IKIMASHO! 2016

April 2, 2016 by joostay

It’s been three months now since I moved back to Tokyo after travelling for the guts of a year. I arrived in January after my company needed someone to replace a teacher who had quit after the second term. So for the last three months I’ve basically been finishing off someone else’s contract – which has had its good and bad points. The positives: I had actually taught at this school before, four years ago. It was the first kindergarten I ever […]

Categories: Daily Life in Tokyo • Tags: asia, blog, design, food, japan, japanese, photography, sakura, shimokitazawa, spring, story, tokyo, travel

Plum Season in Kanagawa 2016

March 8, 2016 by joostay

34,998… 34,999 … 35,000 plum blossom trees in bloom at Soga Bessho Bairin. Last Saturday I woke up early and by 8.30am was already heading west out of Tokyo towards Shimosoga – a station in northeast Odawara, Kanagawa prefecture. I was on my way to get lost in Soga Bessho Bairin, a grove of 35,000 plum trees in the inaka, Japan’s countryside. There was a small festival being held to celebrate the plum bossoms. After about an hour on the Odakyu line the […]

Categories: Daily Life in Tokyo, Travel: Inside Japan • Tags: blog, design, food, ikimasho, japan, japanese, nature, photo essay, photography, tokyo, travel, writing, Zen

‘Some no Komichi’: Fabric-Dyeing Festival in Nakai, Tokyo

March 2, 2016 by joostay

Exploring a new area with an old tradition… ❤ For the last 3-4 years I have been living in Setagaya-ku – one of the 23 wards of Tokyo. After spending a good deal of time here, I’ve become somewhat of a Setagaya snob, in that I genuinely think it’s the best place to live – my station of Shimokitazawa being low-key enough yet offering access to both Shibuya and Shinjuku in under ten minutes. The area around Shinjuku station is massive, and […]

Categories: Daily Life in Tokyo • Tags: asia, blog, design, fashion, festival, ikimasho, japan, kimons, photography, tokyo, tradition, traditional, 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

A walk around: Residential Hachimanyama, Tokyo

January 30, 2016 by joostay

HACHIMANYAMA / 八幡山 I’ve been back living in Tokyo one month now. I arrived on a Monday night and was back to work on the Wednesday. Feels like I’ve never been away. Prior to me taking a break to travel for ten months I was working all the way out at Kashiwa in Chiba. It was a great school and I loved it, but the two-hour commute each way became too much, and that was what ultimately led me to needing a break. This time around I’m back working […]

Categories: Daily Life in Tokyo • Tags: asia, culture, design, food, ikimasho, japan, keio, narrative, photo essay, photography, street, tokyo, travel, urban

Ramen: Konjiki Hototogisu, Hatagaya.

January 24, 2016 by joostay

Getting my ramen game back on. Eating ramen awarded a Bib Gourmand by Michelin. Ramen Walker is a website which specialises in reviewing, rating and generally being a know-it-all when it comes to ramen restaurants in Japan. Right now there are over 57,000 listed on its database, and as it turns out, No.20 on the list – Konjiki Hototogisu in Hatagaya – is just a ten-minute cycle from my house. As well as being rated highly by Ramen Walker, it was one of 10 ramen […]

Categories: Daily Life in Tokyo • Tags: blog, cuisine, culinary, design, food, ikimasho, japanese, photography, ramen, review, soba, tokyo, travel

A walk around: Sasazuka, Tokyo

January 19, 2016 by joostay

SASAZUKA / 笹塚 I don’t know where I got the figure from – and please don’t quote me on it – but  think I read one time that including metro and overland trains there are 924 stations in Tokyo. Whatever the true figure is, it surely can’t be too far off. Even after living in Tokyo for over three years there are still whole train lines that are completely unknown to me. Each station is essentially the heart of a little village or […]

Categories: Daily Life in Tokyo • Tags: asia, city, design, japan, keio, photography, sasazuka, street, tokyo, travel, urban

Winter sun in Shinjuku Gyoen

January 13, 2016 by joostay

Many would think that parks are best to go to during the summer. But summer in Japan often means high humidity, cloudy skies and rain. Winter is actually an amazing time to visit parks – especially Shinjuku Gyoen in Tokyo. The grass is essentially dead, but because it is so well maintained, it looks like a giant sheet of silk. Like IKIMASHO! on Facebook

Categories: Daily Life in Tokyo • Tags: japan, japanese, nature, park, photography, quiet, shinjuku, tokyo, urban, Zen

The street I live in in Tokyo

January 9, 2016 by joostay

Daily life in Tokyo, Japan | IKIMASHO!

Categories: Daily Life in Tokyo • Tags: asia, blog, breakfast, cute, daily life, food, ikimasho, japan, japanese, living, photography, tokyo, travel

Back in Japan

January 7, 2016 by joostay

After 10 months and 10 countries I’m back living in Tokyo for a while! I originally left because I wanted to see more of Asia and the world, and I’m grateful I got to see so many amazing places and meet some great people in 2015. My first stop was Thailand where I stayed with my friends Allan & Fanfan in Isaan near the Cambodian border. From there I flew to Kathmandu in Nepal where I was involved in the earthquake, […]

Categories: Daily Life in Tokyo, Travel: Outside Japan • Tags: asia, design, ikimasho, japan, northern ireland

Escape to Izu: Jogasaki Coast

December 30, 2015 by joostay

Disclaimer: this post contains unnecessary navel-gazing and anal flowery descriptors such as ‘turquoise-blue’. If you’re OK with that, read on. Tokyo is an odd beast. A month-or-so ago I wrote of my need to escape the city – packing a bag and head…

Categories: Daily Life in Tokyo, Travel: Inside Japan • Tags: asia, blog, ikimasho, izu, japan, japanese, shibuya, tokyo, travel

Laundry & Lunch: Suburban local life in Tokyo, Japan.

December 13, 2015 by joostay

The little old lady barely visible in the photo above owns a coin laundry just down the road from my house. She lives quietly on the left, while ageing washing machines and driers rattle noisily to the right. Every morning at 7.30 I pass her on my…

Categories: Daily Life in Tokyo • Tags: asia, blog, japan, living in japan, setagaya, shimokitazawa, simple, tokyo, travel, urban

DISPOSABLE JAPAN #1

November 28, 2015 by joostay

Random images from Japan taken with a disposable camera 2003/04 I lived in the south of Japan for one year in 2003. I didn’t own a mobile phone and would keep a list of phone numbers in my pocket in case I needed to use a payphone. I also didn’t own a digital camera, so all the photos I took were with disposable cameras which I would process at the end of the month. Some of these photos I hadn’t looked at in […]

Categories: Daily Life in Tokyo • Tags: asia, ikimasho, kyushu, photography, travel

Spring Fuji

March 27, 2015 by joostay

I went to the top of Mount Takao today to experiment with my camera and make a short video. This was the view of Fuji waiting for me at the top. All around me people were picnicking in the sun, enjoying the start of hanami. Spring has arrived.

Categories: Daily Life in Tokyo • Tags: asia, backpacking, blog, electronica, fuji san, hanami, hiking, idm, ikimasho, japan, japanese, mount fuji, music, ovuca, takao san, tokyo

Fracking: the consequences to land, water and community in Northern Ireland.

March 9, 2015 by joostay

Shale gas extraction and the dire implications for Northern Ireland, Japan & beyond… With the anniversary of the March 2011 tsunami just a few days away, thousands of demonstrators surrounded Japan’s parliament building on Sunday to protest against the government’s attempt to restart some of the country’s nuclear plants. After the Fukushima nuclear accident, Japan is desperately looking for energy alternatives. However, to the concern of many, one of the solutions being explored is the dangerous gas extraction process known as fracking. […]

Categories: Daily Life in Tokyo, Travel: Outside Japan • Tags: asia, bangor, blog, energy, environment, fracking, global, green, ikimasho, japan, japanese, northern ireland, solutions, tokyo, travel

Testing a GoPro in Tokyo

February 28, 2015 by joostay

Testing a GoPro Camera in Tokyo: Shimokitazawa to Shibuya by BMX. On Friday night I strapped a GoPro Camera to my head and cycled from Shimokitazawa to Shibuya in Tokyo. It took about 15 minutes, slightly longer than if I had cycled down the busier main road (Inokashira-dori) near my house. I wanted to cycle through my neighbourhood at night, and then be able to come down into Shibuya from the top of Dogenzaka and finish at the scramble crossing. […]

Categories: Daily Life in Tokyo • Tags: asia, blog, bmx, camera, COOL, culture, gopro, ikimasho, japan, japanese, shibuya, street, tokyo, video

A Picture of Home

February 19, 2015 by joostay

Bangor & beyond… Piecing together the street I grew up in. The picture above is of the little street I grew up in. If you look closely, you can see that the photo is in two parts: both were pieced together by me, but neither were actually taken by myself. Confused? Then let me explain. Due to the time difference of living in Japan, the majority of the stuff I see on my Facebook feed is from my friends here in […]

Categories: Daily Life in Tokyo, Travel: Outside Japan

“A Labour of Love” / The Tokyo Rail Network

February 13, 2015 by joostay

One talented reader shows how the Tokyo rail network really can be a work of art I’m grateful to the people who take the time to write to me about Japan and Ikimasho! The majority of the stuff I get these days is from people wanting to know how to become a kindergarten teacher – actually this site ranks #1 if you Google the words Japan and kindergarten. Sometimes though, I get mails that are pretty left field and interesting. The other day I received a great […]

Categories: Art, Music & Culture, Daily Life in Tokyo • Tags: advertising, art, blog, design, ikimasho, japan, japanese, map, minimal, otaku, public transport, rail, railway, tokyo, trains, trainspotting, yokohama

Tengu Matsuri / Shimokitazawa 2015

February 9, 2015 by joostay

Don’t mess with Tengu. The Long Red-Nosed Goblin Festival, Tokyo. Once a year, the Shimokita Tengu Matsuri – or Long Red-nosed Goblin Festival – takes place about a two-minute walk from my house in Tokyo. Along with possibly having the best name for a festival ever, it’s a chance to worship the legendary Tengu (天狗, “heavenly dog”) and  take part in a special ritual called Mamemaki – bean-throwing to toss away bad luck from the previous year. In 2014 at my kindergarten I was the […]

Categories: Daily Life in Tokyo • Tags: blog, culture, festival, ikimasho, japan, japanese, matsuri, setsubun, tengu, tokyo, travel

I ♥ THE YURIKAMOME LINE, TOKYO

January 25, 2015 by joostay

The Yurikamome line is my favourite train line in Tokyo, connecting Shinbashi to Toyosu via the artificial island of Odaiba. When I woke up this morning the sun was shining and I had a sudden urge to ride the Yurikamome. I shot this video, and the Ulrich Schnauss tune playing is exactly the same one I was listening to at the time. A group of kids were sitting next to me, and towards the end of the tune their laughter and voices […]

Categories: Daily Life in Tokyo • Tags: blog, electronica, ikimasho, japan, japanese, tokyo, trains, ulrich schnauss

Daikoku Matsuri: Tokyo’s Answer to the Ice Bucket Challenge

January 19, 2015 by joostay

“It’s a cold January morning in east Tokyo and as soon as I leave Shin-Ochanomizu station I’m cursing myself that I didn’t bring my gloves. Even the dog on the pavement beside me is wearing a coat, though I’m not entirely sure the color suits him. On this particular morning I’m on my way to the nearby Myojin shrine to watch a load of naked men throw buckets of ice water over themselves—It’s moments like this when I wonder what […]

Categories: Daily Life in Tokyo • Tags: aqrticle, asia, blog, city, cold, culture, Daikoku Matsuri, festival, ice, ikimasho, japan, japanese, matsuri, tokyo, tokyo weekender, traditional, weird, writing

Ikimasho! in Wanderlust

January 16, 2015 by joostay

A previous piece I wrote about my connection with Japan – and how my dad unwittingly influenced me to travel – has been featured in Wanderlust Travel Magazine. You can check it out here.

Categories: Daily Life in Tokyo, Travel: Outside Japan • Tags: asia, blog, generations, ikimasho, japan, tokyo, travelling, wanderlust

In the Belly of Buddha

January 10, 2015 by joostay

Going Deeper Underground: Exploring the Tokyo temple with a dark secret What was I doing last Sunday morning I hear you ask? No, I wasn’t writhing about in my bed hungover. Guess again. Church? No, I wasn’t at church either – but I guess you could say I was having a religious experience of sorts, exploring the secret underground tunnel of a temple nestled deep in the Tokyo suburbs. This is a tunnel so secret that not even some of […]

Categories: Art, Music & Culture, Daily Life in Tokyo • Tags: blog, Denentoshi, Gyokushin Mitsuin, ikimasho, japan, japanese, religion, religious, shrine, suburbia, suburbs, Tamagawa Daishi, temple, tokyo, unique, unusual, urban, utako-Tamagawa, weird

My connection with Japan

January 5, 2015 by joostay

Daily life in Tokyo, Japan | IKIMASHO!

Categories: Daily Life in Tokyo, Travel: Inside Japan, Travel: Outside Japan

Christmas throwback + Ikimasho! 2015

December 30, 2014 by joostay

This time last year I was in Sumatra. The photos above were taken on Christmas Day in a small restaurant on Lake Toba. I wish I could remember this lady’s name, who agreed to cook me a full chicken in the back of her house using nothing but a bucket of hot coals. Earlier in the day I was taken to a place that served pig’s blood for my Christmas lunch. I really loved Sumatra, especially the hospitality of the […]

Categories: Daily Life in Tokyo, Travel: Outside Japan • Tags: asia, backpacking, blog, brunei, ikimasho, india, japan, japanese, nepal, se asia, tokyo, travel

Tokyo Art Beat / Round-up 2014

December 22, 2014 by joostay

Tokyo Art Beat’s writers share their highlights of Tokyo exhibitions and events for 2014 2014 was a fantastic year for exhibitions and installations in Tokyo; my personal favourite being the huge #BCTION installation with 50 street artists putting their stamp on a building that was soon to have a date with the bulldozers. You can read my annual round-up below, as well as the thoughts of the others writers here. “It’s only now that I sit down and try to recall everything I’ve […]

Categories: Art, Music & Culture, Daily Life in Tokyo

Shinji Ohmaki: Memorial Rebirth

December 10, 2014 by joostay

Bubbles, bubbles and more bubbles… Stumbling across the extraordinary in Kita Senju. Last month, contemporary artist Shinji Ohmaki invaded Senju Asahi Park (also known as Taroyama Park) in Kita Senju, releasing massive amounts of sparkling soap bubbles and transforming the grey urban space into a dreamland. The result was an ordinary space turned extraordinary, with music, dancing, and thousands upon thousands of bubbles. You can read my feature for Tokyo Weekender here.

Categories: Art, Music & Culture, Daily Life in Tokyo • Tags: art, bubbles, contemporary, ikimasho!blog, installation, japan, japanese, Kita Senju, Shinji Ohmaki, subrban, suburbia, tokyo, tokyo weekender, uban

The Sound of the Japanese Autumn

November 27, 2014 by joostay

Like the little stream Making its way Through the mossy crevices I, too, quietly Turn clear and transparent. – Ryōkan The other day I travelled out to the Takao region of western Tokyo. At this time of year – and because it was a long weekend – I knew it would be packed. So as soon as I got out of the station I started walking up the main road, across a freeway towards the mountains in the distance. I cut […]

Categories: Daily Life in Tokyo • Tags: autumn, blog, fall, hidden gem, ikimasho, japan, japanese, leaves, maple leaves, mountains, nature, orange, red, ryokan, secret, takao, tokyo, yellow

geometry / 幾何学

October 29, 2014 by joostay

Categories: Daily Life in Tokyo • Tags: angles, art, blog, geometry, gym, japan, japanese, outdoors, photography, tokyo, working out

FILL. EVERY. SPACE.

October 28, 2014 by joostay

How Tokyo’s apparent lack of urban planning can actually be an urban planning model. “First-time visitors to Tokyo may arrive with one of two fantasies dancing in their heads. One is the hyper-modern city of sleek 100-story high-rises and gleaming starchitecture. The other is the darker version: The city that inspired Blade Runner and Akira, a super-dense, technology-saturated metropolis in which Manga faces on towering billboards grin down on shootouts and chase scenes.” – Informal City Dialogues Urban planning is something […]

Categories: Daily Life in Tokyo • Tags: accra, asia, bangkok, chennai, community, growth, housing, ikimasho, Informal City Dialogues, japan, japanese, lima, manila, nairobi, Rockefeller Foundation, se asia, tokyo, tokyo. japan, urban planning

The Grandfather Clock

October 17, 2014 by joostay

The bus is quiet tonight. A few Chinese workers from the Panasonic plant and a family of three wearing identical scarves and hats. The little girl draws a few random squiggles on the foggy window with her finger and then erases her artwork with the cuff of her sleeve. Rinse. Repeat. Wax on. Wax off. Every time a new passenger climbs on board, he or she goes through the same ritual: shaking their umbrella and making a loud brrrr noise just to make sure everyone on the bus knows […]

Categories: Daily Life in Tokyo • Tags: atsugi, blog, CREATIVE, food, hon-atsugi, ikimasho, inaka, japan, japanese, rain, ramen, tokyo

Android: What is Human? Innovations in Humanoid Robotics.

October 5, 2014 by joostay

A new exhibition in Tokyo explores what it means to be human. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? is quite possibly Philip K. Dick’s most famous work – a science fiction novel set in a post-apocalyptic near future, subsequently forming the primary basis for the 1982 film, Blade Runner. The film depicts a dystopian world in 2019 in which genetically engineered replicants, which are visually indistinguishable from adult humans, are manufactured by the powerful Tyrell Corporation as well as by other “mega-corporations” around the […]

Categories: Art, Music & Culture, Daily Life in Tokyo • Tags: androids, blade runner, blog, do androids dream of electric sheep, future, hiroshi ishiguro, ikimasho, japan, japanese, kodomoroid, miraikan, National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation, otonaroid, telenoid, tokyo

Sunday / 日曜日

September 30, 2014 by joostay

Categories: Daily Life in Tokyo • Tags: blog, ikimasho, inaka, japan, japanese, photography, quiet, street, tokyo, urban, Zen

A DATE WITH SKYWHALE

September 26, 2014 by joostay

BBW WLTM BF for fun times I was lucky enough to spend the morning with a very special girl last weekend. Standing 23-metres high and weighing in at half a tonne, she dominated me – and the skyline. If you`d like to have a date with SKYWHALE yourself, head on over to Kanda this weekend where she will be flying high as part of TRANS ARTS TOKYO 2014. To find out more about her, check out my full review for Tokyo Art Beat here.

Categories: Art, Music & Culture, Daily Life in Tokyo • Tags: art, blog, canberra, contemporary, culture, installation, japan, japanese, kanda, modern art, Patricia Piccinini, skywhale, tokyo, trans arts tokyo 2014

Dancing in the Streets: Koenji Awa Odori, Tokyo

August 25, 2014 by joostay

If you’re a fool, you may as well dance… Once a year, 12,000 dancers pile out on to the streets of Koenji for the annual Awa Odori, Tokyo’s most energetic festival. Men dance in tabi (split-toed socks), while women wear sandals, their heels not touching the ground. They march through the streets in unison to music performed on the shamisen, flute, drums, and bells singing “Odoru aho ni miru aho; onaji aho nara odoranya son son!” (It’s a fool who dances and a […]

Categories: Daily Life in Tokyo • Tags: asia, awa odori, blog, drums, festival, flute, ikimasho, japan, japanese blog, koenji, matsuri, music, shamisen, summer, taiko, tokyo, traditional, travel

Portrait of a Matsuri

August 5, 2014 by joostay

Categories: Daily Life in Tokyo • Tags: 2014, asia, awa odori, dancing, festival, ikimasho, japan, matsuri, nakameguro, photography, streets, tokyo, travel, urban

Hamaorisai Matsuri: Sea Festival, Chigasaki, Japan

July 28, 2014 by joostay

Purification of the sea. Getting wet at the annual Hamaorisai Sea Festival in Chigasaki. Once a year in July thousands of people gather at sunrise at the fishing port of Chigasaki to join the Hamaorisai Matsuri – one of Japan’s most vivid spectacles. Dating back to back the ninth year of Tempo (1839), this annual festival is believed to have started when the sacred palanquin of Samukawa Shrine was carried away and lost in the Banyu River on the way back from the Kokuhu Festival. The palanquin later reappeared […]

Categories: Daily Life in Tokyo • Tags: asia, beach, buddhism, chigasaki, festival, Hamaorisai, japan, kanagawa, matsurio, mikoshi, sea, shinto, shrines, tokyo, travel

city / 市

July 17, 2014 by joostay

Categories: Daily Life in Tokyo

I can see my house

July 9, 2014 by joostay

“It sure is hot,” the Japanese lady beside me exclaims, talking to nobody in particular. Fanning herself with her hand, she removes a small towel from her bag and pats her forehead – the actions of a woman who is determined to prove a point. “Sheesh, it’s hot,” she continues. I share a knowing smile. I guess it is kind of hot, now that you mention it. The elevator arrives and we both step in. I push 17, she pushes 12. I enjoy the actions of people in […]

Categories: Daily Life in Tokyo • Tags: blog, creative writing, japan, japanese, oji, short story, tokyo

texture / テクスチャー

June 30, 2014 by joostay

Categories: Daily Life in Tokyo • Tags: art, blog, ikimasho, japan, photography, space, tokyo, urban

Becoming a kindergarten teacher in Japan

June 21, 2014 by joostay

Love it or hate it. Please read this before applying for a kindergarten job in Japan. Between monitoring stats, comments and emails, one of the most popular topics it seems for people who stumble across this site is information on how to become a kindergarten teacher in Japan and what it entails. So I thought I’d write a bunch of stuff here to give people an idea of what my life’s like on a daily basis. I really like my […]

Categories: Daily Life in Tokyo • Tags: asia, backpacking, blog, career, culture, english, ikimasho, japan, japanese, job, kindergarten, se asia, teaching, tefl, tokyo

A soundtrack to Mitake

June 1, 2014 by joostay

 I went to Mitake with a camera and some music. This is what I saw and heard. Ikimasho! Mitake-san is a sacred mountain in the far reaches of western Tokyo. From Shinjuku catch the JR Chuo line Tachikawa and change to the JR Ome line towards Okutama. (90 minutes / 920yen). From Mitake Station catch the Nishi Tokyo Bus to Cable Shita (ケーブル下) bus stop. Buses leave at least once or twice an hour and cost 270yen for the 10 minute […]

Categories: Daily Life in Tokyo • Tags: beauty, blog, Chichibu Tama National Park, hiking, ikimasho, japan, mitake, nature, okutama, tamagawa, tokyo, Zen

The Okutama region of western Tokyo

May 27, 2014 by joostay

Yes, this is Tokyo. But not as you know it.   Ikimasho! Okutama is a mountain district in the west of Tokyo. To get to Okutama Station take the Chuo Line from Shinjuku and switch at Tachikawa on to the Ome Line. Depending on connections the journey takes anything between 90 minutes and 2 hours (for a very reasonable 1,080 yen). Buses are irregular to Lake Okutama, one or two an hour – and if you decide to walk between […]

Categories: Daily Life in Tokyo • Tags: asia, backpacking, culture, dam, hatonosu, hiking, ikimasho, inaka, japan, lake, nature, okutama, ome, shiromaru, south east asia, tokyo, wildlife

Institute for Nature Study, Tokyo

May 18, 2014 by joostay

An oasis of calm in the heart of metropolitan Tokyo Established in 1949, The Institute for Nature Study (Shizen Kyōikuen) is a nature reserve set right in the heart of downtown Tokyo. Within a 20-hectare park, the Institute is home to 1,436 species of plant, 2,130 species of insect and 130 bird species. Its aim: to preserve the natural environment of Tokyo’s forests and marshlands. The grounds are used for research and education, although anyone may enjoy the park’s trails and natural beauty. […]

Categories: Daily Life in Tokyo • Tags: asia, backpacking, bizarre, blog, caterpillars, culture, guidebook, ikimasho, insects, japan, japanese, meguro, nature, south east asia, tokyo, travel, turtles, urban

Cats & Dogs: A lucky walk around Gotokuji, Tokyo

May 6, 2014 by joostay

Visiting Tokyo? The smaller suburbs are where it’s at… Despite being only four minutes by train from my neighbourhood of Shimokitazawa, I had never been to Gotokuji before. I hadn’t even heard of it – as many stations going away from Shinjuku simply aren’t on my radar. I am, however, so glad I found it. I ventured out there with my camera and was rewarded with quaint shopfronts, as well as peace, quiet – and hundreds of cats wishing me luck. […]

Categories: Daily Life in Tokyo • Tags: asia, blog, cats, charms, gotokuji, gotokuji temple, ikimasho, inaka, japan, lucky, odakyu, old, photography, quaint, suburbia, suburbs, tokyo, trains, urban, Zen

Tokyo Travel Library

May 4, 2014 by joostay

34,000 books – most of which you won’t be able to read but who cares this place is great. If, like me, you spend an inordinate amount of your time loitering in the travel sections of bookshops reading Lonely Planets while the staff regard you as some kind of vagrant tramp with no home, then you are in luck. Just beside Tokyo station there’s a place where this kind of behavior is actively encouraged – a library entirely devoted to travel- and tourism-related materials from all over the world. […]

Categories: Daily Life in Tokyo, Travel: Outside Japan • Tags: asia, book shop, books, flying, japan, lonely planet, magazines, tokyo, travel, travel library

ただいま

April 23, 2014 by joostay

The smell of rain. The hum of neon.  ただいま

Categories: Daily Life in Tokyo • Tags: japan, tao, tokyo, Zen

RABBIT PHOTO SHOOT! / Yokohama, Japan

April 14, 2014 by joostay

And the award for the cutest thing to ever happen in the history of the world goes to…

Categories: Daily Life in Tokyo, Travel: Inside Japan • Tags: animal clothing, cats, chinatown, dumplings, japan, kawaii, pedigree, rabbits, tokyo, yokohama

Fine Dining in Japan

April 10, 2014 by joostay

King for a day. Or for lunch, at the very least. Indisputably the world capital of gastronomy, Tokyo has more Michelin-starred restaurants than any other city in the world. Eating at these places is an expensive hobby: the average cost of the food alone at high-end restaurants is around 15,000 yen ($150), and at a really high-end place, that figure can double. I was lucky enough to be the guest at a rather special lunch recently. I ordinarily can’t afford to eat this […]

Categories: Daily Life in Tokyo • Tags: asia, cuisine, fine dining, food, japan, michelin stars, soba, tempura, tokyo, top restaurant

Experience the City with Tokyo Metro

March 27, 2014 by joostay

Take a virtual tour around Japan’s capital with the new Tokyo Metro ad I was an advertising copywriter and creative back in the UK for about seven years. Among other things, I worked on the Northern Ireland Tourist Board account developing full campaigns for print, radio and TV. Many people don’t realise the amount of effort that goes into the adverts they see on the street and screen. Some ads look deceptively simple: but the amount of planning that is required is ridiculous. This […]

Categories: Daily Life in Tokyo • Tags: advertising, asia, getting around, ikimasho, japan, japanese, japanese blog, metro, tokyo, tourism, transport, travelling

Coming to Japan? Get a Smart Card.

March 23, 2014 by joostay

Travelling around Japan doesn’t have to be difficult I get a lot of emails from people asking for advice when they are coming to Japan: places to go, things to see as well as logistical stuff about travelling around the country. Besides mastering the use of chopsticks before getting off the plane, by far the single piece of advice I can give you is GET A SMART CARD AS SOON AS YOU ARRIVE. So what is a Smart Card? Well […]

Categories: Daily Life in Tokyo, Travel: Inside Japan • Tags: backpacking, blog, buses, getting around, ikimasho, japan, metro, pasmo, public trransport, smart cards, stations, suica, tokyo, tourists, trains, travelling

Hiwatari Matsuri: Mount Takao Fire-Walking Festival, Tokyo

March 13, 2014 by joostay

Fire walk with me. A closer look at the spectacular Buddhist purification ceremony held yearly at Mount Takao in Tokyo. Held on the second Sunday of March every year, the hiwatari matsuri or fire-walking festival at Mount Takao is a ceremony of purification known as ogoma. The ceremony is part of the training of Shugendo, a religion unique to Japan that mixes Buddhism and ancient mountain worship. Practitioners of Shugendo (called yamabushi) prepare a sacred fire and behind the blaze […]

Categories: Art, Music & Culture, Daily Life in Tokyo • Tags: asia, backpacking, blog, buddhism, buddhist, fire, fire walking festival, hiwatari matsuri, ikimasho, japan, japanese, monks, mount takao, mountain, nature, ritual, tokyo, travel

MONOCHROME TOKYO

February 27, 2014 by joostay

Categories: Daily Life in Tokyo • Tags: b&w, black and white, blog, CREATIVE, CREATIVITY, japan, monochrome, photographer, photography, photos, teaching, tokyo

Ueno Zoo

February 13, 2014 by joostay

Back when I was 15 I skipped school for the day and went to Ueno Zoo. I was living in Tawaramachi at the time, not too far from Kappabashi. I remember waking up and just not wanting to go. There was no real reason for it, I guess I was just being lazy. My parents had just started making me go to juku, which meant that once my regular school finished I had to go all the way to Suidobashi […]

Categories: Daily Life in Tokyo • Tags: japan, short story, tokyo, ueno zoo

SNOKYO

February 9, 2014 by joostay

Categories: Daily Life in Tokyo • Tags: asia, cold, japan, photography, snow, tokyo, travel, winter

One Sunday in Yanaka

January 30, 2014 by joostay

A stroll around one of Tokyo’s oldest neighbourhoods. Ikimasho! From Nippori, Yanaka Ginza is a 5-10 minute walk west of the station. Alternatively you can take the chiyoda line to Sendagi and walk east for about the same amount of time. You can also walk from Ueno Park in about 30 minutes – although it may be quicker if you are in a pram like this guy.

Categories: Daily Life in Tokyo • Tags: asia, backpacking, edo, history, inaka, japan, old tokyo, spinning tops japanese, tokyo, travelling, ueno, yanaka

|||||||||||||||||||| TOKYO AS A CIRCUIT BOARD ||||||||||||||||||||

January 24, 2014 by joostay

Up until pretty recently I spent most of my life soldering speaker wire and crossover components. These days I solder cities. This is Tokyo, my latest creation. A living, breathing circuit board. Colour coded metro stations doubling as resistors. Cubic transformers as skyscrapers. Look down and what do you see? Semi conductors, diodes and transistors? Or convenience stores, ramen shops and pachinko parlours. I set the temperature of the iron to 675 degrees Fahrenheit and wait for the tip to heat up. […]

Categories: Daily Life in Tokyo • Tags: electronics, futuristic, japan, short story, story, tokyo

Shimmer / 瞬く

January 23, 2014 by joostay

As the sun came down on Tokyo this evening the buildings turned to water. Squint and the city looks like the sea.

Categories: Daily Life in Tokyo • Tags: diamond fuji, japan, mount fuji, photography, sunset, tokyo, travel

Yes, I’m definitely back in Tokyo

January 13, 2014 by joostay

I got back from Indonesia a few weeks ago, but despite my feet being firmly in Japan, my mind is still wandering around somewhere in SE Asia. I went out for a walk with my camera today to remind myself where I live. Yes, I’m definitely back in Tokyo.

Categories: Daily Life in Tokyo • Tags: art, coming of age day, culture, inaka, japan, koto ward, moma, museum of modern art, tokujin yoshioka, tokyo, tokyo metro