One Sunday evening just after having moved back to Tokyo in 2008, we came across the most AMAZING ice cream truck parked in front of our building. At the time I was stuffed from dinner, however had I only known how elusive this truck would prove to be – I undoubtedly would have made room for desert.
Nearly every Sunday night since, we could hear its mocking jingle from our balcony: “Ice cream, Ice cream da yo~~~“. Needless to say, tracking down the source was a different matter altogether. Every effort we made at finding it turned up fruit… err – ice cream-less. It seemed as though the ice cream truck was but a figment of our imagination.
That is – until this Sunday!
I bring to you: Itabashiku’s one and only Ice Cream & Hot Dog Truck!
That’s right – ice cream AND hot dogs – two of nature’s finest foods served up in style by a single mobile vendor.
Anyone who knows Shinjuku would agree that it’s not a good place for picnic… unless of course you’re talking about Shinjuku Gyoen Park. Now that’s quite a little oasis in the middle of Tokyo’s concrete jungle.
Amazingly, before today I had never been to Gyoen Park before. That’s nearly the equivalent of living in New York City for 4 years and having never visited Central Park before… a disgrace, I know!
In any case, I was pleasantly surprised. For the low low price of 200 yen per person, one can escape the ever growing forest of Shinjuku’s skyscrapers for a real bit of forest … grass and all!
“Oooo – grass!”, I hear you say. It may not sound like anything special – but city parks in Tokyo are generally brown and grey. I suppose the intent is to have them be as “low maintenance” as possible. So, 200 yen for this bit of “normalcy” – good deal.
We brought some grub with us, and picked up more on the way – and had a nice time just hanging out in the park on this hot spring day.
We’re overdue for a video, so feel free to join us …
With summer nearly here – and Naoki’s hair well out of control – it was time to put an end to the madness. We headed back to Chokkin’s this afternoon to get the little guy a cool new haircut.
And for the majority of you that probably think 3,000 yen ($35 CND) is way too much to get your kid’s hair cut – you’re probably right. But for huge benefit of keeping the trauma outside of the home, we think it’s well worth it.
Kawagoe – known locally as “Little Edo” – is an interesting little retreat just outside of Tokyo. The town is famous for preserving many old buildings that represent architecture common in the Edo period of Japan (1603 to 1868). With its close proximity to Tokyo it understandably draws quite the crowd of Japanese and foreign tourists …
… and the occasional geocacher!
With a Saturday all to myself, I got up at an unreasonable hour and headed out with my trusty GPS like a man on a mission. The goal: find as many of Kawagoe’s 19 caches that I can before sanity settles in. Lucky for you, you can live vicariously through my pictures without sacrificing any precious weekend sleep time …
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