Shogi

We came across this game whilst meandering around Tokyo. Shogi is known as Japanese chess, but unlike chess when the pieces have been captured by the opponent, they can then use by the piece as their own. Now I understand the flourish as one of the players slammed down a piece with a ‘take that’ look on his face! I can play chess & draughts but this looks beyond me.

Poster at the Railway Station

I love this poster … with the frequency of trains it is never worth racing to get on a particular train. And regardless of scouring the platforms, I have yet to spot a sumo wrestler!

Japanese Diet

The recent elections in UK made me realise that I hadn’t yet seen the Japanese parliament, The National Diet. Comprising of the House of Representatives & the House of Councillors, this is the law making organ of Japan. Why Diet? Nothing to do with loosing weight … the parliament was modelled on that of Germany which is also called The Diet in English.

The guards outside didn’t like me holding my phone through the gates …. but all was very quiet there on a Sunday so unlikely anyone was working.

Street Bollards

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Don’t you think that the bollards on the left look like worms or grubs poking up their heads above ground? The ones on the right are brilliant when they are lit up as they look like a line of Martians!

Imitation Food

One of my favourite things here in Tokyo are the wonderful displays of plastic models of food outside restaurants to replicate their dishes. These are called sampuru and have been part of the culture for 100 years. And these are unique to Japan. And of course they are extremely useful if like me you have no Japanese language skills!

Apparently the restaurant makes up sample meals, freezes them and then ships them to the company that they have selected to make the copies. Moulds are made, filled with PVC and baked at high temperatures to harden. Then all the painting has to be done. Unfortunately this must discourage frequent menu changes!

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