Half-Day Trip to Kawagoe

Kawagoe, which is located 40 kilometers north-west from Tokyo (only less than a 30 minute train ride), has long been called Little Edo for its resemblance with Edo (the old name for Tokyo).  Although many of the old buildings that made this city famous have burned, there still are a couple of them that attract [...]

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Akihabara

Akihabara (秋葉原), also known as Akihabara Electric Town, is a famous area of Tokyo, Japan, located less than five minutes by train from Tokyo Station.  Its name is frequently shortened to Akiba (アキバ) in Japan.

Akihabara is a major shopping area for electronic, computer, anime, manga, DVD, games and otaku goods, including new [...]

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Design Festa Vol 29

Design Festa Vol 29 was held on May 16-17, 2009 at the Tokyo Big Sight in Odaiba, Japan.  One day entrance fee was 1,000 yen (about $10).

Design Festa is a biannual international art event first held in 1994.  It is open to all artists from all over the world to exhibit their creative talent [...]

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Masks, masks, masks

There are now over 300 confirmed H1N1 cases in Japan, mainly in the Kansai area (Kobe, Osaka in Western Japan), and recently 2 cases have been confirmed in Tokyo.  As a result, masks throughout Japan are sold out – looks like someone purchased a 900 yen ($9) box of masks for 120,000 yen ($1,200) at [...]

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Kamiza and Shimoza

Much is written about the Japanese traditions of bowing and exchanging business cards, but less well known is the concept of positions of honor, which is referred to as Kamiza and Shimoza in Japan.
In Western culture, the most important person traditionally sits at the head of the table, whether the occasion is a company board [...]

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2009 May Grand Sumo Tournament

Last weekend, I attended a honbasho (本場所), one of the six official professional sumo tournaments held each year in Japan (3 times in Tokyo, once in Osaka, Fukuoka and Aichi), at Ryogoku Kokugikan (next to the Tokyo-Edo Museum) in Tokyo, the 2009 May Grand Sumo Tournament.
As we entered the stadium, everyone had to clean their [...]

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Koenji Daidogei

During Golden Week in Japan, a street performers festival was held in Koenji, an artsy suburb in Tokyo, just west of Shinjuku on May 2-3, 2009.  Most of the performers were Japanese, but a few hailed from France, China and Great Britain.

The Koenji Daidogei featured many different types of acts performed on various [...]

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Kanda Myojin Omikoshi Togyo – Part 2

… continued from Part 1.
The other highlight of the Kanda Myojin Omikoshi or Kanda Matsuri (Kanda Festival) was held on Sunday, May 10, 2009, as about 200 mikoshi (portable shrines) owned by the town were carried through the town of Kanda and Akihabara, Tokyo’s electric town.
 
The streets were closed to traffic as a [...]

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Kanda Myojin Omikoshi Togyo – Part 1

Kanda Myojin Omikoshi Togyo or Kanda Matsuri (Kanda Festival) is one of the three grandest festivals in Tokyo, held at Kanda Myojin Shrine, Chiyoda-ku.  The festival as held on May 7-15, 2009 this year. 

As usual with Japanese festivals, you can find lots food stalls and carnival games.

Taiko (Japanese drum beating) [...]

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Japanese Toilet Kneeler

In a previous blog post, I described the innovative Japanese Washlets.  The Land of the Rising Sun has done it once again, with a new product invented by House Doctor called the Angels Knee Pillow specifically designed for men to eliminate splashing when peeing.
You can buy it for only 5,800 yen (US$58).

An economy [...]

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