Dripping with Wisteria

Following sakura (cherry blossom) season, there's fuji (wisteria) season: just as beautiful and just as fleeting.

Bamboo Fence

(In Kuramae.)

I have no idea what this space is for. They say that a bamboo grove is the safest place to run in the event of an earthquake (the thick, entangled roots make the ground firm), but if one hit this place, the bamboo would simply fall to the ground like a bunch of pickup stix.

Not Old School, Just Old

A senbei (rice crackers) store in Kuramae. You can't call it old-fashioned if everything is simply old.

Few shopkeepers would have the patience to maintaining the store's system of measuring and storing the senbei. More power to them for retaining a certain elegance.

Spicy Soy Sauce Tabasco

An ultracheap supermarket in Kappabashi selling food-related items in bulk for restaurants (and thrifty regular folk). I'd be surprised if any of my Japanese friends know about this spicy shoyu (soy sauce) Tabasco; the only Tabasco prevalent in Japan is red and used on Italian food.

A Parade of Koi

Koinobori season again.

A temple in Tawaramachi.

In Kappabashi, a kappa (a mythical sinister water creature) carries his own carp streamers.


Same goes for this old man, standing guard in front of a Korean restaurant in Iidabashi.