Gōtoku-ji

We went to this temple to see some fortune cats.
It was somewhere here in Tokyo and it was really nice.
The end.

Ok, so i'm being extremely vague right now, but i'm having serious doubts about giving away the location of this Tokyo treasure.
It was so nice and peaceful there and for once we were the only whiteys!
Given the (supposed) history of the place, why it isn't overrun by tourists is beyond me.
Even without the story of everyones favorite fortune cat attached to it, Gōtoku-ji was still well worth a visit.

So i'm just not gonna give the usual directions this time, but i will say that i found out about it via this blog and if you know your way around Tokyo, it isn't hard to find.


We followed the cats from the station
They were everywhere
Sneaky little kitties...
... guiding us in the right direction
We did have to stop at a supermarket and ask directions once the kitties stopped appearing!
The temple grounds were lovely, full of flowers, statues, trees, moss and, of course, lucky cats
Spot the outsider
"Don't mind me, i'm just a regular old lucky cat"
Almost gone now
Fortunes
We bought this one
And this one
Not this one, since it's from last year
The cemetery was great too (would have scared the crap out of most of our very superstitious Japanese friends, though!)

We received a note with the story of the temple with our purchases*, but the story was long, and i'm a sleepy little biscuit, so here's the short and sweet wiki-version:

"The story goes that a wealthy feudal lord was taking shelter under a tree near Gotoku-ji temple (in Western Tokyo) during a thunderstorm. The lord saw the temple priest's cat beckoning to him and followed; a moment later the tree was struck by lightning. The wealthy man became friends with the poor priest and the temple became prosperous. When the cat died, supposedly the first Maneki Neko was made in his honor."

Ok, the temple version was much better.
Anyway, Allan took some great pictures and i'll put up a link when he gets around to posting them.

Not only was the temple nice, but the town, and the people in it, were nice too
After a nice lunch at the local Dennys (don't hate, it's not the same here) we went to Shimo-Kitazawa to walk around and do a bit of shopping
Uhm, and eat too
This girl was on a super fun date

Shimo-Kitazawa is a wonderful neighborhood, by the way.
Mattias first brought us there a long time ago, and i haven't been there that many times since then, but i think i'm gonna try to go back there more often from now on.

*We bought a cat too, of course, but i'm gonna do a post with all the new additions to my Maneki Neko collection when we're back in Denmark.

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