Every year on May 3rd and 5th, there is a “big kite festival” held off the river bank of the Edogawa in Kasukabe City, Saitama Prefecture. There are basically 3 types of kites that are used during the event. The first are sponsor and/or community participant kites that measure about 2m X 1.5m. Second are [...]
Archives for “Sightseeing”
What started being built in July 2008 has just made history. Tokyo Sky Tree (the new digital antenna), when finished will stand at 634 meters high… but that’s at the end of 2011. Until 10:16a.m. today (March 29th, 2010); Tokyo Tower, 333 meters high, was the tallest standing man-made structure in Japan. A little after [...]
About a week ago my wife went on a two day trip for work, which meant it would be the first time our little one and a half year old baby girl would have to go to bed without mommy. Baby didn’t know what was coming, but daddy did. And daddy was terrified! (Now that [...]
Yes there is now a vending machine that sells acne care. Now I’m not sure if this has already been released in other countries, but I was just surprised to see it at the shopping mall the other day. This was put out by “proative” the world wide brand for healthy skin care. Watch the [...]
If you happen to be sightseeing in Tokyo, one popular shopping area is found on the man-made island known as “Odaiba”. It is also the home of FUJI TV one of the main television networks (the TV station building is a sight in itself). And this is where you can see this funky, warped escalator. [...]
Check out this vending machine. It sells SOY candy bars called, “SoyJoy”. The flavors include orange chocolate, raisins & almonds, prune, mango & coconut, strawberry, and banana. They sell for about a buck (¥100). The best thing about them is that they make you “HAPPY” because they are “healthy”. “What a JOY!” (OK, I’ll stop [...]
The electronic company Sharp came out with its new Solar Cell Phone this summer. If you forget your charger cable, you can just put it in the sun to get it charged. The three major cell phone companies (Softbank, Docomo, and AU) all have solar products made by Sharp. The phones are also waterproof. Below [...]
Fuji Television Station, located in Odaiba, Tokyo is celebrating their 50th anniversary. And this summer as part of the celebration they have their summer vacation event called the “United States of Odaiba” running from July 18th to August 31st. Fuji Television Basically, the Odaiba area has been broken into four event areas or states. In each [...]
The sneak preview for Hayao Miyazaki’s new movie, “PONYO” played in Los Angeles, California in July and is scheduled to open on August 14th in 800 theaters in the U.S. (In Japan, PONYO made its debut last year and has recently hit the stores with its DVDs.) Ponyo Trailer (click here) Disney link (click here) Miyazaki is known [...]
Here is a video I took from the train platform of a train party. You can see some people dancing in one of the cars. It is possible to rent trains like this for special events. They arrange these trains to fit into the regular train schedules. WARNING: If you watch the whole video, it might [...]
One of the top three biggest festivals in Japan includes Aomori Prefecture’s Nebuta Festival held in August. The festival is famous for its massive lantern floats. The festival events lasts for seven days with these huge man-powered floats making their rounds on the streets at night almost scraping buildings as they move along. It takes [...]
In the past few years, Inakadate Village in Aomori Prefecture has been getting a lot of publicity during the summer. Why? It is because of their unique way of planting rice. They use three or four different kinds of rice plants, basically different colors, to create a MASSIVE picture display on several rice paddies. It [...]
On my birthday I received a pair of eclipse glasses as a present in preparation for the July 22nd total solar eclipse. It has been 46 years since the last solar eclipse has passed over Japan. This year in particular, a couple of the islands in southern Japan between Kyushu and Okinawa were right in [...]
July 7th in Japan is known as “Tanabata” or ‘Star Festival’. Tanabata is explained through a Japanese legend, with its origins from China. Two stars Hikoboshi (Altair / the cow herder star) and Orihime (Vega / the weaving princess) fall deeply in love, but are separated by “Amanogawa” (Milky Way / Heaven’s River). They [...]
The Aeon Group opened the biggest shopping mall in Japan last October (2008) in Koshigaya City, Saitama Prefecture. It is called “Aeon LakeTown”. The mall building stretches one kilometer from one end to the other. There are 556 shops and restaurants lined up on three floors, 8,200 parking spaces, 6,200 bicycle parking spaces, and it’s [...]
In the mountainous area of Saitama in an area called Nagatoro (Chichibu) there is a shaved ice shop that uses ice from winter that was made from “tennensui” or natural spring water. That’s right, they have a way to store the ice from winter and use it for shaved ice from spring going through the [...]
In the midst of Tokyo Bay as you cross over Rainbow Bridge is Odaiba, a popular shopping and dating area. But there is a lot more to see and do in Odaiba. It is also a central area that hosts many seminars and expos throughout the year at various locations. I was at Tokyo Big [...]
I’ll be upfront and honest… I am not really a big soccer fan and I barely know how to play the sport. In fact, before coming to Japan I had no interest in soccer. But since Japan’s love for soccer is so big and strong, I couldn’t help but get sucked into learning a little [...]
In the 10 years I’ve been in Japan, I have only seen a handful of rainbows. Actually it was more like only two because it is so rare. This past Friday (May 8th, 2009) was the third, but it was unlike any rainbow I’ve ever seen. Coming from the land of rainbows, that being Hawaii, [...]
May 5th is Chidren’s Day in Japan. To celebrate, the Japanese hang “koinobori” or carp banners outside of their homes wishing for health and success for their children. Koi or the carp is a symbol of strength in Japan. It is common to see koinobori around Japan during April and the beginning of May. [...]
We are in the midst of “Golden Week” here in Japan. One of the top three holiday seasons in Japan. In winter there are the “New Year” holidays. In summer there are the “Obon” holidays. And in spring is “Golden Week” which are four holidays lined up on either side of the weekend that connects [...]
Hitsujiyama Park in Chichibu has been marked this years most popular travel spot in Saitama for this coming Golden Week holiday season. Hitsujiyama Park is famous for its Shibazakura (pink moss) landscape. The Shibazakura literally looks like several carpets laid out on the hill sides of the parks hills. They say that the peak season [...]
This has got to be one of my favorite times of the year when the “sakura fubuki” or cherry blossom blizzard comes. At the end of the two week cherry blossom season, the petals from the flowers are carried by the wind which looks like a snow blizzard. This year we were blessed with perfect [...]
This years cherry blossoms vanished almost immediately. The pictures in this video are taken on a Friday with the sakura in full bloom, and on the following Monday where you’ll see that they are all gone. The weather report said it was due to the “too perfect” weather causing the green to almost literally pop [...]
The sakura (cherry blossoms) are at their peak in the Kanto Region, which also means it is time for Hanami (flower viewing parties/picnics). The cherry blossom season is very short; a mere 2 weeks on average. And that means there isn’t much time to enjoy them. So when the sakura are scheduled to bloom or [...]
