Day 84. We ventured out with our matching hotel brollies and explored the narrow streets filled with women in traditional dress (and plastic toe protectors over their white socks to keep out the rain). We browsed the shopping district filled with local specialities such as crispy cinnamon biscuits and ceramics. We also saw many shops selling all types and colours of Japanese traditional shoe (aka super-smart flip-flop).
Pretty shoes
These shoes aren't just made for walking!
And the stunning cake-shaped shoes:
Cake walk - shoes good enough to eat
You’re not meant to enter a toilet in your socks or bare feet (a very wise policy) and dedicated toilet slippers are recommended. These fetching slippers were provided for us in our bathroom:
Toilet slippers
And these were found at the entrance to the toilet at one of the temples we visited:
Temple toilet slippers
Every other shop sells shiny or furry dangly things to hook onto your mobile phone. (You’re not dressed properly unless your phone is properly attired). Here are a selection of trinkets hanging from the phones of kind subjects:
Fishy phone trinket
Shiny phone trinket
Fancy phone jewellery
Cute phone trinket
For good measure, here are some other Japanese peculiarities we’ve snapped on our travels. We’ve already mentioned the drinks vending machines serving an impressive array hot and cold beverages:
Safe chooses a drink in under 10 minutes
Many items are given the “cutesie” touch. The “Hello Kitty” bus and cartoon fire hydrant are no exception:
This bus is meant to be pink
Tokyo firemen ready for action