Tokyo's toy dogs

A dog has an owner. A cat has staff.

This motto obviously doesn't go for this buggy full of toy poodles I took on Obaida island in front of the Fuji TV building. They seem to have their personal slave and buggy pusher with them...

...and even a warm admirer.

At a first glance this buggy is full up with six toy dogs. 

But looking on the rear side...

...I even found another two Yorkshire Terriers... ;-)

Only several meters away, inside one of the 142 Starbucks Coffeeshops of Tokyo, I saw this puppy inside a girl's handbag.

Another dog buggy pusher in front of Harajuku station.

This seems to be a very popular weekend leisure-time activity in Tokyo.
I never saw something similar at Germany.
Never ever.... :-) 

One of the fastest dog transporters of Tokyo...

Evening stroll through the streets of Yokohama

 

Have you ever been to Yokohama?

 

For me it was the first trip to Japan's second largest city, lying on Tokyo Bay, approx. 30km south of Tokyo.

One of my colleagues took me there on the last evening of my sojourn at Tokyo,
right before my flight back to Germany.

Great to get some additional insights of a city within the world's most populous metropolitan area - the Greater Tokyo Area.

We started with a stroll along the waterside promenade, having a great view on the Yokohama skyline in the evening light as well as on the former Japanese ocean liner Hikawa Maru. She was often referred to as the Queen of the Pacific. Charlie Chaplin and and Kano Jigoro (founder of Judo) were amongst the ship's more notable former passengers.

Our discovery tour along the waterline made us hungry.

So we took the way straight to Yokohama Chinatown, the largest Chinatown in whole Asia.

The grand East Gate - our entrance to the colourful world inside Yokohama Chinatown. 

Japan meets China...

Ni hao or Konnichi-wa?

Who knows??? ;-)

 Hello kitty? - Hello panda!

Chinese lanterns in a backstreet of Chinatown.

We even met Bruce Lee and friends there... ;-)

Colourful highlight in Yokohama Chinatown:

The Ma Zhu Miao Temple

The Ma Zhu Miao Temple is a Chinese temple of Ma Zhu, the Taoist goddess of Sea. Ma Zhu later became the goddess of Journey who protects fishermen and sailors from a sea disaster.

 

Tokyo is within my grasp...

 Today's trip took us to Rothenburg ob der Tauber, one of Germany's most popular tourist destinations, dearly beloved especially by Japanese tourists... ;-)

But most of them sat motionless in the shadow, because the maximum temperature of the day was nearly 38°C at the afternoon, inside Rothenburg's town wall possibly even higher.

One of the ambitious Japanese even during today's hot temperatures was the artist and painter Eichii Takeyama, who has two ateliers: One at Tokyo, one at Rothenburg.

Takeyama-san signing some of his postcards with Rothenburg motifs for me with his personal name stamp. 

Rack with some of Takeyama's Rothenburg postcards outside his atelier and shop.

One of Rothenburg's many picturesque places: Roederbogen and Markusturm. 

Even these are photos of today: Christmas tree at the entrance of Kaethe Wohlfahrts Christmas shop (taking photos "strictly" forbidden) and a Christmas bulb in the form of the Japanese flag... ;-) 

Any orthographic mistakes on the black board, my Japanese blog fellows!?!?!

Tokyo, I'm coming...