I had a very unique experience of a tub boat in Sado Island. It is literally a tub boat made of a tub cut into half. That’s why they call it a “tub boat”. But you may wonder “why tub?”. The story goes back to the early 19th Century when ...
Narrow alleys, in my opinion, are typical Tokyo streetscape. They are sometimes straight, sometimes winding but always narrow. And they often have many small shops, restaurants and houses along the alleys. Shinjuku has several such alleys. The street scene often reminds Japanese people of good old days. ...
Some old towns in Japan still maintain the traditional townscape of old Japanese houses along the street. Nonoichi City is one of such towns. But where is Nonoichi? Perhaps, many people even in Japan don’t know this town. This city locates next to Kanazawa City and it actually became prosperous ...
The origin of Japanese sweets has a deep connection with the history of the culture of tea ceremony in Japan. Where tea culture is rooted, there are a variety of traditional sweets. Kyoto is famous for the culture of tea ceremony as well as sweets. Another famous town is Kanazawa. ...
In Tokyo, museums and galleries often hold exhibitions of international arts. For example, Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum in Ueno now exhibits paintings of Leonard Tsuguharu Foujita. He was a Japanese-French painter of École de Paris. The poster of this exhibition used one of his famous paintings, “Cafe” which now belongs ...
Sometimes, Japanese shops have unique facade. I would like to show them to you whenever I found one. Today, let me present you the examples I saw recently. Facade 1: A Carpenter on the Roof The first one is the roof of the office of a construction company Takachiho Construction ...