So long ume, hello sakura. Today’s brief entry chronicles adventures on the Keio Inokashira Line, my old stomping grounds from my early days in Tokyo. The Inokashira Line spans a vastly underrated and very pleasant area of Tokyo spanning from Shibuya through Shimokitazawa (where the Natsu no Sora anime is […] Read more
More ume is never a bad thing. I had to get one more plum blossom trip in before the weather turned – there aren’t enough Tereuteru bozu in Tokyo to deal with the forecast for the next week. So I played hooky and headed for Ikegami, out in suburban Tokyo, […] Read more
Spring is in the air. My fellow Tokyo expat blogger Rurousha said of plum blossoms that they’re “the shy girls hiding in the library while the cherry blossom cheerleaders are prancing about on the football field”. No question, it’s the sakura that are the belle of the ball – they’re […] Read more
Yes, it’s already blossom season in Tokyo. I paid a brief visit to the small but pretty Ushi Tenjin Shrine today, about a 20-minute walk from my apartment near Chuo University. The snow hasn’t even melted yet (in fact it flurried while I was there) but the shrine’s Ume Matsuri […] Read more
So fleeting, this fragile beauty. There’s definitely a metaphorical component to watching the snow melt away almost as quickly as it arrived in Tokyo. We ended up getting 27 CM officially (just about 11″) which is a respectable snowstorm even by Chicago standards. For Tokyo it was the largest snowfall […] Read more
I love snow. The Japan Meteorological Association issued its first Heavy Snow Warning for Tokyo in 13 years today. I feel really lucky to be here for this, because I love snow. I love the way it looks, the way it sounds when shoes crunch down on it, everything about […] Read more
February came in like a lamb. The unseasonably warm weather continues, so I paid a visit to Tsukishima today. It’s the 120 year-old man-made island across the Sumida River from Tsukiji, but you may know is as the setting for Umino Chica’s marvelous manga 3-gatsu no Lion. I’d never been […] Read more
More photos? Oh, why the hell not – it is a holiday weekend… Just a few pics today from my old haunt, Kanda Myojin. They’re holding their Daikoku Matsuri this weekend. Folks line up by the hundred to symbolically get bonked on the head by the guy on the right […] Read more
The last gasp of freedom was a good one. School starts up again tomorrow, so I thought I’d make one last foray to some of Kanto’s special places before the grind begins anew and puts a halt to that. Kamakura has been a subject of posts for me before but […] Read more
Cats everywhere. Just another lazy day of wandering about Shitamachi. This time it’s Gokokuji, which of all Tokyo’s most important temples is the closest to me. I took the 25-minute walk up there today and snapped some more pics (along with a few at a small but picturesque temple I […] Read more