渋谷 | Tokyo Five

Tag Archives: 渋谷

マダコがビンのフタを開けた

Last December. I wrote a post about Japan’s “Eco” movement that mentioned a X-mas tree powered by an electric eel at the 江ノ島水族館 (Enoshima Aquarium) near Tokyo.

(Click here to read that post).

The 江ノ島水族館 (Enoshima Aquarium) has a YouTube page.

Well, scientists have said that the 「マダコ」 (“Common Octopus”) is intelligent.
If it’s put into a jar and the lid is then screwed shut, the octopus will watch and learn how the top was closed…and then it will reverse the process from inside the jar to open it and free itself.

The 江ノ島水族館 (Enoshima Aquarium) demonstrated this and put a video of it on their YouTube page.

Here’s the video:

************************

I’ve never been much of a Michael Jackson fan, but if you are…and you’re in Tokyo, the Tokyo Tower is having a special exclusive event since last month until July 11th titled “Michael Jackson – the official Lifetime collection“.

If you want to see Michael Jackson’s personal possessions, including his Rolls-Royce car and many other items, you should go to the Tokyo Tower by July 11th between the hours of 9:00AM – 10:00PM.

Admission is ¥2,000 for adults, ¥1,800 for high school and college students, and ¥1,500 for children between age 3 and junior high age. (Under 3 is free).

Last Friday was the one-year anniversary of Michael Jackson’s death.
To commemorate, Tokyo Tower allowed fifty die-hard fans who were willing to pay ¥100,000 (about US$1,000) to spend the night in the exhibit room surrounded by the collection of Michael Jackson’s possessions!
Supposedly, these fans were touched emotionally by the experience and felt the money was well spent.

************************

Also, this year is the 60th anniversary of the popular Japanese toy store chain “Kiddyland“.
So Kiddyland has decided it’s time to renovate their large multi-storied shop in 表参道 (Omotensando, Tokyo).

So on 2010 August 31, the current store will close for the renovations and a temporary shop will be opened on 2010 September 1st not far from the current location.

A map showing how to get from the current Kiddyland location to the temporary one (which will be above "Snoopy Town")

The new renovated Kiddyland will reopen in the summer of 2012 at it’s current location.

Here’s an artist’s rendition of the new store:

Tags: Aquarium animals, キディランド, タコ, マダコ, Enoshima, 表参道, Harajuku, intelligent animal, Japan, Japanese, Japanese aquarium, Japanese toy, Japanese toy store, kanagawa, Kiddyland, Lifetime Collection, Michael Jackson, Michael Jackson exhibit, Neverland Collection, Octopi, octopus, omotesando, shibuya, Tokyo, Tokyo Tower, toy store, 原宿, 水族館, 江ノ島, 江ノ島水族館, 渋谷

Comments 8 Comments
Categories Animals, Celebrities, Events, Harajuku, Japan, Landmarks, Parks and Zoos, Places to go, shibuya, Tokyo, Tokyo Tower

Shibuya Crossing in London

5 Nov

In 渋谷 (Shibuya, Tokyo), there’s a famous intersection near the JR train station that, when the pedestrian signal turns green, all the cars have red lights and must stop and people can walk across the intersection in any direction.
The crosswalks are painted not only straight in four directions…but also diagonally.

Shibuya Crossing

(Actually there are a number of intersections around Tokyo like this…but Shibuya’s is most famous).

Well, London, England has just made a similar crosswalk at one of that city’s busiest intersections.
At the opening ceremony for the new crosswalk, the Mayor of London said that the intersection’s new crosswalk is entirely based on Shibuya Crossing in Tokyo.

In fact, there were Japanese 太鼓 (Taiko drums) drummers playing at the opening ceremony!

London's new crosswalk based on Shibuya Crossing.

Tags: ロンドン, Britian, British, crossing, crosswalk, England, English, intersection, Japan, Japanese, London, Oxford, pedestrian, scramble crossing, shibuya, Tokyo, U.K., x-walk, 太鼓, 渋谷

Comments 14 Comments
Categories Japan, Tokyo

Forever 21

29 Apr

I’m not really interested in fashion brands. I’m especially unfamiliar with the latest brands in other countries (outside Japan).

But I heard on the TV news today about a clothing store in America called Forever 21.

Do you know this store? Do you shop there?

First of all, it seems that Forever 21 has a clothing line titled “Shibuya Mon Amour“.
It’s supposedly a cross between Tokyo fashion and French fashion. (Shibuya is a part of Tokyo popular with young people).

I was surprised by that! Is 渋谷 (Shibuya, Tokyo) famous overseas?
Before I came to Japan, I had never heard of Shibuya, Akihabara, Roppongi, or any other sections of Tokyo (I came to Japan in 1990. Before the internet. So it was a different world back then).

I also heard that the American pop singer Gwen Stefani loves the 原宿 (Harajuku) section of Tokyo, which is popular with a different group of young people that those who like 渋谷 (Shibuya).
There are “Harajuku girls” and “Shibuya girls” in Tokyo. Even though those two areas are close to each other, the fashion of each is quite different from the other. That singer, Gwen Stefani, calls her back-up dancers “Harajuku Girls”.

Anyways, the reason that the American clothing store chain “Forever 21” was on the news in Japan today isn’t because of their “Shibuya Mon Amour” line…it’s because they opened their first store in Japan today.
It’s in the 原宿 (Harajuku) section of Tokyo.

Whenever a new store opens in Japan, they almost always have a big “Grand Opening Sale”…which results in a crowd of customers waiting to get in even before the store opens.

Here’s a picture of the crowd that was waiting to get into the Forever 21 Tokyo store today for their Grand Opening sale:

Grand Opening of "Forever 21" in Tokyo.

Tags: Forever 21, Forever 21 Tokyo, Gwen Stefani, Harajuku, Harajuku fashion, Harajuku girls, Japan, Japanese, Japanese fashion, shibuya, Shibuya fashion, Shibuya girls, Tokyo, Tokyo fashion, Tokyo Forever 21, Tokyo store, 原宿, 日本, 東京, 渋谷

Comments 25 Comments
Categories crowded, Events, Harajuku, Japan, News, shibuya, Tokyo

ジミー・ミリキタニ

1 Apr

About three years ago my wife and I went to the Tokyo screening of the movie 「ミリキタニの猫」 (“The Cats Of Mirikitani“).

The movie is a documentary by Linda Hattendorf about ジミー・ツトム・ミ力谷 (Jimmy Tsutomu Mirikitani).

In the beginning of the documentary, Linda Hattendorf simply films and interviews a homeless Japanese artist who lives on the street near her apartment in New York City selling his artwork (many of which features cats).

But then the “September 11th” attacks on the World Trade Center happen and Linda sees the artist, Jimmy Mirikitani, still on the street breathing the toxic dust in the air from the fallen towers…so she invites him into her apartment. And that’s when they change each other’s lives.

She discovers that he was born in California (and therefore was an American citizen) and raised in 広島 (Hiroshima, Japan).

When he was a young man, he moved back to America to pursue his dream to become an artist. But when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, he was put in an internment camp and lost his U.S. citizenship.

A chain of events led to him becoming homeless and stateless. But with Linda’s help, he reacquired his American citizenship, located long-lost relatives, paid a visit to the internment camp that had caused him to resent the U.S. government (but revisiting it helped him to overcome the anger), and also visit his hometown in 広島 (Hiroshima, Japan).

She also helped him get an apartment of his own and a job teaching art.

It’s a touching story. You can read about it in more detail on the official website (Click here for the English version…or click here for the 日本語 (Japanese) version.)

The reason I’m writing a blog post about this story after it’s been three years since I watched the documentary is because I just found out there is a show of phots of ジミー・ツトム・ミ力谷 (Jimmy Tsutomu Mirikitani) and a new painting by him at a vegetarian restaurant in 渋谷 (Shibuya, Tokyo) called Nagishokudo from March 29 until April 18, 2009.

If you’re in Tokyo, you should go see it if you have a chance (especially if you like vegetarian food since restaurants like that are fairly uncommon in Japan. (As for me, I’m definately not a vegetarian so I don’t think I’ll be going there for the art show)).

Tags: artist, artwork, みりきたに, ジミーミ力谷, ジミー・ミリキタニ, ニッポン, ミリキタニ, ミ力谷, cats, hiroshima, Japan, Japanese, Jimmy Mirikitani, Linda Hattendorf, Mirikitani, NYC, painter, shibuya, The Cats Of Mirikitani, Tokyo, 広島, 日本, 東京, 渋谷

Comments Leave a Comment
Categories Animals, Celebrities, Events, Japan, Movies, shibuya, Tokyo

A few News items

15 Nov

A few stories from the recent news that I found interesting…

A アシカ (sea lion) named 「ななみ」 (“Nanami”) at a zoo in 愛媛県 (Ehime, Japan) was unable to compete for food with the other sea lions in her pen. So she began leaping over three meters (9 feet) and holding onto the wall to eat fish held by the zoo’s visitors.
She has become a very popular attraction.

(Photo from the Japan Times).
There was an explosion in a warehouse in 東京都渋谷区 (Shibuya, Tokyo) last Wednesday. It was initially reported that the owner of the place escaped the burning building…but his wife and mother died inside the building.
It was reported yesterday that the man didn’t escape on his own. He was rescued from the building by a famous Iranian celebrity* who happened to be nearby. (*His name is Rahim Arvanaghi, commonly known as “Randy Muscle“, and he’s famous in Japan).

He ran into the burning building and pulled the man out. But he was unable to save the man’s wife or mother.
The 2009 edition of the Michelin Restaurant Guide will be out soon. And once again, Tokyo has more four and five star restaurants than any other city in the world.
As I mention in this post, Tokyo had the most stars in the 2008 edition as well.

Tokyo is the capital where there are the most restaurants, more than 160,000, and also excellent cuisine.

Jean-Luc Naret, Michelin director

Tags: 2008, 2009, 4 star, 5 star, celeb, celebrity, ehime, explosion, fire, five-star, four-star, iranian, Japan, jumping sea lion, jumping seal, Michelin, Michelin Guide, Rahim Arvanaghi, randy muscle, rescue, restaurant, sea lion, seal, shibuya, talent, Tokyo, zoo, 愛媛, 日本, 東京, 渋谷

Comments 11 Comments
Categories Animals, Celebrities, Food, Japan, News, Odd News, Parks and Zoos, photos, Tokyo

渋谷フェスタ

4 Nov

This was a three-day weekend that just ended. Monday (November 3) was 文化の日 (Culture Day).

There were are always a number of festivals on Culture Day weekend.

On Sunday, we went to 原宿 (Harajuku) because my kids like to go shopping there (just like all teenagers in Tokyo do!) and from there we went to the 渋谷フェスタ (Shibuya Festival).

Harajuku is very crowded…especially 竹下通り (Takeshita Street):

Outside the World-famous Laforet store, I noticed that they already have their X-mas tree up!

We stopped by 明治神宮 (Meiji Grand Shrine). They were celebrating the 50th anniversary of the shrine’s being restored after the damage from WW2.

They were having a festival in the evening…but we didn’t stay for it.
At the shrine, we saw little girls aged 3 and 7 and little boys aged 5 who were there dressed up in 着物 (kimono) for their 七五三 (7-5-3 Festival). (You can read my short FAQ about that holiday by clicking here )

From there, we walked to 代々木公園 (Yoyogi Park). Every Sunday, many people gather in groups in or near the park and some groups are dressed as Cosplay and some are rock bands practicing and others are dancing groups, etc.
These are their hobbies and they like to meet at Yoyogi Park on Sundays and relax. But visitors to Tokyo might be surprised by some of them. (Until about ten years ago, there used to be alot more groups there on Sundays. The street outside the park would be closed to traffic on Sundays to accommodate them all!)

One of the most famous groups (beside the Cosplay) are the Rockabillies. “Rockabilly” is an early style of rock ‘n roll from the 1950’s that is basically a combination of rock and country (which was sometimes called “hillbilly music” back then).
The Stray Cats are probably the most famous rockabilly band…and they still have many fans in Japan.
Rockabilly style is leather, ’50s style tattoos, greased hair and hot rod cars…and ’50s rock music.

The Rockabilly groups in Yoyogi Park gather on Sundays and listen to their old rock music and dance. Many foreigners mistake them for Elvis impersonators. They listen to Elvis style music…but they’re not impersonating him.

Here’s a couple of videos of them:

Elvis is in 原宿 (Harajuku), though:

This statue of Elvis Presley is outside the Rock N Roll Museum store. They have sections devoted to Elvis, The Stray Cats, The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, KISS, etc.

From there, we walked to the 渋谷フェスタ (Shibuya Festival).
There were lots of booths where you could buy food and beer, or crafts and goods, or play a game, etc. It was similar to 区民祭り (Residents Festivals).

At one booth they were making mochi, which is pulverized rice. And they gave it away until they ran out. We were able to get some each. It was quite good.

Here’s a video of them making the mochi. It’s called 「もちつき」 (“Mochi-tsuki”):

It was a fun day.

Here are some other pictures I took:

Here’s the CC Lemon Hall. (I hate that name. It used to be called 渋谷公会堂 (Shibuya Koukaidou) since it was built in 1964 for the ’64 Tokyo Olympics…until they sold the naming rights to a beverage company).
I saw my first concert in Japan here (Death Angel in 1991):

And we were surprised by the size of these cabbages:

And finally, we went home from 渋谷駅 (Shibuya Train Station). The intersection in front of this station is said to be the busiest intersection in the world.
Here are a couple videos of it that I took:

Tags: Elvis, festival, graffitti, Harajuku, Japan, Japanese, matsuri, Meiji Shrine, omotesando, rockabillies, rockabilly, shibuya, shibuya festival, Tokyo, yoyogi, yoyogi park, 原宿, 明治神宮, 東京, 渋谷, 代々木, 代々木公園

Comments 5 Comments
Categories Animals, Autumn, crowded, Events, festivals, Food, graffitti, Harajuku, Holidays, Japan, Landmarks, My kids, My YouTube Videos, photos, Places to go, shibuya, shopping, Shrines, Tokyo

Cell-phone Camera

25 Oct

I was looking at the pictures on my 携帯電話 (Cell-phone) camera.
I have over 600 photos on the phone’s memory disc that I’ve taken at various places (the disc still has alot of memory space left, too!)

So I made a slideshow of some of the photos:

[rockyou id=125385250]

Tags: archery, お台場, 鎌倉, great buddah, Japan, Japanese, kamakura, kanagawa, photos, shibuya, shinjuku, shrine, slideshow, sumo, sushi, temple, Tokyo, Yokohama, 大仏, 寿司, 東京, 横浜, 流鏑馬, 渋谷

Comments 2 Comments
Categories akihabara, Animals, archery, Asakusa, Autumn, beer, chiba, Electronics, Events, festivals, fireworks, Flowers, Food, halloween, hanami, Harajuku, hard rock cafe, Holidays, horseback archery, insects, Japan, kanagawa, KISS, Landmarks, military, Museums, Nature, Nippon Budokan, O-mikoshi, Odaiba, Parks and Zoos, photos, Places to go, saitama, shibuya, shinjuku, shitamachi, Shrines, Spring, summer, sumo, Temples, Tokyo, Trains, tsukiji, ueno, winter, yasukuni shrine, Yokohama

Photos

28 Aug

I went thru some of my photos and decided to post a bunch of them on my blog. Mostly as Slideshows.

For convenience, here’s a menu of the pictures, slideshows, and video on this post:

Turtle	Butterfly	Beetle
Cicada	Kawasaki Halloween	Kamakura Horseback Archery
Asakusa Horseback Archery	Asakusa New Years	Tokyo Disneyland
Park	Cherry Blossom Viewing	Ibaraki
Yokohama	Kameido-Tenjin	Harajuku / Shibuya
Ueno	Tokyo Tower	Tokyo Dome area
Tokyo Stn / Imperial Palace	University of Tokyo	Tobu Zoo
Ryogoku		Bottom of this post

First are some of the small animals that have been living in our house recently.

Our ミドリ亀 (Red-eared slider turtle):

My YouTube video of our ミドリ亀 (Red-eared slider turtle):

Search

Instagram

Blog Stats

Recent Comments

Random Post

Archives

Follow 'Tokyo Five' Blog

Top Posts & Pages

Categories