AltJapan

Spring, Inokashira Style

Spring has sprung in Tokyo. Cloudless skies. 19 degrees C (that's 68 for you Imperalists.) And the birds were delicious -- uh, I mean, fun to watch.

 

Baby grebe and mom (?) in the reeds just offshore of Inokashira pond.

 

Karasu taking a bath in the headwaters of the Kanda river -- the spring at the west end of the pond.

 
Did you hear the one about the insomniac night heron who took baths during the day? 

All photos courtesy Hiroko!

Nanafushi

Spotted on the face of a jizo deep within Inokashira Park's Bentenzai Shrine, this juvenile nanafushi (stick insect) is barely the size of a pinky fingernail. By the end of the summer, though, it'll get this large. Shot by Hiroko, rockin' the macro.

Inogojira

2:13 pm, Inokashira Park. 

Someone call the Inokashirangers! Then again, maybe this is a better job for the Cerveza Rangers...

Red-Eared Flyer

A turtle takes to the trees... Perhaps to avoid the hanami crowds? Shot by Hiroko in Inokashira Park. 

Shonen Crusader

Shades of "20th Century Boys." Spotted on a footpath in Inokashira Park:

Tachiiri o kinshi suru

SHONEN JUJI GUN

Senyou kichi

No Trespassing

Boy Crusader Army

Secret Fortress

Kichijoji Cryptid

I'd never heard the term "UMA" (pronounced "you-mah") until it came up in a meeting with illustrator Morino-san during the making of Yokai Attack. Outside of Japan, these "unidentified mysterious animals" are usually referred to as "cryptids."  Whatever the case, I have news. Big news. I found one of my very own!

 Hiroko and I were walking in Kichijoji's Inokashira Park two days ago when I noticed this strange carcass behind some bushes. How many pedestrians simply walked past this with their green tea lattes, never realizing the mysteries unfolding in the shrubbery around them? 

Warning. The following pictures are graphic. Parental discretion is advised.

Nazo / Jizo

 

Alongside a certain path leading into Inokashira Park stands a mysterious stone figurine atop a stump, vaguely in the shape of a human. It has been there for as long as I can remember. Hiroko tells me it was there when she was a child, and probably before she was born. It has always been looked after, often festooned with a tiny custom-knit cap and wrapped in shawls that are inevitably replaced just before they grow too tattered. Once, after a series of rapid "fashion changes" left the statue naked several years back, someone left a note pleading with whoever had been removing the clothing to stop, lest it "get cold." 

For some reason this year it has been particularly well attended. Over the last few months it has been swaddled in a handmade sweater to ward off the winter chill and surrounded by more extravagant offerings that usual: a pinecone, a glass of saké, a statuette of a teddy bear, a stuffed animal.

Some theorize it is a jizo, one of the little stone bodhisattvas that watch over travelers and the souls of children who die before their parents. That would explain the piles of tiny stones that sometimes accumulate at its feet, in the Japanese jizo tradition. But the statue isn't carved with a jizo's usual childish proportions or attention to detail.

I can't be the only one wondering about the figure's obscure origins, because it actually played a bit part in the opening of the movie Ge Ge Ge no Kitaro 2: The Song of the Thousand-Year Curse. You can just barely catch a glimpse of it in the official trailer for the film. It remains a mystery wrapped in an enigma wrapped in a comfy shawl.

Planet Spider

Photo taken by Hiroko in Inokashira Park.

Inokashirangers

Spotted in Inokashira Park this afternoon: a quintet of Power Rangers "cold gettin' stoopid" under the cherry blossoms. God bless Kichijoji. The big question: who was defending Tokyo from monsters while these guys were chugging their chu-hi? Another shot of the insanity here.

Pattern Recognition

A mosaic of animal patterns shot by Hiroko and I on a recent stroll down the Tamagawa Josui trail, just outside of Inokashira Park. From left to right, a spider, a lizard, a beetle, a butterfly, and a rather unfriendly-looking caterpillar. Click to see it full-size.