Every year at this time, no matter where you go, sakura (cherry blossoms) consume the streets. The light shades of pink and white have a way of veiling the green which is soon to come. Hanami parties are a popular spring event where people get together for drunken picnics in crowded parks and ultimately leave after making fools of
themselves in front of their friends. Perhaps I am being to general... Last weekend I opted out of a few hanami parties for a nice walk and a bit of exploration through what to me was a new section of Tokyo, Ebisu. What a great place! Sophisticated and yet with out the ritzy feel of Roppongi or Aoyama, some place I would like to see more of in the future. I guess it was easy for me to take a pass on the parties and come to Ebisu after the morning I had. I got up early on Sunday morning, full of anticipation and excitement. The night before a friend had emailed me and asked me to come to a festival with her in Kawasaki the next day, she said it was a penis festival. My interest was peaked and decided to go. As soon as I got there I knew I was in the right place, the festival was actually held in a town close to Kawasaki on a small train line,
when I saw that half the passengers on the train where foreigners (putting 2 and 2 together) I figured I was heading to the right place. Its kind of hard to explain but I kind of felt like I was in a different world. When I got to the train station I called my friend, when we finally met up it was at the intersection next to the cross dressing ninja cat! After we met up we went into the shrine area, (by the way, there may be some inappropriate material here, so please be cautious,
though I will do my best to keep it clean) there where vendors everywhere, selling everything from sake in bottles shapes like penis' to Viagra, to chocolates of different anatomical shapes. I bought the chocolates and passed them out to all my friends! When I bought the chocolates, the man in the weird costume told me I was the most beautiful women he ever saw, I wonder how many he said that to on the particular day? The parade soon started and out of the shrine came three different penis statues. The first two seemed very Japanese. Dark wood, covered, sophisticated (if that's really possible) and the third, well, the third was bright pink and screamed "look at me!" We followed as the parade led us to a beautiful temple which was down
the road. This particular temple is famous for its smoke pit which is supposed to release the demons from your soul. I stood engulfed in the smoke for a long time... we shall see! The temple was beautiful and we walked around for a while. I was a little taken back by the women vendors on our way to and from the temple holding out little candy penis' and acting like it was nothing, I just kept thinking about what would happen if they did that back in the states, what people would think, and at that moment, I appreciated it so much more. As for the rest of the summer, I am sure there are many festivals to come, fireworks and all night outdoor dance parties, but this was a once in a life time thing and something I will never forget!
Every year at this time, no matter where you go, sakura (cherry blossoms) consume the streets. The light shades of pink and white have a way of veiling the green which is soon to come. Hanami parties are a popular spring event where people get together for drunken picnics in crowded parks and ultimately leave after making fools of 
themselves in front of their friends. Perhaps I am being to general... Last weekend I opted out of a few hanami parties for a nice walk and a bit of exploration through what to me was a new section of Tokyo, Ebisu. What a great place! Sophisticated and yet with out the ritzy feel of Roppongi or Aoyama, some place I would like to see more of in the future. I guess it was easy for me to take a pass on the parties and come to Ebisu after the morning I had. I got up early on Sunday morning, full of anticipation and excitement. The night before a friend had emailed me and asked me to come to a festival with her in Kawasaki the next day, she said it was a penis festival. My interest was peaked and decided to go. As soon as I got there I knew I was in the right place, the festival was actually held in a town close to Kawasaki on a small train line, 
when I saw that half the passengers on the train where foreigners (putting 2 and 2 together) I figured I was heading to the right place. Its kind of hard to explain but I kind of felt like I was in a different world. When I got to the train station I called my friend, when we finally met up it was at the intersection next to the cross dressing ninja cat! After we met up we went into the shrine area, (by the way, there may be some inappropriate material here, so please be cautious, 
though I will do my best to keep it clean) there where vendors everywhere, selling everything from sake in bottles shapes like penis' to Viagra, to chocolates of different anatomical shapes. I bought the chocolates and passed them out to all my friends! When I bought the chocolates, the man in the weird costume told me I was the most beautiful women he ever saw, I wonder how many he said that to on the particular day? The parade soon started and out of the shrine came three different penis statues. The first two seemed very Japanese. Dark wood, covered, sophisticated (if that's really possible) and the third, well, the third was bright pink and screamed "look at me!" We followed as the parade led us to a beautiful temple which was down 
the road. This particular temple is famous for its smoke pit which is supposed to release the demons from your soul. I stood engulfed in the smoke for a long time... we shall see! The temple was beautiful and we walked around for a while. I was a little taken back by the women vendors on our way to and from the temple holding out little candy penis' and acting like it was nothing, I just kept thinking about what would happen if they did that back in the states, what people would think, and at that moment, I appreciated it so much more. As for the rest of the summer, I am sure there are many festivals to come, fireworks and all night outdoor dance parties, but this was a once in a life time thing and something I will never forget!
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