Over 6 million in 365 days

The Tokyo Sky Tree , the tallest tower in the world turned one year old today.

The Sky Tree opened to visitors on 2012 May 22nd…one year ago today.

I went up to the observation deck in the Tokyo Sky Tree on a clear day last January. I wrote a post about it with some photos that I took of the view.
(Click here to read it.)

Today is the first anniversary of the Tokyo Sky Tree‘s grand opening…but two days ago (Monday, 2013 May 2oth), another milestone was reached for the tower: Tokyo Sky Tree welcomed the 6.34 millionth visitor.

6.34 million visitors is a key number for the Sky Tree because the tower stands 634 meters tall. Officially the world’s tallest tower.

The height of 634 meters wasn’t chosen arbitrarily. In Japanese 6-3-4 can be pronounced 「ムサシ」 (mu-sa-shi)…and the Tokyo Sky Tree stands near an area that is referred to as 「武蔵の国」 (Musashi Region).

What do you think about giant skyscrapers and towers? What is the tallest one you’ve visited? Are there any near where you live?

Wisteria Festival

Last weekend, we went to a 藤祭り (Wisteria Festival) in Tokyo.
藤 (Wisteria) is a type of flower that is purple and blooms around this time of year.

Here are some photos that I took:

We also saw the new Tokyo Sky Duck bus.
Here’s a photo that I took of it:

The Tokyo Sky Duck is a new bus service that just started in Tokyo last March.
It gives passengers a tour of Tokyo both by street…and then by river cruise because it’s both a bus and a boat!

Here is a video of the Tokyo Sky Duck bus getting into the river:

The Happiness Year

Tokyo Disneyland opened on 1983 April 15th … thirty years ago today.

I can’t believe how fast time flies!
When I first came to Japan, Tokyo Disneyland was only seven years old.

Tokyo Disneyland is calling this year, 2013, the “Happiness Year”.

Have you ever been to Tokyo Disneyland or any of the world’s Disney parks?

Hanami

Yesterday, we went to 上野公園 (Ueno Park) for 花見 (Cherry Blossom Viewing). 桜 (Cherry Blossom) season has just begun. Having a picnic under the trees in bloom is a popular pasttime in Japan. Ueno Park is a very popular place for Cherry Blossom Viewing in Tokyo … so it was very crowded yesterday when we went. Here are some photos I took:

At the top of the world’s tallest tower

Yesterday I went up the Tokyo Sky Tree.

634 meters tall … the tallest tower in the world!

First of all, the elevators move at 600 meters per minute! But they’re so smooth, I could hardly feel them move!

The sky was clear, blue and sunny … so I could clearly see Mt. Fuji, Tokyo Tower, Shinjuku, Tokyo Disneyland, the Tokyo Dome…all of Tokyo and beyond!

The shadow of Tokyo Sky Tree

Snowy Adults Day

Today is a holiday in Japan.
It’s 「成人の日」(“Coming of Age Day” or “Adults Day”).

In Japan,  twenty years old is the legal age of adulthood.
The drinking and voting age is 20 in Japan.

On the second Monday of January (today), twenty-year-olds in Japan dress in kimono and attend a special ceremony.

My oldest daughter will do it next year!
I can’t believe how fast they grow up!

Anyway, every winter in Tokyo it usually snows once or twice.
It’s snowing today!

The weather had been so nice everyday recently and then, on the day that so many people dressed up for a special day, the weather went downhill.

I feel sorry for them!

I hope the weather is nice on this day next year and the following two years … for my daughters’ ceremonies!

Melon Kuma

In Japan, cute mascot characters are very popular to help promote many stores, restaurants and merchandise.

Even the Tokyo police, fire department and Japanese military have mascots.

Also, cities and prefectures in Japan have cute or funny mascot characters that are related to some local food or animal.
They are used to help promote tourism to the area.

These characters are normally cute … or at least try to be.

So, the new mascot for the northernmost Japanese prefecture of Hokkaido was on the news recently because not only is the character not cute… but it’s actually on there scary side!

Hokkaido is famous for the wild bears (熊 (kuma) in Japanese) and the cantaloupe (メロン (melon) in Japanese)… so the character is 「メロン熊」(“Melon-kuma“).

It’s a bear with a Japanese cantaloupe melon for a head … and has angry eyes and huge teeth!
It’s also fond of trying to bite people!

Quite different from the usual mascots in Japan!

Here’s a video of the melon-kuma trying to bite people and promote tourism to Hokkaido:

New Year ’13 Station

In Tokyo, there is a subway station named 「辰巳駅」(“Tatsumi Station”).

The Japanese kanji characters that spell “Tatsumi” are the characters for “dragon” and “snake”.

So, for that reason, every twelve years … including this year … that station is a kind of unofficial New Years station.

This is because 2012 was 「辰年」(“the Year of the Dragon “) and this year (2013) is 「巳年」(“the Year of the Snake “).

So, for this New Years, Tatsumi Station changed the signs in the station to read:

辰 → 巳
(Dragon → Snake)

It’s great!

Tokyo is the travelers’ favorite city

The Trip Advisor website had a survey for travelers to rank world cities in nine categories such as friendliest locals, cleanliness, public transportation, etc.

Tokyo ranked first place in five categories and second place in another.

Tokyo Tower and Zojoji Temple (image from “Trip Advisor”)

Here are the top three cities in each of the nine categories:

Category	First place	Second place	Third place
Friendliest locals	Cancun	Tokyo	Lisbon
Friendliest taxi drivers	Tokyo	Cancun	Singapore
Best taxi services	Tokyo	Singapore	Dubai
Cleanest streets	Tokyo	Singapore	Zurich
Ease of getting around	Zurich	Vienna	Singapore
Best public transport	Tokyo	Zurich	Munich
Best value for money	Lisbon	Budapest	Bangkok
Best for shopping	New York City	Bangkok	Dubai
Safest city	Tokyo	Singapore	Dubrovnik

And here were the ones that were voted as the worst in the same categories (except for “Safest city”…for some reason that category wasn’t listed on the site):

Category	Last place	Second to last	Third to last
Friendliest locals	Moscow	London	Hong Kong
Friendliest taxi drivers	Moscow	Beijing	Brussels
Best taxi services	Moscow	Beijing	Kuala Lumpur
Cleanest streets	Mumbai	Marrakech	Punta Cana
Ease of getting around	Mumbai	Punta Cana	Moscow
Best Public Transport	Hanoi	Sharm el Sheikh	Marrakech
Best value for money	Oslo	Moscow	Zurich
Best for shopping	Moscow	Oslo	Punta Cana

Have you been to any of these cities? Do you agree with the ranking?
Which cities would you rank as best and worst?

OzzFest!

First of all, today is November 3rd…the Japanese holiday 「文化の日」(“Culture Day”).
If you went to the 浅草 (Asakusa) area of Tokyo today, you would have seen the interesting 「東京時代祭り」(“Tokyo-Era Festival”).

I’ve been to that festival a couple of times before. Click here to see the photos and videos I took of it in 2008.

Anyways, I found out yesterday that the godfathers of heavy metal, Black Sabbath will come to Japan in May 2013!

Ozzy Osbourne will bring his metal festival “OzzFest” to Japan for the first time!

Click here to visit the official OzzFest Japan website.

On Saturday, May 11th 2013, Slipknot will headline.
On Sunday, May 12th 2013, Black Sabbath will headline.

The venue will be the Makuhari Messe not far from Tokyo.