Tokyo Horse 東京の馬

Living in the middle of Tokyo would make you think that there wasn't much chance to see or ride horses but actually thats not the case... I live in Setagaya and not far away is Bajikoen Equestrian Park 馬事公苑 (see here for the website) They hold a variety of different events here such as riding lessons, horse games, days for Children etc.....










I was going to Meiji Shrine (明治神宮) yesterday and so got off the train at参宮橋駅 on the Odakyu line. As I was walking to the shrine I noticed another horse park with people taking riding lessons and also children being given the chance to ride ponies.









After further inspection it turned out to be Tokyo Riding Club 東京乗馬倶楽部 (website here)
It is a club but you can also go there as a visitor. Prices range from about 7,000yen for a 45 minute ride on a horse to packages for a number of lessons within a given time period.












Of course you could also just ride a pony :-)

Sausage Rolls

A staple food item in many countries there are sausage rolls in Japan of course....

Here is a standard sausage roll

A little bigger

And then there is the monster sausage roll (which was very good actually, having mustard and cheese inside always helps)


Finally, you can get sausage rolls in Pizza very strange....









The traditional sausage roll is made with puff pastry with sausage meat in the centre, a little different from the one above... If you want to try making them there is a recipe here

Setagaya Line 東急世田谷線

The Setagaya Line is a short train line running though... well Setagaya of course....

It is actually not a train but a tram (street car) so it often crosses a street and the actual carriage doesnt really look like a train...



The Setagaya Line is only 5km is is one of only two trams in the Tokyo area (the other is 都電荒川線) and also has its own smart IC card system ( I have to do another post on Japanese Smart cards but please wait for now or request in the comments). You can see an example of the card here which can be bought as a prepaid , top up card or a monthly pass....they can be actually used as both..






Check out the website (in Japanese) here :-)
,

Convenience Stores ｺﾝﾋﾞﾆ

Convenience stores are everywhere in Japan, living in Tokyo makes it even more likely that there is one lurking around every corner..

So are they good or bad?








Well they certainly are convenient as the name suggests they offer a wide range of different products although not a wide range (in general) within a specific product type.....unless its alcohol ;-)

They are open 24 hours, and also often offer other facilities such as an ATM, fax, Copying (in color with digital photo printing) and a delivery service. ...
The bad thing about being never closed is that if you are feeling temptation for a late night snack or drink then you can always get one...which probably means you are more likely to get one..hmmmm

One very good thing about them though is that periodically you can win things as they run promotions... Just last week I won an instant noodle and a box of mints totaling 700yen in value...not bad.





Whats the best thing you have won in a convenience store?....

Lunch

Fancy a bit of lunch?

I'm sure you are thinking, 'what is it?'... well a pasta bake of course :-)

Virtual Museums 小田急バーチャル鉄道博物館

I recently found this virtual museum for the Odakyu train line (one of the privately owned train lines around Tokyo)


It made me start thinking, why did they decide to make a virtual museum and what is a virtual museum anyway...? Is it any different to searching for information on the web? For me going to a museum means I can see the items for myself, I can touch them and its just a more 'real' experience to seeing something on the TV or the web....










A 'real' museum has character, history and magic... what do you think?

Ultraman ウルトラマン

Soshigaya okura on the Odakyu line is the official Ultraman (ウルトラマン) station :-)









Ultraman first came on the scene in the 1960's and continues to be popular in Japan.... I did also happen to see it before i came to Japan late at night but I wouldn't say that is so famous compaed to Godzilla for example... So what is Ultraman? Well the story is set in the 90's (near future from 60's when the shows were being run) and at this time the Earth is threatened by various monsters and aliens. There is a special police force to deal with these problems called 'Science Patrol'. One of the police officers has a rather special ability to transform into Ultraman when duty calls.. Why is he good then? Well he has a huge array of special powers and skills to draw upon as needed. These include:
Specium Ray スペシウム光線, Ultra Slash, Electrical Immunity, Ultra Attack Beam ウルトラアタック光線, High Spin ハイスピン, Ultra Air Catch ウルトラエアキャッチ, Ultra Psychokinesis, Flight 飛行能力, Teleportation テレポーテーション, Ultra Current ウルトラ水流, Dynamic Size Change 巨大化能力, Clairvoyance Beam 透視光線, Ultra Chop ウルトラチョップ, Ultra Punch ウルトラパンチ, Ultra Kick ウルトラキック, Ultra Swing ウルトラスウィング,Ultra Eye Spot ウルトラアイスポット, Slash Beam スラッシュ光線, Catch Rings キャッチリング and many more! Wow.. sounds great eh, but he does have one big weakness... time. Due to the fact that he needs solar energy for all of his powers he can only be active on the Earth for three minutes... yep just three minutes....




Anyway I got distracted but was talking about Soshigaya Okura.. This station is the only Odakyu station which has a tune to signify the arrival of a train. Of course the tune is the Ultraman theme song! There are also posters everywhere and a statue of the man himself (at the top of this post). The statue is fairly cool, its solar powered.....again like the man himself and his eyes flash (スペシウム光線) at the top of the hour... , , , , , , ,

Cornish Pasty

Made this today, it was a little too big but other than that pretty good...






Will have to experiment with different recipes and sizes/shapes in coming weeks..


Cornish Pasties originate from Cornwall (obviously), they were a food kind of like a sandwich that miners could take to work with them down into the mines. The thick crust that is supposed to be on the edge is where the miners could hold the pasty with their dirty fingers.. they then eat the filling and throw away the crust.
There are a huge number of recipes available for pasties, today's variety was the original one with potato, onion, carrot and beef as a filling..... :-)

Japan Open-Air FolkHouseMuseum (川崎市立日本民家園)

This museum of sorts is located near to Mukougaoka-yuen station on the Odakyu line. It takes about 15 minutes walk from the station but there are signposts to guide you there.





Its a bargain really at 5ooyen for entrance and has 23 buildings, most of which are houses but does include a Kabuki theater and a small water mill as well.




The buildings themselves are from a variety of different places in Japan, there are five main areas: 'Post Town', 'Village in Shin-etsu', 'Village in Kanto', 'Village in Kanagawa', and 'Village in Tohoku'.



Guided tours are available but to be honest its much nicer to just walk around by yourself, there is information available in Japanese and English so you can find out quite a lot without the tour.











If you want more information then here is the website :
English
Japanese

Flip Flap フリップフラップ

So what is it?....... Its a small solar powered plant.











What does it do?.... Well it just...kind of moves a bit.






Does it need any care?..... No, just since its solar powered you should put it somewhere in the light.



Why do I need it? .... Don't ask stupid questions!


Where can I get one? .. aha well they are made by TakaraTomy, see here for details

Flatpack Fauna

So you feel you need a little bit more nature ( nature = Polar Bear.....ermmm )in your life, don't have enough cash or energy to go to the North Pole.. don't despair! There are now a new range of flat pack animals just for you! :-)













Enjoy...





Hours of entertainment for you and your family :-)


The full troop.

Cats

Was never much of a cat person really but they seem to be growing on me... not literally of course... (that would be too weird, even for Japan :-) )

This one is a particularly good example of why I seem to like them more... cute eh...















This cat was at Sunshine city near the aquarium, and whilst being extremely cute I felt a bit sorry for it being messed with my kids all day. I'm sure it really just wanted a quiet place to sleep...

There are also lots of wild cats in Japan in parks and often in the streets at night too...



These cats tend not to be so friendly but of course if you feed them then they will come and make the most of it! These were taken in Ikuta Park (生田緑地). Incidently thats an interesting place which has a museum of old Japanese houses gathered from different areas of Japan. Post coming soon......

Portable Shrines

A few weeks back whilst in Marunouchi (see here for post), I happened to see this small exhibition of portable shrines from different areas of Japan..




Very beautiful, the details are sadly lost on the poor photos (apologies for that)......