February | 2016 | IKIMASHO!

IKIMASHO! IN TOP NORTHERN IRISH TRAVEL BLOGS 2016

February 28, 2016 by joostay

Happy to be featured in a list of top Northern Irish travel blogs put together by fellow countryman and friend Jonny Blair from Don’t Stop Living. Jonny is currently travelling in India (country 112) – but he also goes out of his way to visit micronations and disputed countries that most people have never even heard of. Check out his site to read all about his adventures in bizarre places such as Podjistan, Adammia, Austenasia, Karakalpakstan, Ladonia, Lagoan Isles, Christiania, Uzupis and Gorno Badakhshan. I caught […]

Categories: Travel: Outside Japan • Tags: bangor, design, japan, northern ireland, photography, tokyo, travel, writing

Un-street Street Photography: Tokyo’s Neglected Ordinary

February 23, 2016 by joostay

Like many teenagers, my first introduction to Tokyo was through Katsuhiro Otomo’s AKIRA. I watched and rewatched Tetsuo and Kaneda’s motorbike chase scene through Neo Tokyo’s narrow alleyways and towering skyscrapers. When I finally visited Tokyo for real in 2003, this is the city I wanted to see: dark, mad, futuristic, alive. A place that seemed a million miles from my small hometown in Northern Ireland. Thirteen years on, however, and the Tokyo that interests me now is very different from the neon fairy […]

Categories: Daily Life in Tokyo • Tags: asia, city, design, ikimasho, japan, japanese, minimalism, photography, street, tokyo, urban

A walk around: Daitabashi, Tokyo.

February 10, 2016 by joostay

DAITABASHI / 代田橋 Stumbling across a cute Okinawan Town in Central Tokyo Did you know there’s a small Okinawan Town in Tokyo? Well, I say town, but it’s more like a collection of cute shops and alleyways in a residential neighbourhood. I found it by accident the other day while wandering aimlessly around Daitabashi, a station just a fifteen-minute walk from my house in Shimokitazawa. Despite living so close, I hadn’t been to Daitabashi in a long time so I decided to […]

Categories: Daily Life in Tokyo • Tags: blog, design, food, ikimasho, japan, photography, setagaya, shinjuku, story, street, tokyo, train, travel, urban, video

Staying at Bandula’s House. (Bandula Homestay, Sri Lanka.)

February 2, 2016 by joostay

Of the many countries I visited in 2015, I’d say Sri Lanka was the highlight. I was fortunate enough to be working with the Jetwing Hotel Group for a portion of my trip, and so was able to experience some really amazing hotels. When I wasn’t reviewing these properties, however, I chose to stay in homestays across the country: families who have turned their spare rooms into lodgings for travelling guests. (Another post about that here.) I fondly remember one family that […]

Categories: Travel: Outside Japan • Tags: accomodation, asia, backpacking, blog, budget, design, food, foodie, japan, se asia, sigiriya, sri lanka, tokyo, travel, where to stay in sigiriya

IKIMASHO!

Daily life in Tokyo, Japan

Monthly Archives: February 2016

IKIMASHO! IN TOP NORTHERN IRISH TRAVEL BLOGS 2016

Un-street Street Photography: Tokyo’s Neglected Ordinary

A walk around: Daitabashi, Tokyo.

Staying at Bandula’s House. (Bandula Homestay, Sri Lanka.)