#Yanaka Ginza

[weerentheworld]

Feeling refreshed, I head to yanaka ginza, a traditional shopping street which is also known as ‘cat town’. There are quite a few cat themed stores here, and the main street supposedly has 7 cat statues on it.

I only found 2.

It was fairly but not impossibly crowded when I went, but in fairness I was there on a weekend.

Yanaka Shippoya was one of the highlights, this stall makes donuts in the shape of cat tails (how cute!). They’re surprisingly light, and very tasty- so much so I had to have 2! Salted caramel & chestnut. 

Be aware it is cash only.

There are non-cat themed things here as well. I find an adorable pottery shop and stop in a cute cafe for a ginger ale.

Cafe Neko-e-mon is a cafe that lets you paint your own lucky cat statue with a reservation.

Somehow I missed the cafe section (it was just around the corner) and ended up visiting only the shop area, but I still came away with an autumn themed lucky cat & cat paw cookie so I still consider it a win.

Eventually I make my way to Nenneko-ya which is a guesthouse with an unofficial cat shrine in front. In addition to cat statues and paraphernalia the shrine honers cats which have lived to an old age (15+). 

It’s located on a quite but lovely little street back further from the main roads.

[tokyo-camera-style]

Yanaka Ginza, Tokyo

Leica M6 with Voigtlander 28mm F2 Ultron lens

[offabuilding]

[daily-hyosatsu]

A name for a restaurant, not a person, but isn't it lovely? The top two characters read 銀座 Ginza, and the bottom says 臍 Heso.

銀 is new to this blog! It means silver (see the metal radial 金?). It's read しろがね or ギン.

座 is new too! It means sit (e.g. the verb 座る [すわ.る]), seat, cushion, squat, or gathering. Its on-yomi is ザ.

Now, 銀座 Ginza usually refers to the swanky shopping area in Tokyo, but it can also serve as shorthand to mean a busy shopping district or bustling location. For example, 谷中銀座 Yanaka Ginza is an eastern Tokyo neighborhood with a very retro, traditional feel, or 仙台銀座 Sendai Ginza, a restaurant district in the northeastern city of Sendai.

臍, get this, is also new! It means belly button (though that's usually written in hiragana as [お]へそ), or sometimes stomach/abdomen, and by extension, it sometimes means a depression in the middle of an object. It's read へそ, ほぞ, セイ, or サイ.

[tokyowalking]

Yanaka Ginza at dusk

谷中銀座の夕暮れ時

[deathbysonder]

yanaka ginza, tokyo, japan - 2024

I wandered this part of town by myself and stumbled upon a sign advertising a film photography studio showcase. I hesitated before walking in, knowing my very broken Japanese would most likely put me in an awkward situation. Regardless, I felt compelled to enter. When I entered the studio I was greeted by the photographer manning the studio by himself. I took a few minutes to appreciate his photography and built up the courage to ask him some questions. It was a very silly exchange, both of us trying our best to understand what the other was attempting to say in each other’s limited language capacity. I cringe a little when I think back on the grammatical mistakes I made. Nonetheless, it’s probably one of my favorite memories while in Tokyo.

[thefortressofscience]

I sent this to you other blog but me and my BF are going to Japan this November! any advice you can offer to a fellow queer Latine for their first visit? (and also me I guess)

There's not much I can say that I didn't already in my first response, but I'll repost it here if anyone else wants travel tips in Japan!

Depends on where you’re headed! Usually for first timers, the typical route is Tokyo -> Osaka -> Kyoto -> Nara. You can go from Tokyo to those cities by train pretty easily! The latter three are really close together so you can basically make a lot of day trips that way.

For your first time in Tokyo I recommend mostly sticking to big ticket sights like the Tokyo Sky Tree, Akihabara, Asakusa, etc. But if you want to explore other spots, off the top of my head I can recommend:

Mikado Game Center in Takadanobaba. This is an extremely OG arcade and it is said if you’re serious about fighting games, you have to compete here at least once.

Yanaka Ginza is a neighborhood that maintains old skool Tokyo charm and worth taking a stroll around to get a feel for that early Showa-era atmosphere.

Les Grands Arbres Cafe is a very aesthetic cafe that has a big tree growing through it. It’s very cool and worth going just to take a selfie.

Nakano Broadway predates Akihabara as the nerd paradise. It’s a lot smaller and entirely indoors but it is extremely dense with anime, manga, and retro gaming goodness.

BEEP Akihabara is a basement level store full of retro computing stuff if you’re into that stuff. I really liked that store.

The top floor of the PARCO department store in Shibuya has a Nintendo Center in it but there’s also a ton of other stuff like Capcom and Shonen Jump booths.

The JAXA space center museum in Tsukaba is pretty accessible by train. It’s about an hour out from Tokyo but worth the trip.

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building near the Keio Plaza hotel in Shinjuku has a free observation deck on the top floor if you don’t feel like shelling out for the Tokyo Sky Tree

Other spots I heard good things about but haven’t gone to are the Shin-Yokohama Ramen Museum and Yokohama China Town. You can get to Yokohama pretty easily by train.

For Osaka, you have to go to Dotonbori. It’s kind of like the centerpiece of that city. I also enjoyed Den Den Town which is like Osaka’s answer to Akihabara. In Kyoto, you should hit up all the various shrines and temples. For more information I think most online travel guides will have you covered.

I hope you have fun on your trip!

[junkyardzeny]

yo, my BF and I are going to Japan in November and we were wondering if you had any tips/recommendations as a fellow Queer Latine Furry

Depends on where you're headed! Usually for first timers, the typical route is Tokyo -> Osaka -> Kyoto -> Nara. You can go from Tokyo to those cities by train pretty easily! The latter three are really close together so you can basically make a lot of day trips that way.

For your first time in Tokyo I recommend mostly sticking to big ticket sights like the Tokyo Sky Tree, Akihabara, Asakusa, etc. But if you want to explore other spots, off the top of my head I can recommend:

Mikado Game Center in Takadanobaba. This is an extremely OG arcade and it is said if you're serious about fighting games, you have to compete here at least once.

Yanaka Ginza is a neighborhood that maintains old skool Tokyo charm and worth taking a stroll around to get a feel for that early Showa-era atmosphere.

Les Grands Arbres Cafe is a very aesthetic cafe that has a big tree growing through it. It's very cool and worth going just to take a selfie.

Nakano Broadway predates Akihabara as the nerd paradise. It's a lot smaller and entirely indoors but it is extremely dense with anime, manga, and retro gaming goodness.

BEEP Akihabara is a basement level store full of retro computing stuff if you're into that stuff. I really liked that store.

The top floor of the PARCO department store in Shibuya has a Nintendo Center in it but there's also a ton of other stuff like Capcom and Shonen Jump booths.

The JAXA space center museum in Tsukaba is pretty accessible by train. It's about an hour out from Tokyo but worth the trip.

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building near the Keio Plaza hotel in Shinjuku has a free observation deck on the top floor if you don't feel like shelling out for the Tokyo Sky Tree

Other spots I heard good things about but haven't gone to are the Shin-Yokohama Ramen Museum and Yokohama China Town. You can get to Yokohama pretty easily by train.

For Osaka, you have to go to Dotonbori. It's kind of like the centerpiece of that city. I also enjoyed Den Den Town which is like Osaka's answer to Akihabara. In Kyoto, you should hit up all the various shrines and temples. For more information I think most online travel guides will have you covered.

I hope you have fun on your trip!

[msogavt]

The cat is watching

The cat kept watch on a roof toward the bottom of Yanaka Ginza, a little neighborhood street of shops that for some reason has become a tourist destination. Actually, the cat is fake.

[wufflesvetinari]

Hi! This is so bizarre, and feel free to ignore, but I'm planning a trip to Japan in November. If you feel comfortable, would you share some of your favorite places. And also where you saw the shows? It looked like such a good trip from what you've shared.

hey not bizarre at all, i love talking about it!!!! disclaimer that i don't know shit

so we chose to do something slightly unusual and skip kyoto, which is like. the big one other than tokyo. we did it because 1) we wanted to spend half the time in a less touristy place and 2) we think we will come back. so keep in mind that my experience missed a really big "essential" stop according to some. so we did 1) an urban leg in tokyo 2) an outdoorsy/quiet leg in nagano prefecture and 3) one night at a ryokan in hakone

in tokyo, staying in shinjuku was great for nightlife/people watching during said nightlife. it was also very central both for getting trains out of town and for easy access to harajuku and shibuya, which were my favorite neighborhoods. ginza was also a good contrast as like a very high-class commercial center. go to Bar Owls for a secluded li'l classy basement bar. our two super splurge restaurants in tokyo: X X

also a kind of overlooked neighborhood is yanaka, which is quieter with more historic buildings + a huge cemetery. yanaka ginza is a cute cheap shopping street themed around black cats

the show in this first photo is the samurai restaurant in shinjuku, which is VERY touristy but so much fun. the dancing and costuming and atmosphere were all super good

we also did a tea ceremony with MAIKOYA (where you are invited in to participate and given context for everything that is happening) and saw a sumo tournament with an english-speaking guide

in nagoya prefecture we based ourselves in hakuba for the hiking--it's an off-season ski resort and quite charming. i do think if i did the area again i'd stay in matsumoto nearby, which besides its castle has more public transport and central routes to a national park, the snow monkeys outside of nagano city, etc (we did not get to see the snow monkeys but they might be more present in november, idk). we saw several shrines and buddhist temples, and rode the ski lifts up happo-one to hike (bottom left)

LOVED going to a ryokan. hakone is a hot spring resort town and we could have spent more than a night there!! we stayed at kowakien mikawaya. they fed us SO well and we got a room with a private onsen (top two + the food middle right). very good, very relaxing concept for a vacation

my other bit of general advice is to double-check whether the things you really want to do need reservations, and do it EARLY. there's a great direct tourist train from shinjuku to mt. fuji, but tickets were sold out by the time we got there (it's better to get a service to buy them for you ahead of time is my understanding) and the same was true for the ghibli museum. but we had a lot of fun just meandering in neighborhoods between our booked activities so i don't feel like we were missing much

[scarefox]

thing probably nobody can relate to

my reaction when I see that one of my favorite "walking, no talking, only atmosphere video" youtube channels upload another walking video:

new video in question:

Walking in the maze of Yanaka Ginza streets at night・4K HDR

A+ content!

[tetrix-anime]

Otonari ni Ginga (A Galaxy Next Door) - Yanaka Ginza Shopping Street Collaboration Illustration

[cicjapon2024]

Samedi 22 juin matin suite

Nous voici maintenant dans le quartier de Yanaka Ginza toujours à pied, normalement on devait y rencontrer des chats mais pas vu, il faisait peut-être trop chaud, en tout cas joli quartier avec des petites boutiques artisanales.

[offabuilding]

[ungatonipon]

Yanaka Ginza in Tokyo, Japan.

[myneighbortokyo]

February 18th 2024

Yanaka Ginza

All the cat stuff

T’s Ueno

Suica Penguin!

Vegan uzu ice cream

Teamlabs

Tokyo Station (before character street…)

Dinnerat KO SO Cafe