Where else in the world would you see Rockabillies, bagpipe-players, girls dressed as ‘Little Bo Beep’ and J-Pop bands all in an afternoon?

This is my take on Tokyo ? eclectic at the least, crazy at best. And I’ve only been in Tokyo for 8 days! So far I have explored the streets of Harajuku, the bright lights of Shinjuku, the shopping of Shibuya and the 6 floors of Don Quijote (you really can find ANYTHING you need there!)

I’ve had hot coffee from a can, tea from a can, soup from a can, traveled the subway in rush hour, bought a bicycle (a must in Tokyo), strolled Omotesando and been cleansed at the Meiji Jingu shrine. I’ve tackled the underground maze of endless stairs and escalators at Roppongi subway station, I’ve basked in the beauty o... Read More

Sometimes it's hard for me to reconcile the fact that in Japan, the busiest place on Earth, you find some of the most innovative conveniences. Take the vending machines for instance. Normally something as simple as a vending machine would not elicit much curiosity, but not here. Whether the dead of a freezing, snowy winter or the middle of a humid Japanese summer, these machines are a godsend. They are literally everywhere. No matter where you go in any Japanese city, you will see a vending machine somewhere near you, guaranteed. They are in train stations, parks, office buildings, residential neighborhoods, temples. I've even seen one outside of a funeral home. While both cold and hot drinks are served year round, it's really in the winter that these machines p... Read More

A few weeks back, my Japanese friend DJ Jyunji and I headed up to Hakuba, Nagano-ken, for a reggae party that I had organised at my friend’s bar Sauce. Since December, I have been frequently visitng Hakuba, where some of my friends are living and working for the winter, and I myself have a season ticket for Goryu and Hakuba 47 Winter Sports Park. However, 2 weeks earlier my K-car known as the ‘REX’, decided to break down forever under the Shuto Expressway in Kita-Ikebukero during the middle of the night….another story altogether. So, without my usual, highly un-reliable source of transport, my dear friend Pete agreed to drive all the way from Gunma after school on a Friday to pick me up in Ichinomiya, Chiba (the pacific coast of Japan, about o... Read More

My husband and I have been living in Tokyo for sometime now and it has been an experience in many different ways. We have been and still are totally impressed by the efficiency of the Japanese in general and that includes government services. What a luxury….

….however, this efficiency can sometimes be brought to new levels in a negative way. We live on a main street in Motoazabu, with a Fire Service station about 100 meters on our right and a renowned hospital across the street on the left. When we first got here, hearing the fire trucks storm out of the station and rush down the street to help desperate citizens was nothing out of the ordinary. What stunned us though was that some “overzealously efficient” fireman in one of these trucks... Read More

Sometimes living in a cold city like Sapporo, where snow doesn’t melt until April can be a big problem for mothers. Sapporo has many beautiful parks where children can play in summer, however in winter most children are stuck indoors. Only mothers can imagine how difficult it is for children to spend most of their days at home with only parents to play with.

Jidou Kaikans are small places, usually inside elementary schools, that have huge diversity of toys and games for children of all ages. It can never be boring there! Children get to meet and know each other, so do their mothers. When their kids are busy with new toys, mothers enjoy their time chatting and sharing their life styles. Since almost ever region of the city has its own Jid... Read More

Upon coming to Hokkaido my biggest dream was to meet Ainu people. I knew that Ainu were indigenous people of that island and my first questions to Japanese were how and where to find Ainu villages. After asking several people I understood that the most famous village was “Shila Oi”, that was about 2 hours by car from Sapporo. I was very excited and when my Japanese friends decided to organize “Hokkaido trip” for me, I asked them to take me to Shila Oi.

We visited several places that day and finally arrived to a place that looked like a beautiful combination of wood and colored leaves of autumn. At the entrance gate there was a big wooden statue representing some kind of divine figure. By its side was a small pond that was supposed to bring luck for those ... Read More

When I washed up earlier this year on the shores of Japan, I had the distinct and eerie feeling I had wound up in a Jonathon Swift story. This feeling started growing at the airport, multiplied exponentially on the rapid carrying me into the city and manifested on the local train that took me to my digs. As I looked down the packed carriage I could see nothing but the top of heads. As I stepped off at my station I panicked. I had only brought one worn out pair of shoes.

The ensuing days justified my panic. False modesty aside, I am gifted height-wise. I look down at people most would call tall. But this gift turned to a curse in Japan. At the local department stores I couldn’t buy any clothes that fit. Shoes were objects to be looked at. I disfigur... Read More

Just this weekend I was at my girlfriend’s parent’s house in Nagano. The bullet train from Tokyo has a stop there, built for the winter Olympics a few years back, but it’s by no means a large town. The landscape is dominated by farms and rice paddies, and all around the horizon is ringed by tree covered mountains. The air is clean and it’s a nice change from the beehive like claustrophobia and movement that can characterize Tokyo. The family house is a two story Japanese style home that has been in the family for at least two generations. The front yard is full of plants, trees, and even some large pots buried in the ground with goldfish in them. One of the easily identifiable items in the yard is the several bonsai trees. They are larger than ones I’ve... Read More

Everyone knows that Japan is a modern and tech-savvy country, so it may surprise people at how much Nature’s rhythm rules the nation. A perfect example is found in the annual blossoming of the cherry trees. They usually bloom in late March and petals float softly to the ground as pale green leaves emerge in early April. The nation becomes obsessed with the peak blooming dates. News programs follow the blooming as it starts in the warmer climes of the south and progresses to the east and north. Newspapers feature private individuals’ poetry inspired by the delicate pink flowers.

Rituals that have personal and social importance have grown alongside of the cherry blossoms. In the daytime, parks are crowded with people eager to say good-bye to the long col... Read More