Monthly Archive for March, 2013

Photo of the week: Limited edition sake for cherry blossom season

Published on March 25, 2013 in Uncategorized. Closed

This past week marked the start of cherry blossom season in Tokyo! All of a sudden, nature around us changed and we are now surrounded by “sakura trees” (i.e. cherry trees). Outside blossom season, sakura trees are pretty normal, so you wouldn’t really notice them among other trees. But these days, they are the stars of Japan and they get all the attention they deserve!

Together with cherry blossom season comes a lot of sakura special edition goods. Japan loves its seasons and is all about seasonal goods! So, shops and supermarkets recently started selling all sorts of pink cherry blossom flavoured goods, such as cherry kitkat, pink sweets, sakura flavoured Fanta, Starbucks offers sakura cafe latte,  etc. Having tried the sakura kitkat a few years ago, I thought I’d try something else this time; and this time, I got a limited edition sakura sparkling sake. It’s pink and … interesting!

White Day

Published on March 19, 2013 in Uncategorized. Closed

Last week, it was White Day in Japan. White Day is on the 14th of March, a month after Valentine’s Day. In Japan, on Valentine’s Day, women make/buy chocolates to the men of their life. By “men”, I mean all the males in their life, including boyfriend/fiancé/husband, but also including father, brothers, male colleagues, etc. It’s to thank them for being part of their life. So it’s quite a different tradition as the one in Europe. Those men who were lucky to receive chocolate on Valentine’s Day are now expected to return the favour on White Day, by giving white chocolate or cookies to those women. Quite interesting custom there… and also the month where chocolate shops make 20% of their annual turnover!

Photo of the week: Robot building in Shibuya

Published on March 17, 2013 in Uncategorized. Closed

When you live outside Japan, you hear a lot of crazy stories/anecdotes about how things are in Japan, about how people live and how they behave. Before I came to Japan, I had heard a lot of these stories and I was quite disappointed that most of them were wrong actually! I imagined Japan being such a futuristic place where they used robots to do all sorts of stuff. Now, not like in a science fiction movie, but in the same way “roomba” does the vacuum, I was expecting to find handy robots to do other chores or tasks. But, no, instead, I found out that during cold winter, you use kerosene heater to heat the main room of your apartment and you leave the window opened so that you don’t suffocate from the kerosene smoke…

So last September, as I walked around Shibuya, one day, I came across that interesting building shaped as a Power Ranger robot; I was quite surprised, actually. That was what I expected Japan to be like!

 

Photo of the week: Hachiko wall in Shibuya

Published on March 10, 2013 in Uncategorized. Closed

In Shibuya (one of the busiest area of Tokyo), there is a statue of a dog called Hachikō.

Story: Hachikō met its owner, Professor Ueno, every day near Shibuya station and they walked home together. After its owner died, Hachikō kept coming to Shibuya station and waited for him. It is said that Hachikō came to Shibuya station, every day for nine years after Professor Ueno died. Hachikō attracted the other commuters’ attention. Indeed, many people passing through Shibuya had seen Hachikō and Professor Ueno together. Articles about Hachikō were published and the dog became well known and even a statue of Hachikō was erected just outside Shibuya station.

The statue of Hachikō is very famous; everyone gets their photo taken beside Hachikō. It is also a very famous meeting point in Shibuya; I often meet my friends at the Hachikō statue myself, but it’s only recently that I noticed a mural of Hachikō, made of mosaics on the other side of Shibuya station. And it’s my photo of the week!

Photo of the week: winter zen

Published on March 6, 2013 in Uncategorized. Closed

Coming back from lunch in the neighbouring town, we walk through the Ritsugenji park again and I noticed the winter light in the graveyard. Everything looked so peaceful under that cold sun… But winter is on its way out and fruit trees are starting to bloom again. Hello cherry blossom season!

See other photos on Flickr

Okusawa, the “inside the valley”

Published on March 2, 2013 in Uncategorized. Closed

Okusawa is one of the small neighborhood near where we live. It’s got that nice feel that things haven’t really changed since the 50’s with those old templtes, old restaurants, old stores and kimono shops…