A Few Photos

I was looking through my phone at some of the more-or-less random things I've taken pictures of, probably thinking at the time, "Oh, I must put this up on my Blog" but never got around to posting. Here are a few of those pictures:

As I think I mentioned before, there is a bit of an ongoing "Sengoku Jidai" boom in Japan at the moment. There is a bar in Shinjuku which is decorated with kamon everywhere and suits of armour in the lobby. Sadly, the service was pretty poor, the food was unimpressive, and the decor was cheesy. That's what you get for going to a gimmick restaurant. (Although, apparently there is a restaurant called "Ninja" where the staff dress up like ninja [?] and they supposedly have very good - and very pricey - food.)

I was in the National Museum a while back, and did a no-no by stealing a shot of this calligraphy, which I was really fond of. It says "Dragon" and "Tiger" and was apparently written by Emperor So-and-So ... yes, my memory is like a steel trap!

I also like to take pictures of Daruma paintings when I can. You often see him in restaurants; I honestly wonder if Japanese people know who he is. Here are a few I saw recently:



This last one, on a curtain outside a little bar somewhere, is probably my favourite of the few I've taken, although I am still partial to Musashi's Daruma:

I was at an exhibition of treasures of the Hosokawa family, and they were selling reproductions of this scroll ... they were a bit pricey, so I didn't buy anything (which I kind of regret now)...