Monster movie effects, monkey business and fertility - July wrap-up

Well doesn't time fly!

I'm on summer holidays right now, and I have been enjoying my time doing absolutely nothing, then I had a gander at how long it's been since the last update.  Oops.  We're still alive, trust me!

Special Effects Exhibit

We went to an exhibition of special effects at the Tokyo Contemporary Museum of Art, it was fantastic.  The whole thing was dedicated to props, costumes and sets from monster movies made in Japan.  Featured in the exhibition were godzilla costumes, various scale models of cityscapes, with exquisite detail, right down to the scrape marks in the concrete powerpoles.  Unfortunately cameras were only allowed in one area, so we went nuts in that area.  After we finished up, we bought the book that had the pictures we weren't allowed to take.

While we were in the exhibition, we watched the premiere of a Studio Ghibli short movie called "A great warrior descends on Tokyo".  It was amazing, and it was all done with no CGI, just old-fashioned effects like explosives, cranes and paint.  Links to the rest of the photos from the exhibition are HERE.

Shortest escalator in the world

We went out to Kawasaki city the following weekend and managed to get three sights seen, pretty good for one day's effort.  Our first stop was at More's department store, which has an escalator in its basement that has been certified by Guinness world records as being the shortest in existence.

We were excited!

It was pretty lame.  Good thing we had other plans for the day to continue with.  Now we can say we've ridden the smallest escalator in the world.



Nakamise Dori

We went a little further out to Kawasaki Daishi to check out the Nakamise Dori shopping street.  This street is famous for its Daruma dolls that bring good luck, and for the hand-made sweets sold in the shops lining the street.  The street has been voted (by who?  I don't know) as one of the best soundscapes in Japan.  This is because of the sound of chopping sweets in the shops, the store owners calling out and people chatting.

We went on a drizzly day, which meant the crowds weren't too horrendous, and yes, the soundscape was lovely.  We sampled lots of lollies before buying fortune cookies, though we couldn't read our fortunes. We actually only just finished the bag of those.  Delicious!

At the end of Nakamise Dori is a temple, and during July there were temple markets being held - mainly selling windchimes.  Windchimes totally aren't my cup of tea, and Jason isn't fond of them either, but the food stalls around the windchime stalls made me heartily HEARTILY regret eating lunch before going to Kawasaki Daishi.

In the temple itself, there was a street performer who had a performing monkey.  I'm pretty reluctant to watch these kinds of acts because I always worry about animal cruelty.  I think this guy treated his monkey pretty well (feels strange to type out that sentence), and the monkey didn't seem unduly worried about any of the goings on.  

With that out of the way, here is a picture of a monkey on stilts:

Honestly my favourite part of that picture is the little girl in the background.

Kawasaki Daishi fertility temple

Feeling thoroughly cultured, we headed back towards Kawasaki Daishi station, for our last stop before we went home.  Our last stop was the Kawasaki Daishi fertility temple.  It was pretty quiet at this time of year, but in spring it is the centre of the annual fertility festival.  

The temple is specifically for prayers about fertility, so couples wanting children will visit to attach a prayer wish for a baby to the shrine.  It was also historically (apparently) a place of protection in years past for prostitutes seeking safety and wellbeing.  It's a nice thought, and the above picture is one of the only ones that we have that is safe for work.

The main centrepiece of the temple is a gigantic black iron phallus, which we both got photos with, because why not.  More photos of the temple, and of the rest of the things at Kawasaki Daishi are here: CLICK HERE CLICK IT CLICK IT.

Onto the everyday...

Jason got some good news; he has been offered a full-time position once his first three month contract is up.  With that, comes annual leave and stability, which is something we're both happy about.

That updates you on the exciting stuff we've been doing.  Other than that, life has been going on as normal.  Working, learning Japanese, paying bills.  I'm thoroughly enjoying having some time off, and have been utilising it by doing not terribly much.  

The heat at the moment is absolutely incredible.  The humidity is something I had always thought people exaggerated about, but no, there is no exaggeration with Japan's humidity.  We don't even get the worst of it living in the Kanto region.  If we were living in Nagoya, I don't even know what we would do.

To combat it, we use the air conditioner liberally (something I would very very rarely do at home, but this is a totally different kettle of fish), and keep all the doors and windows shut.  I just got some block-out curtains today and have put them up, and they are making a big difference to the heat too.

Anyway, until next time!