Tokyo Triffids

I never expected to find Triffids in Tokyo. But here is proof that they have now migrated from the England of John Wyndham's famous English novel and found a home in none other than in Kamakura, Tokyo's (utterly beautiful, exhaustingly full of shrines) answer to Kyoto.

At first, they looked just like they might always have been there. But it didn't take much to realise that these plants are most definitely tourists: nothing in a Japanese garden would ever look this messy

Then, more appeared...

Abunai! (lovely multi-purpose word, this - it means 'danger!', 'watch out', and also things like 'eek', 'oh crumbs' and other similar exclamations) I started to get nervous

but then I realised that, like all tourists in Japan, one of the first things you learn by example is how to form an orderly queue

So, at least I could only be devoured by one Triffid tourist at a time. Lucky me!

Fortunately though, with a little help from the Maneki Neko (Japanese cat good luck charm) I'd just patted on the head earlier that morning while spending far too much money on tourist tat...

...I narrowly escaped becoming lunch, and went off to have some myself.

If you go to Kamakura, stay away from the pond at the Hasedera Shrine. Don't say I didn't warn you.