June 11, 2011

• June 11, 2011 Tamagawa Ange

  Ange (pronounced on-jay) is a garden near the Keio Tamagawa train station.  There used to be a resort area here, and this garden is something left over from that time.  We took a walk and a few pictures there.

  

  Can you hear the bullfrogs?

  

  This is fennel, a spice that freshens one's breath after the consumtion of curry.

  

  This feller must have had pretty fresh breath, too.

  

  Give it a little poke and the little horns come out.

  

  We also included a stop in a small Chofu museum.  This picture was so interesting I took a picture of it.  Chofu Station used to be located at the entrance to a street called Chofu Ginza.  The station moved about 100 meters down the train line to its present location in 1953.  Chofu Ginza still exists a a quaint little shopping street, but its business must have suffered when the train station moved.

  

  Let's zoom in on the left side of the picture.  This is a store that sells birds, and it is still there today.  It must have been passed down through a generation or two.  I have gotten birds there, and they have always been nice peppy ones.  The first two birds that I got here back in 1976, Chikki and Yaki, were a nice pair.  We liked them so much that they even came to the US with us and then back to Japan when we spent a couple of years in New Haven, Connecticut.  When they got back to Japan they produced a handsome son, Piko.  Sonny Piko and father Chikki fought over mother Yaki so badly that we had to separate them.  Piko lived a long and happy life, and was "seen off" by Fuzzy, a psycho biter.  The two parakeets that we have now are from this very shop, and both behave in unusual and interesting ways.  Tetsie, a male, was in a separate cage because the females were bullying him.  We brought him home as a friend for another bird, Tsunokki, born on the premises, but Tsunokki decided to kick the bucket soon after Tetsie's arrival.  Tetsie became very friendly with Chuchu the rabbit and they got along very well together until Chuchu moved to Nagoya.  Tetsie was very bored and lonely, so I went back to this shop to get him a friend who we named Birdy.  Birdy has a very interesting song that Tetsie has managed to memorize and imitate perfectly.

  

  This is a lovely pot from the Jomon period that was excavated in Chofu.  I just love these!

  • 04:45
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