I'd love to talk all about my latest trip, but I'm somewhat backlogged from before. Since I haven't prepared all the pictures nor typed up anything about Izu yet, I'll just fill you in on some of the other neat places I've been by the past few weekends.
First there was Kichijouji, the number one place that young people wish to move to. As soon as I stepped out from the train station I could understand why: bustling shopping district, but mostly small alley stuff - there wasn't too much domination by popular chains (at least from the route I took). The whole area feels as if it's trapped in a different period of time. Never before around Tokyo have I seen so many trees and walking pathsm, either. In fact, much of the area under leaf-cover is off limits to bicycles.
As for parks, there is a very large and well populated one a short walk from the station. It is packed with sidewalk merchants, musicians, young lovers, people walking their pets, and a good number of gaijin as well. The area is massive, encompassing a pond where you can rent a row-boat or swanly paddle-boat if you want to have some alone time. Thankfully, that isn't the only way to just sit in peace - the park is lined with benches (in Japan there is rarely a place to simply sit and rest, you see). Although the cherry blossoms won't be showing themselves for another six months, it wasn't stopping bands of people from laying out on tarps and making merry with their beer and wine.
One of the musicians. I don't recall the name of the instrument, but it was certainly impressive how fast he could play it. He mainly did themes from various anime that any Japanese person would recognize (eg. Tonari no Totoro).
Swan boat.
An artist doing characterized portraits. Looked as if she stepped out of a disco and into a time portal. Her style and coloring changed for each set of people she drew, although you may see on the faces of the girl to the right that she takes her sweet time (maybe 30 minutes if I recall correctly).
To the right of my bench.Speaking of Totoro, the reason this place seems like a fantasy land is mostly due to the Studio Ghibli Museum also being located nearby. I know that they aggressively defend against development of the nearby environment. I'll have to get a ticket sometime.
That's about it, I had a good beer and a good chat. Was able to try out some exotic Okinawan food before taking the train home. Among the more unique and rememberable dishes I was served: pig ear, raw horse sashimi, and a variety of special awamori (like umeshuu). If you're one to dislike food because of an odd texture (more specifically crunchy cartilage), pass on the pig. The horse meat was incredible, though.
That should do for now, more to come as always.
