Although I hate flying for work reasons am a frequent flyer. I fly out every month to some destination and my passport has all the stamp art made by the immigration officers from various countries who feel these pages are their canvas to exploit where they merrily put the ink on the passport. Every trip
For a cultural immersion most travelers to Japan head to Kyoto, the cultural capital of the country. Understandably so, but Tokyo has many hidden gems and one in my neighborhood Tomioka Hachiman Shrine at Monzen nakacho is one of them. If you are interested in the history of the Sumo sport, this shrine should be on your to-do-list
It’s the second week in the month of March. The cherry blossoms are a few days away, but the marketing machines of companies are already working full speed and many brands are getting the “sakura” treatment. Alcohol brands like Suntory, Kirin and Asahi already have their sakura flavours out… In the discount store around Kasai,
I still remember the sunny afternoon on a Friday in Kobe, I was looking forward to a regular weekend and was busy closing most of the actions and head off to Tokyo back home. I used to stay in city of Kobe all the five days of the week and go back to my family
For the stars to align, it is said that that one needs to be at the right place at the right time. Easy to understand. Lets make a 2 x 2 matrix to construct possibilities around place and time. The examples below are just my personal thoughts, you may have your own contextual definitions. PLACE
Everyone wants a pie of the Olympics in 2020 and the neighboring prefectures of Tokyo are announcing development plans one after the other. A few months back Kanagawa Prefecture proposed the Enoshima-Shonan base for the surfing event at the Olympics. Chiba, another hot spot for surfing activity threw its hat in the ring and Chiba Governor Morita positioned
Ume or the Plum blossoms are everywhere now in Tokyo in the first week of March. The Kiba Park in Koto Ward (if you stay around Koto Ward, Edogawa Ward quite easy to reach here) is a pretty wide park and recreation boats an area of 24 hectares to relax in the suburbs of Tokyo from every
February end – March first week, the moment when the winter slowly starts to subside making way for the spring to take over. The cold winds from north are still keeping things chilly but I witnessed pockets of spring blossoms on the weekend when I went for a stroll around the Tokyo Tower area and the Shiba
A few days back I blogged about a skating arena in Tokyo, today its time for another sport. This was nearly four years ago, that on a walk along the Tokyo Bay area around Odaiba that me and my wife spotted this odd looking building and were curious to find what it was all about. It seemed
How many parking lots do you know that are part of a man-made island? Probably NONE? Well, thats Umihotaru on the Tokyo Bay part of a tunnel connecting Kawasaki to Kisarazu below the ocean!! UMI and HOTARU, two words in Japanese which mean Ocean and firefly respectively, the island is indeed a firefly lit in
Operating for well over 100 years, Tokyo Station is one of the two railway stations designated as an Important Cultural Asset in Japan. It underwent extensive renovation work until 2014, when the original design was restored. The station has seen enough history through all these years, survived earthquakes, two world wars and witness to two assassinations of Japanese
Kawazu zakura (河津桜) is the early variety of the cherry blossoms characterized by the deep pink colored flowers. They bloom at roughly the same time of the Plum blossoms two to three weeks earlier than the regular Cherry blossom season. Last year in the second week of March, I went to Shinjuku Gyoen to see the
So the Yamanote Line figures have gone on sale and I decided to pick up two. WHY TWO? There are five different figures on sale and since one does not know which capsule has what, buying two increases the odds of getting a Hachiko figure. I want to place one Hachiko figure on my office
The enthusiast in me is never satisfied. I have tons of snaps of the Tokyo Tower taken over years, but I always long for more unique angles and experiences. Some times I discover new angles or spots by researching online, or by physically going around the spot. Then there are times when you are just LUCKY. I got
The Bollywood movie ‘Satyam Shivam Sundaram’ by the legendary Raj Kapoor has a song “Yashomati maiyya se bole nandalala, radha kyun gori, mein kyun kala? (Krishna asking his mother why he is dark while Radha is fair). Krishna is referenced as a dark (or black?) personality while there are many instances where we see Krishna
