Updating this is going to be my job for awhile. For this post, critters! Lotsa critters in Japan.
First off, let’s just get this out of the way to begin with. DRAGONS!
From the Tokyo National Museum…
Phew! Okay, now that that’s out of my system, let’s go ahead and take a look at some other cool critters from the Tokyo museum.
A very cool little lion statue
These two caught my attention right away, because they are the very sort of things that my favorite glass artist, William Morris, took for inspiration for some of his pieces.
Hooray for the Ancient Near East and its awesome hybrids!
A nifty naga
A critter atop a vase
Kirin!
Rawr!
The shrines were my favorite places in Japan, by far, as were the shishi/lion/dog statues that protected most of them. The first two are from a very beautiful mountain shrine in Ishikawa. The last one has a little baby! Awwwwwww. They are from a shrine we wandered into in the middle-of-freakin-nowhere.
The shishi aren’t the sole protectors of the many shrines strewn about Japan. In Kanazawa, there is a little kitsune shrine planted right next to the sidewalk on the walk into town.
Ah, Mt Fuji, such beautiful scenery. The lake Kachikachi was quite…wait…what is that….
Is that? Oh Lisa, you didn’t….
Tell me you didn’t ride a swan boat…
HELLS YEAH WE DID. I must say, the view out the front wasn’t too impressive, but the sides weren’t bad. We paddled all around the lake looking for another swan boat to challenge, but no one was as fierce as we (nor as brave, everyone else stayed way near the shore).
Mt Kachikachi has a very famous tanuki story associated with it. It is the story I told to Ken at the gift giving upon my return.
Andrew and I hang out with Usagi
Oh please, you should have seen this one coming a mile away
I console Tanuki after his traumatic experience
More from Fuji, another tanuki enjoys his sake. And those pesky flies wouldn’t leave us alone on Kachikachi. They wanted to drink my eye juice. Ew.
Some closing bits. A big ‘ole horse statue in a mountain shrine. Apparently, it’s important.
Also, koi.
