Day 8: Snake and Mitama

みなさん、こんにちは！

Hello everyone!

日本旅行の８日目は、日本文化を体験する日でしたよ！

The 8th day of my Japan trip was all about Japanese culture!

この日で東京最後だったので、午前中にちょっと渋谷付近でショッピングをして、特に次の予定も無かったので、スペインの家族希望の〇〇カフェに行くことに。急遽決まったのでグーグルマップで調べて出てきた最寄りがなんと蛇カフェ。そういったカフェに行くのは皆さん初めてだったのでソフトな猫カフェとかフクロウカフェあたりに行こうかと思ってたんですが、結局はじめっから蛇をチョイス。笑

As this was the last day in Tokyo, we did a bit of shopping around Shibuya in the morning and we didn’t really have anything planned, so we decided to go to an animal café. I looked up information on google maps on the way and found the nearest one, that was, a snake café! I was expecting something easier like cats or owls but my partner’s family chose this for their first time lol

蛇カフェ『東京スネークセンター』に着いて中に入ると左には早速ケージに入れられた小さい蛇たちが…赤と黒の凄く奇抜なのからクリーム色をベースに黄色の模様が入ってる可愛いのまで、よく見ると意外と可愛いんです。いろんな種類のケージに入った小さな蛇たちの中から好みを選んでテーブルへ。最初は先にいたお客さんを待っている間ドリンクを頂きながら、その小さな蛇さんたちを鑑賞。触ることはできませんが、見てるだけで癒されます。舌ペロってした時とか超可愛いです。

As we entered the place called ‘Tokyo Snake Centre’ we were welcomed by the small snakes kept in cages on our left hand side. They had different types of cute snakes, from aggressive-looking red and black ones to ones with calming light yellow. We chose two from them and the staff guided us to the table. First we had some soft drinks observing a snake in the cage while we were waiting for the previous customers to finish. You can’t touch the small snakes, but just by watching them I’m sure you will find them adorable!

ついに私たちの番！大きな蛇のなかから二匹選んで触ることができました(触るには別途料金かかります)！家族全員が交代で触ったんですが、意外としっとりしていて柔らかくて個人的にその感触がかなり好きでした！私が持った蛇は深緑ので、日本の蛇らしいです！超かっこよかった…！

Finally it was our turn so we chose two big snakes. For these we were allowed to touch, hold and stroke (you need to pay separately to touch them though)! We held the snakes in turn. They were softer than I had expected and personally I loved the texture! The snake I was allowed to touch was a deep green one, which they told me was Japanese-origin. It was super cool...!

去年フクロウカフェに行った時は、フクロウが鎖に繋がれたり、フンがそこら中に落ちてたりで可哀想な環境だったのをみて、動物系のカフェって言ったらちょっと抵抗があったんですが、今回の蛇カフェは蛇にもちゃんと休憩時間があったりちゃんとケアされてるようでよかったです！ちなみに毒のある蛇はいないそうなのでご安心ください！

When we went to an owl café last year, I saw chained owls in cages full of their poops... so their environment was really terrible. This made me feel so uncomfortable with animal cafés but this time I could see the staffs were taking really good care of snakes, such as allowing them to have a day off to rest. FYI their snakes don’t have poisons so don’t worry ;)

夕方は九段下のみたままつりへ。着いた時にはもう人でいっぱいでした。浴衣や甚平を来ている人やうちわを仰いでいる人がたくさんで、いかにもお祭りって感じでした。日が落ちる前は盆踊りで地域の方が歌って踊って楽しそうでした。参加者の数に対して会場が小さいので屋台のものは買える確率低いですが…。日が暮れると提灯に光が灯り、一気に幻想的な雰囲気に。真っ直ぐに進む道の両側にずっ奥までびっしりと並べられた提灯が人々を境内に導きます。その光景は一見の価値アリです。

In the evening we went to Mitama Matsuri (a local festival) in Kudanshita. It had been already full of people when we arrived. I saw many people in yukata or Jimbei (Japanese traditional summer dresses) or people using Japanese fans. Before the sunset, local people were dancing Bon Odori making a big circle, which was really fun to see. It was impossible to buy something from the stalls as the venue was too small for the number of people there... Once the sun set, the lanterns were lit and it suddenly got dreamy. The lanterns lined up straight on till the end of the street led people into the shrine premises. The view is worth seeing at least one time in your life!

いよいよ次の日は東京を出て京都へ！お楽しみに！

Finally off to Kyoto on the following day! Stay tuned ;)

つづく

To be continued

れ

R