Let's go and see turtles ! (2)
Turtle's town, Kameido/ Part 2 (Tokyo)
Turtles items in the town of Kameido

We have been to Kameido, the down town area of Tokyo again, referring to an old magazine that I found in our bookshelf .

At first we can see such a tower with a statue named "Hanekame (It means the turtle with wings in Japanese.)"that I show you in this another page onKameido, when we get off the train and goes out of the station at Kameido Station of JR Sobu line.

This is the tower to indicate the water level Arakawa river near here at the present time. When carefully seeing, its indicator is mechanical turtle.

The water level might have been high after the rain. To our sorry the turtlewas at a position high to have to look up for us. We wanted it to come down to see us its face
(July 2008)


Next, here is the children's park of "The turtle and the Rabbit" connected with The Rabbit And The Turtle from Aesop's fables.

There is a flag for goal on the name plate of the park.

A turtle and a rabbit welcome us in the entrance

Even the play equipment also is such lovely rabbit and turtle.
(July 2008)




These are "The Rabbit And The Turtle from Aesop's fables" written in Japanese on the chairs in this park


The illustration is also very cute, isn't it ?
It may be for children.

It's a heart-warming tale.

(August 2008)




(Upper right)
When careful seeing , a cute turtle sit down on the top of all the poles for car stop in this street.


(Lower left and right and Upper right)
We can find various handmade style turtles on the pavement of this street as well as a tile of pavement I show you in another page about Kameido in this site.
(July 2008)

(July 2008)

We find a lot of turtles in the signboards of the shops while walking in the town of Kameido.

(Upper left)
The turtle-picture of a hand painted style with gentle atmosphere is drawn in the shutter of a shop.

(Lower left)
It's a mark of the drinking bar.

(Upper right)
There is a shop of tortoise-shell work in front of Kameido shrine. It's written "edo bekkou" in Japanese. "Edo"means old name of Tokyo. "Bekkou"means tortoise-shell (amber).

(Lower right)
The signboard of supermarket"named "Tsuru kame land".Tsuru is a crane and Kame is turtle. Both of them are animals that bring us luck because their long life.

Upper)Japanese sentence written in left means "Why don't you buy a lottery after going to worship at the shrine? "And there is a small container like the offertory box under it I wonder if our prayer are answered by them.

(Lower)This is a close-up picture of front part



Here is a lottery stand.


(Left side)
It's a lottery stand near station. A turtle picture like this is written on the side of it. And turtles as bringer of good luck are decorated.. They are like big scrubbing brushes called "Kamenokotawashi" in Japanese.. Turtles with summer straw hats are very cute! They might be hot.


(Right side)
This is another lottery stand that we found in Kameido. A turtle and Japanese traditional "seven gods of good fortune" In the background of the picture of turtles on which they sit down.


By the way, we can 7 shrine of each
There are 7 Shinto shrines where each god was enshrined and we can go aroundto visit them on foot in Kameido.
(July 2008)



These are a lot of turtle's items displayed at the show window of
a real estate agent at Kameido.


Many kind of turtle's items make line there.
The sticker in the left side reads the origin of the name of this town "Kameido"

(August 2008)
Lunch at the town of turtles

Our lunch in Kameido connected to the turtle ,too.

(Upper left)
We had lunch monjayaki( traditional Tokyo style food like okonomiyaki) in this restaurant named "Tatoru (It's Japanese style pronunciation of turtle).

( Upper right)
It's monjayaki on which 2 turtles made of mentaiko(spicy seasoned cod roe) put. Its name is tatoru (turtle)monja. It's recommended menu in this restaurant. The ingredients are turtle shaped en spicy seasoned cod roe, cheese and mochi(Japanese rice cake)

(Middle right)
This is ranking table of popular menu of this restaurant. Turtle monja is the most popular one, of course.

(Lower left and right)
A lot of lovely turtle's items are displayed in the shop. It's very glad for us ,turtle loving person. I looked around the inside of a restaurant looking for the turtle.
( July 2008)

Turtles in the pond of shrine

Well, we went to Kameid Sinto shrine, main destination of this day at last.

(Right)
A lot of turtles are swimming calmly
in the pond of midsummer. We can see much more turtles swimming in the pond than basking one. It's different from the spectacle at the time when we had been to there at spring last time.

They are some water hyacinths in a wooden enclosure that we can see in this side of photo. Many of Such wooden enclosures floated on the water here and there in this pond. It may be because of preventing from being eaten by turtles and corps.
(July 2008)

Even the washing-water has turtle's shape in this shrine.

Water that storms out of turtle's mouth looks to be cool and we can refresh there at the hot days in midsummer.

They say that the kind of this turtle is Japanese pond turtle and something wish its tail is a kind of green algae, named"kame juzumo" that means turtle's green algae. The turtle with algae in its tail called "minogame" is traditional and typical turtles as a bringer good luck in Japan.
(July 2008)

When you look it rapidly you may not understand what picture it is, But you must be able to see a lot of red ears of red-eared slider and know they all are turtles when you see carefully it.

In a moment a large amount of turtle has approached us when we scattered carp's food divided from our turtles Kamemi & kumosuske. We could see a meeting of the turtle in our presence.

Carps food is necessaries to enjoy seeing the turtle in the pond.

But every turtle is different in its pattern of shell, its shape and its color...
though there are such a lot of turtles.

We wanted all of them to show us even their plastron.
(July 2008)



There are turtles of the pond that we saw at the second visit.

(Left)
Turtles is jumping and biting a slice of bread that children scattered.

(Right)
turtles are basking on a stone stretching their legs.The glance of this red-eared slider justturns us.



(August 2008)
Souvenir from Kameido
We bought some breads of turtle's shape in the bakery near shrine.

(Left)
Upper- A bread with green colored
"an"(bean's jam ) inside.
Middle-A kamelon bread (Kamelon is the name that parodied melon with turtle, A melon bread is popular kind of bread )
Lower-a bread with curry inside.

(Right)These are triple turtles.They are parent, child and grandchild. They all have an(bean's jam) inside.

It's a turtle's baker on the plastic bag of this bakery.
(July 2008)


We found such a big turtle's bread written " Thank you very much , mother"on the back in the bakery window.

They can write a massage we hope on the back of turtle's bread for us.

Turtle loving parson must be pleased
with such a turtle's bread more than a cake.

In the show window and inside bakery a lot of nice turtle's items also are decorated

(July 2008)



We can see not only turtle's breads but such lovely mascots of turtles in the show window of the bakery


A lot of lovely turtle's items are
decorated inside, too.

(August 2008)


This is one of well known souvenir
in Kameido, kamenoko sen (senbei).

It's a turtle shaped Japanese rice cracker (senbei) with soy sauce taste.

(Right)
It reads " We baked lovely rice cracker connected Kameido"

These turtles may be Japanese pond turtles with green algae on its tail. We can feel Japanese style elegance in them very much.



On the other hand, for the person who want something to leave for a long time as a memory more than something to eat. How about the souvenir like this ?

It's a toy cupid doll with turtle's costume that limited sales are done only in Kameido. The wing like an angel is attached to its back.
(July 2008)

Kameido is turtle's town where we can enjoy full of turtle's day. I'm sure that a lot of turtles we haven't discovered yet might be still hiding themselves here and there in whole town. A joyful event called " Kame DE Show"that sell handmade turtle's items also is held at this town in June and November twice a year every year Let's look around for turtles and excavate turtles which hid themselves in the town ,when you have a chance to go to there while seeing turtle in the pond of shrine.