Posts Tagged ‘Harajuku’
Specters by Tsukioka Yoshitoshi
 |
Ōta Memorial Museum of Art at Harajuku shows exhibitions of ukiyo-e wood-block prints. It is one of the few museums to continuously exhibit ukiyo-e. The main part of the collection consists of about 12,000 pieces collected by one individual, Seizō Ota Ⅴ, former president of Tōhō Insurance Company. His extensive collection was made available to public by his family after he passed away in 1977. During our visit, the exhibition showed “Specters” by Tsukioka Yoshitoshi.
Did someone say horse sashimi?
Sora An restaurant was at the footsteps of our AirBnB. We went in for a bento lunch and ended up being repeat customers.
 Super lean horse sashimi served with grated ginger and minced garlic |
Deus Ex Machina
The decor of this coffee shop in Harajuku is modern, pour is perfect and barista more hipster than most.
 |
Roof garden of Tokyu Plaza
A couple of adorable little babies running around, falling, crawling, climbing, …
 |
 |
 |
 |
Street crossing near Tokyu Plaza
 Hall of mirrors at the entrance of Tokyu Plaza by architect Nakamura Hiroshi |
Onden Ippo in Harajuku
 Smooth jazz and eclectic “bar meet spa” decor are what you notice when you climb down to this basement restaurant. |
 Pickled cucumbers, and pickled bamboo shoots as appetizers. |
 Salad of cabbage, bitter greens, and a pretty little cherry tomato in a tangy mayo sauce. |
 Grilled mackerel. |
 Sashimi with sisho buds |
The grilled mackerel is where my chopstick skills met its match. The fish was grilled crisp. If I were a cat, I could have just picked it up with my paws and munched it down head, spine and tail! I asked for a fork. To assemble, I picked up some of the grated daikon on my rice bowl and topped with some of the mackerel flakes before adding a dash of soy. Oh, it made me want grilled eel.
The customer next to me had ordered the mackerel as well. He was a dapper looking gentleman, and carried with him at least seventy five years of chopstick wielding experience. I was just a little embarrassed eating mackerel with fork, chopsticks and fingers. But I shouldn’t have been. The demolished mackerel on our respective plates looked nearly identical. And I noted that both of us used fingers in coordination with our implements.
Harajuku Bridge
Harajuku bridge
We were in Tokyo, it was a Sunday, and we had an appointment to keep with Gothlolis on the Harajuku bridge. Yes, even in the rain.
On Sundays Harajuku bridge becomes a promenade with variously dressed cosplayers arrayed along its length. Cosplayers is a combination of costume and roleplay, and essentially means dressing up as your favorite anime/manga/videogame character. But the facile description of cosplay belies the effort they put into both creating their costumes and playing their chosen roles. At least for the time they are on the bridge they seem to inhabit their roles quite thoroughly. When the metaverse finally arrives, they will be its first avatars.
Locomotoring 