Day 50 (March 18th) - Golden Dragon Dance Festival

Location: Asakusa, Tokyo
Weather: 13 deg
Author: Chrissie

Hi all, it's spring in Japan and that means Cherry Blossom time!! To celebrate the onset of spring, there are a large number of matsuri (festivals) being presented in Tokyo throughout the months of March and April. Today's post is about the Golden Dragon Dance festival (Kinryu no Mai matsuri) we attended at Sensoji Temple in Asakusa.

RAMEN

However, first things first!! Food! We decided to have lunch in Ueno and wanted to have it at this ramen restaurant we ate at the first night we landed in Tokyo on our Japan hoiday in 2007. In our minds, it was the best ramen we ever had and we of course wanted to relive our experience. I ordered a miso ramen (one of my favourite types) and Amy had a tsukemen, which is a type of ramen but with the soup and noodles served separately. It was just as yummy as we remembered!!

Chrissie's miso ramen!

Amy's tsukemen

After stuffing ourselves, we decided we needed the walk to Sensoji Temple. This temple is one of the most well-known and popular in Tokyo. If you have to visit a temple in Tokyo, it would have to be this one!!

There is a rabbit warren of shopping streets surrounding the temple, with the main shopping street leading up to the temple called Nakamise. As we had some time before the start of the dragon dance, we went for a browse through some of these streets. It's where we bought our first pairs of shoes (see Amy's post on the shoes she bought)!!

Shin Nakamise - one of the shopping streets we walked through

Nakamise was very crowded as usual. You can see the temple in the background.

GOLDEN DRAGON DANCE

We bypassed nakamise pretty quickly as we had been to it previously and before we knew it, we had stumbled across the gate where the parade of the Golden Dragon would start.

A little background story of the Golden Dragon Dance. Please skip this if you're only interested in the pics! This is what I found on the net:

"Apparently, the official temple name of Sensoji temple is Kinryuzan (Mountain of Golden Dragon) and this name comes from a tale about a golden dragon. On March 18, in the year 628, two fisherman brothers encountered a small Buddhist statue and showed it to their master Nakatomo Hajino, who recognized that the statue was actually Seikanzeon Bosatsu (or Buddha, deity of this temple). After placing the statue on top of a pagoda tree stump, Hajino decided to become a priest and changed his house into a temple.

According to the legend, 1000 pine trees suddenly appeared overnight near the temple on the 18th day. Three days later, a golden dragon measuring 100 shaku (approx. 30 m) descended into the pine trees from the heavens and was never seen again. The golden guardian dragon appeared from the heaven at the time of the revelation of Kwan-yin. The dance is presented on March 18 when the temple's sacred image is unveiled for public viewing.

It is performed by more than 70 male volunteers from local youth organizations who first purify themselves before devoting themselves wholeheartedly to the dance."

A cute little Japanese girl entranced by the sight of the geishas. You can see a glimpse of the golden dragon in the far background.

The geishas getting into their palanquin. Security guards in the foreground keeping the tourists at bay.

Amy and I decided to each stand on opposite sides of the street so we would have pictures from two different angles. Here are some of the pics we took!

The start of the parade! The guy in front is carrying a banner with the words "Golden Dragon Dance".

Young boys in costume, acting as guardians

The golden dragon making his appearance! The dragon is held up on poles carried by the male volunteers.

The dragon bending down to grant his benevolence to the bystanders.

Framing his magnificence against the blue sky

Following behind the dragon are the geishas in their float, playing traditional Japanese instruments - the flute and shamisen (lute)

Cymbal players following behind the geishas

Us and the rest of the crowd following behind the parade procession towards the main temple grounds

The dragon dancing its way towards the main entrance of the temple

Entering the main gates

More dancing in front of the main temple - the temple appears to be under some renovation with the scaffolding and mesh

Bystanders touching the golden dragon for luck

Some speeches and the real dragon dance in the main square.

After the ceremony was over, we were allowed to go closer to the geishas and dragon for a better look.

Geishas selling charms or temple souvenirs

A closer look at the golden scales of the dragon

The dragon head

After a bit of a break, the dragon procession made its way back.

A closer look at the geishas playing their instruments

Amy in front of Sensoji temple's five tiered pagoda

My turn!!

A beautiful pond at Sensoji Temple

That was it for the golden dragon dance! Apparently it is performed again in autumn as a memorial service for Chrysanthemums. This is just the first of many festivals we've been attending, look forward to more! Mata ne!

Day 53 (March 21st) - Venus Fort

Location: Odaiba, Tokyo
Weather: 14 deg
Author: Chrissie

Hi all, genki?! This post is a continuation from the day we visited the Anime convention! We had some time to spare after the convention and I had heard about this theme-park like shopping mall in Odaiba called Venus Fort. It's a shopping complex custom made for women, although obviously men are still welcomed!! I had heard it was quite interesting as a tourist attraction and as it was close by we decided to pay it a visit!

During our walk to Venus Fort we saw some interesting sights and buildings. I'm not sure what building is in the photo below, but it was a gigantic monument and very interestingly designed. It stuck out like a sore thumb as it was the only tall building around!


Off in the distance in the picture below is the famous Odaiba Ferris Wheel. Made popular in various Japanese dramas, this is a very well known romantic place to bring your date!



And in the picture below is the Fuji Television Studio, which is a sightseeing attraction in itself although we haven't been there yet. I heard they have an observation platform somewhere in the building, but of course the entrance fee may be a little pricy!

Fuji TV building (the back view)

On our previous visit to Odaiba, I had taken a picture of the Fuji TV Studio from the front view. Compare it to the above photo, more impressive isn't it, especially at night?!!

Fuji TV Building - entrance view

VENUS FORT

As I mentioned earlier, Venus Fort was designed for women, but they also cater to families, children and men with a large side wing of the shopping mall dedicated to shops and eateries for the family to enjoy.

This is also a good opportunity to mention that there is a very big pet culture here in Tokyo. Pets here, especially dogs, are very well cared for, pampered and spoilt. You can find large, stylish pet stores that sell all kinds of expensive pet merchandise, including carry bags for pets and clothing. I'm not kidding, a jewel studded dog leash here can cost about 7000 yen (about AUD$100). I love Misia but there's no way on earth I'm going to buy her a $100 dog leash!!

In any case, the interesting thing is that this branch of Venus Fort actually allowed families to bring their dogs into the shopping mall as you can see in the photo below! It's not surprising to be browsing in a clothing store here and come across dogs in prams, which was a little weird at first. I thought I was giving way to a baby and it turned out it was a dog!! ^^

For the men, there was a large section over 3 floors for car enthusiasts called the History Garage. From what I can gather, it's a car themed restaurant which was really interesting.

Entrance to History Garage

A signpost in the restaurant pointing the way!

Some historic cars on display

I'm not sure what connection this has to Ferrari and Lamborghini...

A colourful sports car

Inside the car cafe. On the left is a store where you can actually purchase car parts like tires! and have a coffee while you're at it...

Car on display in the terrace area next to the cafe

What's the 'Back to the Future' car doing here?!!

Amy promoting a beat up grand prix car!!

After having a walk around the family section, we went to the main area of Venus Fort. Venus Fort is famous for being the first theme-park type shopping mall in Japan. You feel as if you're walking through the streets of 17th-18th century Europe, there's fountains and high open ceilings which project a changing sky going through sunrise to sunset!!

The stores here are more up-market (that is, expensive) so we just had a quick walkthrough. Lots of couples taking a stroll around, plus tourists!

Projection of Venus Fort symbol on the floor of the mall

Amy just had to take a pic with her hero Superman!

The impressive fountain in the middle of Venus Fort.

Strolling through one of the many 'avenues' in the Fort

A market square in the Fort

Still the market square

An obvious photo taking spot for tourists, so of course we just had to!!

As I mentioned, the 'sky' in Venus Fort changes from sunrise to sunset. Here are some photos showing the different types of skies we saw.

Sunset

Twilight

Daytime in one of the avenues of the Fort

Venus Fort was fun to have a walk around but not for shopping as we were on a budget!! Certainly a place to go for the ladies but I think the men will still be pretty bored! ^_^ Until next time, jya mata!