Yesterday we decided to go for a tram ride on the Toden Arakawa Line with our friend Tomo. It was a gorgeous, blue-sky day, and we had a lot of fun seeing old-style parts of Tokyo.We got on the tram at Ostukaekimae station.                                                         Watch your fingers!Beautiful roses grow along nearly the entire tram line.
We got off at the end of the line at Minowa Station.
I absolutely love the atmosphere around Minowa station. Just near the station is an old shopping arcade that reminded us of living in Yokkaichi. So much so, in fact, that I kept expecting to see a giant Onyudo-san!


A market in the shopping arcade.
After wandering around a bit, we stumbled across a very old style restaurant called Parlor Orange.


After looking at the fake food display outside, we decided to give it a try.   
I ordered the ebi fry (or fried shrimp) lunch set. It came with miso soup, rice, tsukemono (pickled veggies), and coffee for 800 yen.                                                                 Miso soup!

Chad got the tonkatsu set (deep fried pork cutlet). At first glance, this seemed like a sort of hole-in-the-wall restaurant that might turn out to have some pretty tasty lunch. Upon eating our meals, however, we found that the food was not only quite good, but that we were also in the presence of a semi-celebrity.
See that gentlemen in the background behind Chad? He’s recently been featured in several Japanese articles for being an amazing fortune teller. In fact, he did two palm readings during our lunch, complete with crystal balls, stone beads and rings, and lots of touching and gazing. His advice has become so sought after that appointments with him are completely booked through October 2017! Whether you subscribe to that sort of thing or not, you’ve got to admit he’s got quite an impressive following!As we sipped our coffees after lunch, we decided that we must have chosen a rather auspicious restaurant!
After lunch, we decided to walk around Arakawa Yuen Theme Park. Because it was Children’s Day, we got to go in for free!
See the Koi Nobori (Carp Kites) flying in front of the Ferris Wheel for Boy’s Day?
After walking along the river, we took the tram back to Otsukaekimae. We had purchased an all-day tram pass for 400 yen, and out of that got a nice little journey around parts of Tokyo we’d never before seen.

Have you made any interesting local discoveries recently?
xx Caitlyn