Today (July 7) is Tanabata in Japan. This is a rather low-key holiday, but you will likely see wishes hanging from bamboo around town. There may something bigger going on near you so check a festival calendar.

Posted on July 7th, 2011 under Japan. Tags: bamboo, festivals. Comments: 1

Yomiuri Land (よみうりランド)

This will likely be my last blog entry for a few days and my last one on Japan for about a couple months. Well, maybe I will sneak one or two in about Japan, but, for the most part, this blog will change gears to Scandinavia until sometime in August when your regularly scheduled Japan stuff will return.

I board a plane tomorrow morning for Copenhagen. I’ll be in that region until July 31. I will for sure be going to Amsterdam (at the end of my travels), Sweden, and Norway. I hope to squeeze in a few days in Germany too, but that depends on whether Mastodon secures me a press pass to their performance at the Roskilde Festival or not. Not and I go to Germany. Yes and I go to the Roskilde Festival instead. I already have a press photo pass for the Getaway Rock Festival in Gävle, Sweden so that should be a blast. Count on some up-close photos of Death Angel and Opeth with my Nikon D7000.

Today’s photo, by the way, is from Yomiuri Land (よみうりランド) in Tokyo.

Posted on June 22nd, 2011 under Japan. Tags: amusement parks, ellie, ryan, yomiuriland. Comments Off on Yomiuri Land (よみうりランド)

I have mentioned this famous face before. I read I Am A Cat and visited Natsume Soseki’s grave. Of course, the reason why his face is famous isn’t for either of these reasons. No, the reason why he probably looks familiar to you, even if his name doesn’t ring a bell, is that he was on the 1,000 yen note until recently.

The statue of him, pictured above, can be found in Shinjuku Ku, near the Waseda Station on the Tozai Subway Line.

漱石山房の記憶

I was just taking a walk one day when I came across these sign boards showing a Natsume Soseki walk that can be taken near Waseda University so I did the walk. Along the way you can see many places relevant to Natsume Soseki and his works. Some of the streets, temples, and stores appear in his works since he lived in this area. Actually he was born and died here.

漱石の散歩道 – Soseki Walking Route

Posted on June 20th, 2011 under Japan. Tags: people, shinjuku, signs. Comments Off on Natsume Soseki (夏目漱石)

Something to be aware of if you visit or move to Japan is how to read the train station signs/maps. Based on the above photo (taken from the train platform at the Ebisu Station on the Yamanote Line), you can easily tell that if you are currently at the Ebisu Station and you get on a train going to the right your next station is Shibuya. Most people get that. What you don’t want to skip over is the other information available below.

Read the yellow sign before exiting or you can easily take the wrong exit which will put you going in the wrong direction, can cost you 15 minutes or more, and may get you lost altogether.

Finally, the sign to left of the yellow one will tell you what car of the train to ride in order to make your connection smoothly or end up at the correct place to easily exit at your destination station. If you have a minute or two to get to the best car before boarding, you may make a connection that you would otherwise miss, again potentially saving yourself much time.

You can’t really see the yellow “light” to the right of the main sign so here is a better view.

These Yebisu lights line the Ebisu Station. Yebisu is one of the seven lucky gods (七福神). Japan Beer Brewery created the Yebisu label and had a big beer factory near the current Ebisu Station long before the area was known as Ebisu. The area was actually named after the beer. I don’t think much brewing actually gets done is this area of Tokyo anymore, but you can tour Beer Museum Yebisu which is a short walk from the Ebisu Station.

Posted on June 18th, 2011 under Japan. Tags: beer, ebisu, lucky gods, signs. Comments Off on Ebisu

On my Tama River Walk (a story that I really should finish one of these days) I came across this bridge (one of many) going over the Tamagawa. Look closely at this bridge. Find it unusual in any way?

Cars don’t go over it. Neither do trains or pedestrians. No, this bridge was built so that a single pipe (carrying who knows what? water? oil? air?) could go over the river. This would be extremely strange in any other country I imagine, but in Japan the politicians and construction companies have been in each other’s pockets for decades and strange, wasteful projects have been undertaken with great regularity. I’m pretty sure this pipe (assuming it is being used at all) could have been attached to the bottom or side of the other bridge located nearby at a fraction of the cost.

Posted on June 17th, 2011 under Japan. Comments: 1