Palace 5k, Cat Shrine, and Festival

The weather had been toasty and humid, so to get in Emma's dream of a 5k around the imperial palace, we got up early and ran at 7am when it was "only" 80deg. Dripping in sweat, we cleaned up at the AirBNB and then went to Hoshino Coffee, a Kissaten coffee chain. These types of coffee places often have leather chairs, baristas in suits, and 70s decor.
The coffee was solid, and the beer curry omurice hit the spot.
It happened to be an autumn festival weekend, and we chose to attend a smaller one in Setagaya. It was next to a famed cat shrine dedicated to feline friends, and has thousands of small ceramic cats as offerings provided by patrons. Despite being a dog person, I did still enjoy the all the cats.
The festival was at the Setagaya Hachimangu Shrine, and had sumo to kick off the festival. We watched a local university team have a lot of fun with it. Some of the participants seemed newer to the sport, and it made for a more relaxed and goofy format (a king of the hill version was extra zany). Being a festival, we also had food, with some more okonomiyaki and sausage.
Feeling sumo inspired, we set out to find a place serving Chanko Nabe, a soup sumo wrestlers often eat. We went to the Ryogukan area near the professional tourney, and got skunked at three places in a row. We were hungry, and just hopped into a corner izakaya. No English menus was at first tough, but we got adopted by a kind japanese couple next to us who helped us order and shot the shit with us for an hour or so. Emma showed them pictures of Colorado, and they thought it looked gorgeous. We even had a sumo wrestler come in and sit at the table behind us! If that's not a solid rec for where to eat a bunch of tasty food, I don't know what is.Weiterlesen