Today I visited

Let no one tell you that navigation in Japan is anything less than tortuous; on foot at least.  Admittedly the map I had is some kind of childs' approximation of what is actually happening at street level, but I got lost half a dozen times and through the kindness of the following people, I managed to make it to my destinations and then back again, (including the guy who helped me yesterday):

Black guy who likes gaming tournaments, who is staying in Japan for another week, having spent two, and who heartily recommends あきはばら, which is a destination I intend on visiting.

Japanese guy who, while giving me the wrong direction, did it in the nicest possible manner.

Japanese guy who, upon failing to relay the correct route to my destination because of the extreme complexity of the route, my dodgy map, and his broken english, bloody went and drove me there.  This man, in the backstreets of Tokyo, who is some kind of tailor or cloth merchant of some kind, is an absolute legend.  Although he drives like some kind of maniac.

Guy named Josh (I think), staying in this very accommodation, who managed to spot my confused and somewhat dazed expression from across the street, and direct me back home after a foot destroying day.  Well done sir!

Now for the pictures:

Click to enlarge any of these.  It's a shame this photo and the next one didn't come out better, because the detail on the fountain, and on the ceiling in the next one are fantastic.  Plus I love dragons, and they're abound in this particular temple.

I upload both of these in the hope that the screen on the baby laptop is playing tricks on me; may your viewing be better...

This contraption to the left is essentially the same as the thing above, only smaller.  If you enlarge the picture you can see a sign behind it; you should take a ladle, wash your face/mouth/head, then one hand, then the other.  Apart from the headfirst aspect, I don't know whether a certain order should be observed.  This picture, when blown up, also shows how badly I need a new camera.

The new prime minister makes a simple request of his people...

Although this is an absolutely shocking picture, I had to include it because, frankly, this is the ugliest fish I've ever seen.  And I've been scuba diving...

Another god awful-quality picture on the left, but I include it to show the '24 hours open' bit, I don't know whether you can read it or not.  Who in their right mind wants to eat a MacDonalds at 4am?

I include this picture mainly to show the general  hustle of the city.  It's not particularly busy, which considering the reputation of Tokyo is a nice surprise.  I'm staying about 20 minutes away from the dead centre, so when I do eventually stumble across the middle I'll see how busy it really is.

What is this thing?  I have so little idea, but I do know what it looks like...

Close up of 'it.'

There are lots of these covered shopping streets all over the place.  This one specialised in 'shit no one needs,' but other, more productive areas sold me some fruit, market style, some have cafe's and coffee shops, and most have a collection of a large number of different shops.  They're quite nice, especially when you walk through ones with open food shops, they smell awesome.

This hanging charm signalled the entrance to the shopping area as a whole.  In an interesting piece of marketing the zone was said to have '500 shops in 400m.'  Now I'm not a mathematician, but I think there's a squared missing somewhere in the sentence.  Also as a side note, I KEEP HITTING ME HEAD ON EVERYTHING. That thing that is hanging is about an inch above my head when I walk under it...

This is the other side.  Who put that tree there?  Usually it's a finger, so I suppose a green intervention isn't so bad.

Only main roads have pavements, everywhere else is like this.  In any other society this would  mean I'd have been mowed down a dozen times already, but somehow it just works for these guys.

This is the kind of 'city living' I could deal with...

The temple grounds were absolutely immaculate.  I don't know how they cut the water-side of those hedges, but they were all looking perfect.  Unfortunately the main temple can be seen in the background, covered by a gargantuan structure for repairs...  Typical.  However inside was  still accessible, albeit no photography is allowed.

There were some beautiful fish in those waters, but I was surprised at how unclear the water was.  There was a man fishing stuff out of the water, but I'm not sure it's too effective...

Notice the orange markings on the fin of the white fish, they were on the head as well.  Amazing!

The five storey pagoda, measuring 53m in height.  This picture doesn't really do it justice, I hope some of the others do.

It's that pagoda again.  Why would anyone think to build a roof with that kind of shape?  Really now, that's just unnecessarily difficult.  Looks nice though.

It's quite strange to see this old-world building, which, incidentally was destroyed during world war two, and has subsequently been recreated in the image of its five hundred year old predecessor, coupled with the box like cars everyone seems to drive over here.  That's why I included this picture.

I tried to get all artsy with this photo.  Yeah, it didn't work.

This is one of the temple monks fishing out leaves that have fallen into the water.  Considering the number of things that grow leaves, merely inches from the water, this could probably prove to be time consuming.  Good for meditation though, I'd imagine.

Another picture of the grounds, I really loved walking around these parts.

More temple grounds...

Guess what this is!

This is a little shrine, pay your 円100 and say a short prayer.  There are tons of these all around the grounds, I would imagine maintaining this lot costs a lot of money.  Luckily they make a lot, with the sound of coins hitting the large containers being a kind of surreal background music to the whole thing.

Swastikas abound in this temple ground.  I can only imagine they have some kind of non-war related significance.  What that could be, I have no idea.

Baby pagoda alongside daddy pagoda.  I think they all house gods or deities, but I'm not sure on that.  I know the big one houses a lot of gold, but I'm not sure what the function of the little one is.

The grounds really are nice.

I think I may have already uploaded this photo, so I'll make it small...

Quick, someone stop the guy painting swastikas on everything!

A guiding force in Japanese womens' rights.  Unfortunately I cannot read her name, and it was handily rubbed off the English description of her life.  Anyway, I'm sure she'd be proud to know her message of equality has been recieved loud and clear by the Japanese government, who now allow women their own carriages on certain trains, because the men here are so lecherous and perverted that women aren't safe from prying hands.

It's pagoda madness!

It's a pagoda bonanza!

This unassuming building is where they keep their sacred scriptures, and it a kind of gateway I would assume.

Another view of the unassuming structure...

I know what you're thinking; even my feet aren't big enough to fit in that thing...

But this guy on the left here, with looks only a mother could love, would fit into that thing nicely.

This is his pal, guarding the other side of the shrine thing.  You can just see someones head, and they're standing pretty close to him, so you can get a sense of scale.

So this is the whole thing in one view.

Nice hat.

So this is the roof of the fountain I started this presentation with.

Let's end with some dragons, because, frankly, dragons are awesome.

This one is a bit blurry, but it's still awesome.  Look at the evil spines on its' legs!