I have been living in Japan for most of my life.
I came here when I was twenty years old…and that was over twenty years ago now.
I think Japan is the most beautiful country in the world and Tokyo is the best city.
I wanted to show some scenes that I see regularly in Japan and I may have started taking for granted but they are a part of what makes Japan so special.
Rather than go through the photos in my camera’s memory cards, I decided to be a bit lazy and see what I could find online.
I found a website called Getty Images that has many stock photos…some of them of Japan.
The people who take these photos must have cameras that are much nicer than mine because they took some really nice photos.
I use photos that I took myself in most of my blog posts, but the following photos are from Getty Images.
Every January, when the "Tokyo Stock Exchange" reopens after the New Years holidays, the female staff wear kimono.
A"bird's eye view" of Tokyo
A traditional Japanese breakfast.
A Japanese garden.
The symbol of Japan: 富士山 (Mount Fuji).
Tokyo's "Rainbow Bridge".
Japanese "Green Tea".
The Shibuya area of Tokyo
The Shinjuku area of Tokyo.
新幹線 (Bullet trains)
Tokyo Tower
By the way, today is the seventh day of the New Year.
On this day it is Japanese custom to eat 「七草粥」 (“Seven Herbs Porridge“) for breakfast.
I will have it for breakfast today as I usually do on January 7th.
Click here to see my post that explains this tradition in more detail.
Have you ever seen 浮世絵 (ukiyoe)?
It’s a traditional style of Japanese “painting“. Instead of using a brush, the picture is carved into woodblocks which are used like a printing press to make the picture.
But the whole picture isn’t carved into one block…different parts of the picture are carved into different blocks. So the picture is printed in layers.
It must have been alot of work!
I have seen a number of 浮世絵 (ukiyoe) exhibits at museums over the years.
As with many people, my favorite artists are 北斎 (Hokusai) and 広重 (Hiroshige).
One of the most famous (if not the most famous) 浮世絵 (ukiyoe) works is 神奈川沖波裏 (“The Great Wave Off Of Kanagawa“) by 北斎 (Hokusai):
I like that picture alot, too. But my personal favorites are the 妖怪 (monsters):
浮世絵 (ukiyoe) subjects aren’t usually 妖怪 (monsters) though. Common themes of 浮世絵 (ukiyoe) are 相撲 (sumo), 歌舞伎 (kabuki), 芸者 (geisha) and 自然 (nature).
Anyways, this month, the 江戸東京博物館 (Edo-Tokyo Museum) in Tokyo is having a couple of special exhibits.
One is the 浮世絵 (ukiyoe) collection from The Museum Of Fine Arts, Boston of America, and the other is a 「浅草今昔」 (“Asakusa: Then And Now“) exhibit.
I went to see them yesterday. It was pretty crowded in the museum because it was a Saturday, but it was enjoyable. As I said, I like 浮世絵 (ukiyoe) and I also like 下町 (traditional downtown areas of Japan) like 浅草 (Asakusa).
The 浮世絵 (ukiyoe) in the exhibit from the Boston Museum were items that were from three American’s personal collections.
It was interesting to see the types of art that Americans like to collect compared to the types of 浮世絵 (ukiyoe) that a Japanese person might choose.
Americans seem to like the very colorful, almost flashy pieces…but Japanese tastes tend to be more simple. I’ve lived in Japan for awhile now…I guess my style is more Japanese now.
It’s just an observation. Not to say one culture is better than another…just interesting to compare.
Inside the museum, there are places that it’s indicated that it’s OK to take a photo…but the 浮世絵 (ukiyoe) and 浅草今昔 (Asakusa: Then And Now) areas were marked 「撮影禁止」, which means “No Photography Allowed”, so I couldn’t take any photos of those exhibits.
But there was a traditional Japanese dance show at the museum that I was able to take a few videos of.
I took eight short video of this group, and uploaded them to My YouTube Page. They’re pretty good, click here to visit my YouTube page and you can see all of my videos.
Here’s one video of them:
After the museum, we walked to 浅草 (Asakusa), and visited a Japanese Garden there.
There was a man at the Japanese garden playing a 三味線 (Shamisen) which is a traditional Japanese instrument.
I took this video of him:
Yesterday was the 74th birthday of the Empress of Japan.
As the Emperor and Empress always do on their birthdays, she released a birthday statement.
She said that she’s pleased by the healthy growth of her four grandchildren (ages 2, 6, 13 and 16…the three oldest are girls—which was cause for concern about the future heir to the throne…until Prince Hisahito was born in 2006).
The Empress made special mention of six-year old Princess Aiko starting 小学校 (Elementary School) this year.
She also said she hopes the lives of the survivors of last summer’s big earthquake in 岩手県 (Iwate, Japan) are back to normal soon.
And she offered congratulations to the Japanese who earned Nobel Prizes this year…and well as to the Japanese Olympic athletes who won medals in this year’s Olympics.
****
Also in the news, the last living survivor of the sinking of the RMS Titanic had to auction off her memorabilia so that she could pay her nursing home fees.
She was a newborn baby with her parents and older brother on the Titanic when it sunk. She and her mother and brother were rescued but her father died in the ship’s sinking.
She’s 96 years old now.
****
On Sunday, we went to a 健康祭 (Health Festival).
Here’s a video I took at the festival of some older people doing a traditional Japanese dance:
At the park that the festival was at, there were many バラ (roses) in bloom.
There were many ducks in the park’s pond. They must get fed by people often, because they kept rushing over to people.
Here’s a couple videos of them:
This was a very friendly cat that we saw near the park:
I like cats (and dogs too). But probably not as much as this man we saw:
On the way home, we stopped at this 八百屋 (Produce Store):
Next to the 八百屋 (Produce Store) was a small general store.
That’s a Japanese broom next to the door.
And here’s a close-up of a drink 自動販売機 (vending machine)…it sells Coca-Cola® hot and cold tea and coffee, as well as other drinks:
A とんぼ (dragonfly):
On the way home, we stopped by Daiso (you can see another post of mine in which I wrote a bit about Daisohere).
Yesterday we went on a bike ride to a park not too far from our house.
At the park, my kids caught 蛙 (frogs) and 蝉 (cicadas).
They’re girls and they’re teenagers…but they’ll still go out with their parents. And they still wanna catch bugs.
I’m glad! As their father, they’ll never grow up…in my mind!
Here’s a video of my second daughter holding a couple of 蝉 (cicadas) she caught. At the end, she asks me 「もういい？」 (“Enough?”):
There’s a Japanese style garden at the park.
(A wooden lantern)
(Looking thru a stone lantern)
Here’s a couple of shots of the river near the park:
And here are a couple of videos that I took of trains going over the bridge:
++++++++
One the way home from the park we stopped at 「ザ・ダイソー」 (“The Daiso“) for a couple things.
Do you know “The Daiso” (usually just called “Daiso”, or 百均 (Hyakkin (which is an abbreviation for 百円均一 (Hyakuenkinitsu), or 百円ショップ (¥100 Shop))?
There are other ¥100 shops…and even a ¥99 shop. But Daiso is almost synonymous with ¥100 shop.
Daiso is basically the Japanese version of the American One Dollar Store. (¥100 is almost equal to US$1)…but Daiso sells better merchandise. Better quality and more useful.
So, I guess I shouldn’t be surprised to learn that they’ve expanded overseas.
There are now Japanese Daiso stores in Korea, Singapore, United Arab Emirates, and the west coast of Canada and America (among other countries)!
Today we went to 柴又 (Shibamata). This is a traditional 下町 (downtown, blue-collar) area of Tokyo. We live in downtown Tokyo…but this is one of the downtown areas that stills maintains the old, traditional look.
I’m trying to explain it so that people from outside of Japan will relate…but Japan’s 下町 (downtown) and 山の手 (uptown) are unique and hard to explain accurately.
Come to Japan and I’ll show you. 🙂
Anyways, 柴又 (Shibamata) is the hometown for the character 寅さん (Tora-san) in the popular TV series 男はつらいよ (“It’s tough being a man!”) that ran from 1969-1995 in Japan.
The actor that played the main character (Tora-san) died in 1996. There’s a statue of the “Tora-san” character outside 柴又 (Shibamata) train station.
Here it is:
Near the train station is a store that sells Japanese candies. Just like most of the shops in this area, it looks like an old traditional Japanese store.
Here’s the 駄菓子屋 (Traditional junk-food shop):
(The Coke machine looks like a robot).
We also went to a temple and saw them setting up for a 盆踊り (Bon Dance Festival)…(we didn’t go to the festival, though), and a traditional Japanese street performer, and we went to a Japanese garden.
Here’s a slideshow of some of the photos I took:
[rockyou id=119928351]
I took a few videos today and uploaded to my YouTube page (in all of them you can hear 蝉 (Cicadas) in the background. Proof that it’s summertime in Japan 🙂 ).
Also, in the last video there are 提灯 (paper lanterns) that say 寅さんの日 (“Tora-san Day”). This is in preparation for August 27—the anniversary of the first episode of TV series 男はつらいよ (“It’s tough being a man!”) that began on 1969/8/27.
Here’s my video of the Japanese garden:
Here are three videos that I took of the traditional Japanese street performer:
And here are two videos that I took of the 下町 (traditional downtown area):
We’ve been to this area a number of times. But it had been awhile since our last time here…so it was alot of fun!
Tokyo Five 
Recent Comments