Ikebukuro Shrines in the Snow

Something local that would be nice to see in the snow? Shrines of course!  

So before going to the market, I stopped at Mitake and Kosodate Shrines. 

I had seen these shrines earlier in my trip, but seeing them again in the snow was delightful. 

Even prettier was Sanja Shrine. 

The iris japonica were still standing after the snowfall. 

And snow remained on the camelias.  

The pretty sakura tree also had a snow coating. 

Seeing the shrines in snow helped me decide where else I wanted to go. More of that in my next couple of posts. What I found was one of the most beautiful places I've seen in Japan.

Ikebukuro Mitake and Kosodate Inari Shrines

I am not sure where I took a photo of these flowers. Maybe at the beginning of my walk on March 22nd, at a store along the way? All I know is they were very pretty and smelled lovely. I made a practice of smelling flowers during my trip. I thought the photo would be a nice way to start this blog post.

I do know I had a coffee and chocolate bagel from Boulangerie Asanoya. I had wondered how they would make their business safer. They had put plastic sheeting in front of all the different baked goods and also were individually wrapping many of them. As for the taste of the bagel, it was just as I expected. Coffee with an under taste of chocolate. It was a nice breakfast.

I had originally planned to go to a number of places during this trip. Along with seeing the Lalique exhibit. But museums were closed and I was concerned about traveling too far away. I was still not sure about my flight back to America. JAL was cancelling flights every day so I didn't know if I would need to deal with booking a new flight with another airline, and how to pay for that if it was really expensive. Or then having to arrange for a longer stay. It felt unsettled. 

So I went for a walk in the neighborhood. I didn't have far to go to visit another shrine. Ikebukuro Mitake Shrine, 池袋御嶽神社. 

Something special about going for walks during this time of year, all the flowers that bloom. Little violets finding a way to live in the cracks of old stone steps. How old? Mitake Shrine is thought to have been built around 1687.

 After entering through the torii, to the right is a very nice chozuya. Seeing this made me realize something about Japan.

Really cute instructions on how to purify yourself using the chozubashi. It's read right to left by the way. 

Next to the ablution pavilion is this family of owls. Because of course, this is Ikebukuro. Also, the shrine is guardian of the west exit of Ikebukuro Station. So here are some of the west exit owls.

 Something to notice, behind this wooden sign next to the chozuya, is one of the komainu. I'm not sure why they have hidden it, but the sign board looks new so maybe it was placed there for an upcoming festival.

 Another sign board with a history of the shrine. 

 The other komainu is out in the open and rather nice.

 Along with one of the shrine stone toro.

 Various omamori are available, along with owls. 

 You can also get items to create your own home Shinto shrine. And little foxes with prayers written on them. As to what the prayers are about, I will get to that.

There is a nice open walkway, sando, to the haiden.

There is a kagura to the side, along with framework for holding paper lanterns, chochin, I think. Or it is for wooden signs. Perhaps for a festival.

Speaking of chochin, there were new paper lanterns in front of the main shrine. 

I'm not sure what kami is enshrined at Mitake Shrine. There are four gods mentioned but I am not sure of their correct names. Two are Yamato and one is listed as Emperor Jinmu, 神武天皇, first emperor of Japan. The god of food and god of thunder and sword are referenced on the shrine's website here http://mitakejinjya.sakura.ne.jp/. One focus of this shrine is for fire protection and disaster relief.

To the side, another family of owls. Why a family? 

This relates to the Shinto shrine next to the haiden. The kitsune were impressive. 

The Shinto shrine is Kosodate Inari Shrine, 子育稲荷神社.

 Rather toothsome kitsune.

 They guard the way through several crimson torii.

So why the owl families? Because this shrine is where people pray for safe childbirth, healthy children and to become pregnant. 

It is a shrine for parenting. Inari is a god one prays to an increase of crops and fertility. 

Here people leave little kitsune ema with prayers for protection. 

Next to this was the shrine mikoshi, portable shrine.

One last look at the chozuya. As to what I realized, in Japanese culture, washing hands is something that has been done for centuries. It's part of the religion. So it makes sense that in Japan, it's not difficult to get people to wash their hands, to think about trying to purify oneself as a way of making it safer, to prevent infection from the virus. Which may be one reason the rate of infection in Japan was slower.

GraffArt Cafe and Owls in Ikebukuro

After my long walk in Saitama, I was ready for lunch. I ended up heading back to Ikebukuro. Because if you want to eat in Ikebukuro, there's a lot of choices. Really, a person could eat at a different restaurant every day and there would still be more untried places.

I decided to check out a cute place I had seen online. GraffArt Cafe. It was on a side street and a little hidden, but I found it.

Ichigo from Tokyo Mew Mew was there greeting customers. GraffArt refers to this style of art, chalk on chalkboard.

Inside was more cute art. And yes, photos are okay to take. So of course here are some that I took. 

GraffArt is a company that creates goods and promotes artists. 

So of course there are a lot of different items to see and buy. 

The Cafe is one room with video monitors where you can watch short anime and other images. 

The Cafe was decorated for Christmas including artwork for the holiday. 

Characters from various manga and anime also decorated the walls.

There are goods also for these characters including classic ones like the two hearted Sapphire from Princess Knight. 

The menu was only four food items. This is more of a place to sit and drink while enjoying the surroundings and any friends you may be with.

There are many more drinks to chose from. I went with the Calpis Blue. It's Calpis (Calpico for outside of Japan) with blue curaçao. It was very nice.

As for food, I had a choice of a waffle, pancakes, or two types of cake. I went with the pancakes. They were soft and warm. Berries with pancakes is a delicious way of serving them. That's chocolate ice cream in the little souffle cup. 

Because it was a 65th anniversary of Nakayoshi manga magazine, there were special coasters given out. Lucky me getting three. 

GraffArt Cafe's website is here http://graffart-cafe.athree3.com/#box

And their address is ＪＫ７ 1階, 1 Chome-9-21 Minamiikebukuro, Toshima City, Tokyo 171-0022, Japan

Back outside the weather was moving towards rain. I decided to walk a different way back to my hotel. Not far from GraffArt Cafe was this giant torii and chochin lanterns. 

Turns out this is the Nichiren Shoshu Honden, the headquarters for Hokkeko affiliated with the Nichiren Shoshu school of Japanese Buddhism. Their website is here http://www.hodoin.net/

I also saw more owls.  This artwork is at Ikebukuro Nishi-guchi Park.

Besides the owl statues, there are more owls at the base. Along with pigeons.

And it was wrapped with lights for the holiday.  

Ikebukuro's illuminations here didn't start for another week, but the trees were colorful.