Monkeys are funny... A monkey in Shibuya Station in Central Tokyo - MUCH FUNNIER!

And yes, he got away - despite being pursued by the entire Tokyo Police Department, it appears.  Not good TV. GREAT TV!

As of last reports, the monkey is still on the lam.  

Local news coverage below:

(Shibuya is a very busy area - and very busy train station - in central Tokyo.  "Lost in Translation" was filmed in this area...)

I'll keep you posted on the latest simian sightings - and his alleged ties to Al Qaeda.

The dance (or exercise) craze that's sweeping Japan...

Its called Yakitori Jisan... This exercise/dance has become something of a cult sensation here thanks to the internet (at least that's what I could make out from the story on the local news tonight).  And the same woman in the pink top is always leading groups in the dance...  Beware: the song will be burned in your brain if you listen to it too often!  Check it out here:

Or here:

Or here (told you - its everywhere!):

Yakitori...Yakitori...Jisan...

Samurai Swords and a Roaming Elephant...

Konnichiwa! O-genki desu ka?

(As you can see, I'm trying to learn a little of the native language now - been taking a class... Mayu, don't make fun if I said that incorrectly... But that's "Hello/Good afternoon. How are you?" I think...)

Thursday, I took off for a little afternoon sightseeing at Odawara Castle, about an hour from our little castle. I know I sound repititive, but there is nothing better than living in a place where you can jump on a train and then jump off said train and you are steps from where you want to be. The US could learn a thing or two about "transportation" over here if they'd just give it a try. It sure as heck beats driving all the time. I digress...

Back to the topic at hand - Odawara Castle... or "The OC" as I like to call it. I would try to explain its history but would totally screw that up, so here's a short take I found online...

The history of Odawara-jo actually began in the Kamakura Period with a palace built by Dohi Sanehira. Hojo Soun conquered the area and stole the mansion in 1495. He built his castle on the site of the former palace and his family reigned over Odawara-jo until it was conquered by Toyotomi Hideyoshi in 1590. The final step in Hideyoshi's reunification of Japan was his victory at Odawara.

Basically, this castle was first conquered by the Hojo clan and then ruled by them for five generations - known as the Five Hojo. The Hojo clan built an ever-expanding empire in the region and was the final holdout in Hideyoshi effort to reunify the country. The Hojo actually signed a "Non-aggression Pact" with Hideyoshi - and then one of the Hojo lieutenants went off solo with some warriors and picked a fight with Hideyoshi's army. Hideyoshi took this as a betrayal of the Hojo's word and well, the rest is history... Hideyoshi finally defeated the Hojo in 1590. Very soap opera-like, those clans...

After that, the castle was occupied by the ruling class until the mid-1800's (the end of the Edo Period) when the Meiji dynasty dismantled all of the remaining palaces as a sign of their vanquishing the samurai culture.

In 1960, Odawara painstakingly rebuilt the castle on the same spot, as a museum displaying items from the Edo Period and Shogun culture. Extremely fascinating to see the artifacts, weaponry, armor, etc. The samurai were not only great warriors (and badasses in general), but very innovative in developing everyday tools, like my favorite - a "travel kit" that included a pocket-size abacus, writing instruments and 'component tools' that could be "snapped" together from several pieces - all in a small travel case.

Sorry for the rambling Japanese history lesson. Back to the sightseeing.

I was walking the grounds, trying to find two things at every opportunity - shade and water. Its beastly hot and humid here these days. But I traverse the long set of steps up to the main castle grounds and what do I encounter? An elephant. Yep, big ole pachyderm just chilling and getting hosed down right there in the middle of the castle courtyard. I'm not sure if that was part of the Hojo's fleet of armored personnel carriers or what but elephant + heat = you want to keep moving. Oh yeah, and some monkeys were in a cage running around too. Anyway, I made my way past the elephant and toured the castle/museum, grounds and such.

Every time I find something like this, I want to learn more about Japanese history. The few little morsels I've learned are so interesting and I feel like I never learned a thing about Asia in school. We always studied European history to death - the Tudors and Stuarts and Henry VIII and such, but never a thing about Japan, China, etc. Not sure why. But on the flip side, you look back at the histories of Japan or Persia or Africa or Scotland and they're not that different. A lot of 'clans' or 'tribes' fighting each other for more territory, more control over resources or someone betraying their word to someone else and all that - and you know, when you boil it down, its not that different today in some corners of the world (and some corporate offices too!).

I've rambled far more than I should, so below is some photos I took at "The OC" - and one I took outside the KFC on the way back to the train station (statue of Col. Sanders donning his yukata/summer kimono...). Enjoy!