Today was a beautiful day. Unlike the past two days ><" which were terrible-almost as cold as New York before I left. Plus, it was raining. When I stepped out this morning, I was greeted by the warm sun and manymanymany cherry blossoms. ^^
There were several of these fountains throughout the park. Just sitting and watching it was really entertaining. I couldn't catch it in my photos, but as the breeze blew, the sakura petals would sprinkle down slowly to the ground.
Well, Yoyogi Park is a pretty popular place. Usually, there are many more people and can get quite crowded, especially on weekends. The only park in New York I can really compare Yoyogi-kouen to is Central Park. Central Park is definitely bigger and the trees are taller, but Yoyogi is so much cleaner and quieter. They don't have the horses that Central Park does, but there are a lot of ravens. As for the people, everyone seems pretty relaxed. Every other person is on a date ^^ and the ones that aren't are either picnic-ing or playing badminton and frisbee.
Next to the park (or maybe the other side of the park?) is a shrine called Meiji Jinguu. The shrine was built in memory of Emperor Meiji and Empress Shouken, whose greatest contribution to Japan was ending their isolation from the outside world.
Before entering the shrine, you must clean your hands here.
And this is the entrance of the shrine. I didn't get a picture, but the entrance is two-doored, with a ledge that stands half a foot from the ground. I learned today that you should not step on the ledge, but cross astride it.
Inside the shrine, there is a place where people pray, called the offering hall. The steps to correctly praying is to first throw a coin into the offering box, then bow deeply twice, then clap your hands palm to palm twice, bow deeply again and pray for a moment, then conclude with one last bow.
This is a poem that Emperor Meiji wrote; an example of a waka (kind of like a song), which runs on a 5-7-5-7-7 meter.
Omikuji is sort of like fortune telling, without the teller. Usually, you offer a coin and draw from a box. However, at Meiji Jingu, there is a container of sticks which you shake until one falls out. Your fortune goes according to what number you get (indicated on the stick).
I drew number one, which was this fortune. Not really a fortune, but more of a tanka (short poem) that teaches you how to live.
On our way out of the shrine, we passed by Takeshita Street, which apparently has a newly installed camera. However, it's quite small and incomparable to the one in Times Square.
We went to eat in Shinjuku. I forgot the name of the restaurant, but they served monjayaki and okonomiyaki, which are sort of like pancakes. They're cooked on an iron plate.
This is okonomiyaki, which literally translates to "(grilled) whatever you like". There are a variety of ingredients; the one I had today was kimchi. There were also carrots, onions, ginger, and pork, etc. You can add whatever toppings you want after. We added nori (dried seaweed) and katsuobushi (dried fish flakes).
This is monjayaki. It is much more liquidy than okonomiyaki. I chose sakura ebi (literally "cherry blossom shrimp"; it's just dried shrimp, but very tiny). The batter included cabbage, an egg, carrots, etc. Because it is so runny, it is eaten directly off the grill with a small metal spatula.
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