous wineries in France to show their great relationship (more on that later) and opposite that barrels of sake. As we entered the actual shrine area, Ella and I stopped to wash our hands which is customary when entering a shrine as a ritual purification. While you cannot take photos of the main sanctuary of the shrine, we did get to see a few wedding processions and some people entering one of the buildings for baptism.
After taking a look around, we headed back to Harajuku Station. I thought it might be fun to take Kiki out across the bay to Odaiba. This area is really touristy but it makes for some fun picture taking! Plus there's a pet store which the kids always love to visit. We headed to Shimbashi Station and then caught the Yurikamome Monorail line over. I forgot about the fact that we had to take the train over a long bridge and that Kiki isn't so fond of that, but we all made it just fine. Out here there is a smaller scale version of the Statue of Liberty. Why, you might ask? Ahh, the love of the french! Apparently in 2000, France brought their original Statue of Liberty to Japan on exhibition. The exhibition was a huge success so the French built a replica and gave it to Japan as a goodwill gesture. The relationship with France seems to be due to all the help that France gave in modernizing Japan when the borders were opened up, which was when Emperor Meiji took over and let in outsiders in the mid to late 1800's. France helped build Japan's legal system, modernize the military and create a shipbuilding industry for the Navy. Ok, history lesson over - other fun things at Daiba are a Death Star building and a giant ferris wheel. Just some fun things to take pictures of over all which is always good for Kiki!
Kanpai!
Jess
20 October 2010
My documentation of Kikifest 2010 continues with Sunday's excursions. On Sunday morning, Ella, Abby and I headed to a co-worker's house for a 1 year old's birthday party. There were a lot of kids there but unfortunately not really any other adults that I knew and since Kiki had stayed home to relax away some more jet lag, it left me a little lost at the party. But I am very proud to say that of all 12 kids at the party, my two are the ONLY two who did not cry during the 2 hours we were there! Yay! The girls got to eat some yummy chocolate cake and each came home with a mylar balloon - one elmo, one ariel. And I'm surprised that today, 10 days later, those balloons are still floating around our apartment.
We headed home in time for naps and lunch and afterwards took advantage of nice weather and headed to the Meiji Shrine, a famous shrine of the Shinto Religion. The shrine was built in honor of Emperor Meiji and his wife after their deaths. The shrine is very large and only about a 20 minute walk from our house. We walked up the main shopping street by our house (Omotesando), past Harajuku station and through the outer gates. Along the way we were able to see some of the high school age/twenty-somethings hanging out in their strange costumes, signs (free hugs) and street performances (I can sing a song in your language guy). These young guys and gals are usually there on Sundays - there wasn't too many of them though since it was getting to be a little bit later in the day. I digress...
We headed through the outer gate - called a torii - to the shrine and started our walk in. It was a longer walk than I was expecting. The shrine is adjacent to Yoyogi Park, so its nicely shaded. We walked past a wall of wine casks that were given to the Emperor from famous wineries in France to show their great relationship (more on that later) and opposite that barrels of sake. As we entered the actual shrine area, Ella and I stopped to wash our hands which is customary when entering a shrine as a ritual purification. While you cannot take photos of the main sanctuary of the shrine, we did get to see a few wedding processions and some people entering one of the buildings for baptism.
After taking a look around, we headed back to Harajuku Station. I thought it might be fun to take Kiki out across the bay to Odaiba. This area is really touristy but it makes for some fun picture taking! Plus there's a pet store which the kids always love to visit. We headed to Shimbashi Station and then caught the Yurikamome Monorail line over. I forgot about the fact that we had to take the train over a long bridge and that Kiki isn't so fond of that, but we all made it just fine. Out here there is a smaller scale version of the Statue of Liberty. Why, you might ask? Ahh, the love of the french! Apparently in 2000, France brought their original Statue of Liberty to Japan on exhibition. The exhibition was a huge success so the French built a replica and gave it to Japan as a goodwill gesture. The relationship with France seems to be due to all the help that France gave in modernizing Japan when the borders were opened up, which was when Emperor Meiji took over and let in outsiders in the mid to late 1800's. France helped build Japan's legal system, modernize the military and create a shipbuilding industry for the Navy. Ok, history lesson over - other fun things at Daiba are a Death Star building and a giant ferris wheel. Just some fun things to take pictures of over all which is always good for Kiki!
Kanpai!
Jess
7:59 AM |
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