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March 26 to April 5, 2007
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Our first breakfast in Kyoto was in the hotel's restaurant. Tien had a Japanese breakfast which he found unsatisfactory. Lauren ordered a Western breakfast of strong coffee, boiled egg, juice, salad and the nicest thickest densest white bread toast with butter -- a lovely discovery. The next morning, Tien was determined to have something else, so we roamed the neighborhood, spotted a basket of bread on a small sidewalk table, and followed it up steep steps into Cafe Cannelle, where we began each of the next four days. Incidentally, the store below carried vintage kimono, obi, textiles, textile goods, chirimen stickers, and old wooden spools still wound with brilliant silk thread -- my kind of store!
These two ladies run the tiny eatery which holds about eight patrons and, behind a curtain, a massage table for use by special appointment. Fresh individually made drip coffee, nice thick-cut dense Japanese white bread toast slathered with butter and honey ("HONEY TOAST!") -- I still dream about it. Tien's "Morning Set" was an assortment of home baked breads. If you go to Kyoto, visit Cafe Canelle!
French toast at Cafe Canelle with ICE CREAM makes me a happy girl!
This house was outside our hotel room window. The house is neat and tiny, the car is dinky, there's even a scooter on the sidewalk. So KAWAII!
We took the bullet train back to Tokyo. Again Mt. Fuji was obscured by clouds, but forests alongside burst with splashes of color from wild cherry trees. Trains were smooth and fast, and a conductor visited each car periodically, bowing before making announcements, and bowing once again before leaving the car, all the time wearing a sincere smile.
In the city we made tracks for Aranzi Aronzo, a teeny tiny character store in Daikanyama area. We stopped in numerous shops for directions and walked in a spiral to get there, but it was worth it once we arrived. Ya just can't get these clever items in the U.S. Their catch phrase is "cute, strange, cool, silly, a little bit horrible, stupid and comfortable ARANZI ARONZO." Hmm, that almost describes me. Masami, you are right -- Daikanyama has great shopping!
Kiddyland is a toy store w/ six floors. One floor is entirely devoted to Sanrio products (although Batz Maru was MIA) -- I was so agitated by all the cuteness that I had to leave, or buy one of everything. I still managed to make purchases in all departments, and even went back to two floors for more. The best find was Komaneko, the cat who sews her own stuffed animals and then makes stop-action short films with them. Komaneko, the 5 min movie, is stop-action itself. Tien brought home Kapibara-san, a stuffed capybara that walks and squeaks -- kawaii! Looks like a potato, but way cuter.
Ultraman is alive and well at Kiddyland.
We walked everywhere -- it's the only way to get a sense of neighborhoods. Omotesando Street is what Lauren expected Ginza to be: designer stores along a broad and busy avenue. All the ladies were wearing "spring coats" and Tien wanted Lauren to have one too. We walked through Takeshita Street, full of vintage clothing shops and patronized by slim hipped young men in skinny jeans, with colored hair and wearing dark muted clothing.
While Takeshita Street seems to cater to guys, Harajuku Street is for the girls. No examples of creatively-dressed Harajuku girls in this photo, but you can see how crowded it was. Even at 2p on a weekday, young women pranced in their finery. Shops here carry the crazy and fun clothing that they creatively mix into overly-cute Lolita and zany Goth outfits. Odd how none of them were in school at that hour. Our last full day in Tokyo had rain drenching the city. It came down in buckets and, from Isetan department store, we ducked into Tully's Coffee Shop with everyone else to wait it out. I kept hearing rolling thunder too, until Tien made a comment about the trains overhead.
We had a half day remaining in Tokyo before going home. We were exhausted and hadn't been in a cars since leaving the U.S. I felt sad to leave Japan (with its heated toilet seats and heated bathroom mirrors) and, for the first time in ten days, the sun came out just to say goodbye. Let's eat a bowl of ramen before we go home to our kittens. Thank you, Japan!
This was the view from our hotel room. Tokyo Tower, resembling Eiffel Tower, is on the left.
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