Feel Shitamachi-style in Ueno

February 13, 2008 - 10:42 am by sachie_kobayashi in Others  

When it comes to Ueno, we think of National Museums, the spacious park, Ameyoko Market and so on. However it’s also fun to look for the vertiges of ‘Old Tokyo’,or Shitamachi as it’s called in Japanese.

What is Shitamachi? If you would like to know, I would recommend visiting ‘The Shitamachi Museum’ first; it is the worth the 300 [...]

Cosplayers and their followers in Akihabara

September 15, 2007 - 11:11 am by kiokitok in Culture  

Cosplayers and their followers in Akihabara

The main street in Akihabara goes car-free on Sundays.
Tens of cosplayers, mostly for giving out their ads, appear on the steet, and are surrounded by guys with camera.

Cosmetic Guide; Japanese women and beautiful skin

August 20, 2007 - 11:37 am by akko@hakata in Culture  

1. Rush into Matsukiyo , for common & reasonable comsmetics.

Matsukiyo is a drug chain store, popular among young girls.

There’re hundreds of Matsukiyos all over Japan, but those in downtown or large shopping malls puts special emphasis on beauty related products, especially in this season, sunscreens and whitening cosmetics (lotion, essence, emulsion, facial masks).

Each brand (Shiseido, [...]

Tokyo ramen reviews in English!

August 15, 2007 - 9:05 pm by kamiosaki in Culture, Food, Travel  

http://www.ramentokyo.com

For reviews of Tokyo ramen shops in English, by a native, I definitely recommend that you check out this site. Frequently, foreigners in Tokyo (residents or visitors), are hesitant to go after “real” ramen, as opposed to the stand up 400 yen noodle shops on the train platforms. If you are concerned about not finding [...]

Cool yourself with `Shirokuma’, white-bear-ice!

August 10, 2007 - 7:56 pm by akko@hakata in Culture, Others  

Shirokuma literally means white bear, but here it means a bowl of shaved ice with condensed milk syrop and freezed colourful fruits.

It is a speciality of Kagoshima, as I introduced in my previous article as the mecca of Shochu, distilled spirit.

Kagoshima’s summer is realy hot, since it places in the southernmost prefecture of Kyushu Island, [...]

Cool yourself with Shochu-on-the-rock? Shochu (Distilled Spirit) boom of Kagoshima

August 9, 2007 - 6:32 pm by akko@hakata in Culture, Others  

Shochu (distilled spirit) is one of the main Japanese alcoholic beverages following Sake.

Kagoshima is the largest, popular, and traditional Shochu mecca, providing 155,900 kiloliters in 2006 (July 2006 to June 2006), which is the record high, with an increase for the 8th consecutive year!

Satsuma Shochu (meaning Kagoshima Shochu, Satsuma is the old name of Kagoshima) [...]

Cool yourself with noodle? Enjoy summer food culture of Japan!

- 3:08 pm by akko@hakata in Culture, Others  

`Japan has four seasons’ is a very common plain sentence when people introduce Japan, which should also be explained as, Japan has four seasons to enjoy different seasonal food!

Not only beer and shochu-on-the-rock, cool noodle is the main summer food for lots of Japanese people, or even Messiah for those suffering from the crazy heat [...]

Japan Matsuri 2007; Premier Collection of Japan’s Festivals

August 7, 2007 - 8:42 am by akko@hakata in Others  

In Shinjuku, you can experience, more than 20 Matsuri (Festivals) and Traditional Performing Arts of all over Japan, at the same time, in the same place!
(Please see `About Matsuri’ below)

*To get the image; promotion video is available here! (flash)

About Japan Matsuri 2007

Sessions: August 24(Fri) - 26(Sun), 2007
Place: Shinjuku Koma Theater
Organized by Japan Matsuri [...]

Sweets Theme Parks

- 6:34 am by akko@hakata in Culture, Food, Others, Travel  

For many women in Japan, Sweets Theme Parks are paradice! It’s like an amusement park of sweets, offering not only cakes and puddings, but also the place to relax and talk!
During summer season (-Aug.31), they offer special varieties to cool us. Each shop is competing very hard to attract customers, with beautiful looking, delicious sweets, [...]

Naginata boko of Gion Matsuri in Shijo-dori Street

July 28, 2007 - 4:02 pm by Yuk in Culture, Travel  

In Kyoto, the middle of July is the rainy season yet. So there are a lot of rainy days. However, when July comes the town in Kyoto is alive with something, and people begin to get excited somehow. It is because “Gion Matsuri” that keeps coloring through the one month the town in Kyoto starts.

The [...]