Category Archives: Daily Life in Tokyo

Merry Christmas & Sumatra Ikimasho!

December 19, 2013 by joostay

Cliched as it is to say, it’s hard to believe that 2013 is nearly through. This time last year I was getting ready to visit my friends Allan and Fanfan in Bangkok, before hopping over the border to Myanmar. In January I went back to Taiwan to visit Jiufen, the real-life inspiration for Spirited Away, while in summer I spent a few weeks in Bali via Kuala Lumpur and Jakarta. Tomorrow I fly to Sumatra for my last trip of […]

Categories: Daily Life in Tokyo, Travel: Outside Japan • Tags: asia, blog, indonesia, japan, sinabung, south east asia, sumatra, tokyo, travel, trekking, volcano

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The fly with no wings

December 14, 2013 by joostay

Once upon a time there was a fly with no wings. Well, I say ‘once upon a time’ but this actually happened yesterday evening at around 6pm outside my house in Tokyo. My rubbish needs emptied twice a week, and unlike in the UK there are no trash cans in Japan. You simply leave your bags of rubbish at the end of the street for the binmen to collect. (There’s a big green net to put over it all to […]

Categories: Daily Life in Tokyo • Tags: asia, buddhism, japan, short story, tokyo, travel, Zen

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Up in the Clouds: Hiking in Kanagawa

December 10, 2013 by joostay

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Categories: Daily Life in Tokyo • Tags: hiking, hiking in japan, japan, kanagawa, mount fuji, mount oyama, nature, serene, tokyo, woodblock

I am a cloud

December 8, 2013 by joostay

I am a cloud. I grew up in the ocean, surrounded by the gentle creatures of the Pacific – yet while I enjoyed my time swimming with the starfish in Tokyo Bay, I always knew I was destined for something more. Sure enough, that time came and one day I was chosen to leave: to rise above the water and join the skyline. Not many have such an opportunity: to experience life in the depths of the ocean and high […]

Categories: Daily Life in Tokyo • Tags: asia, blog, buddha, buddhism, cloud, ikimasho, japan, story, tokyo, Zen

Becoming Transparent: Autumn in Tokyo

November 25, 2013 by joostay

Like the little stream Making its way Through the mossy crevices I, too, quietly Turn clear and transparent. – Ryōkan Colorful leaves (koyo) are to the Japanese autumn what cherry blossoms are to spring. This is a time to seek out silent gardens: to sit motionless among the lonely reds and yellows of nature.

Categories: Daily Life in Tokyo • Tags: asia, autumn, fall, japan, leaves, poetry, ryokan, tokyo, travel, Zen

100 yen

November 12, 2013 by joostay

It must be November as the vending machines have started to serve hot drinks again. I put my hand in my pocket and pull out a solitary 100 yen coin. It’s scuffed and has been well used; a small piece of metallic history on a neverending journey. Where has it been? What has it seen, this little coin? I turn it over in my hands, wondering if it is happy. This coin has seen many things, stolen moments lost in […]

Categories: Daily Life in Tokyo • Tags: 100 yen, coffee, creative writing, drinks, japan, tokyo, travel, vending machines, winter

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On Travel

November 7, 2013 by joostay

Tsugi wa doko. Where to next? It’s a question that’s always on my mind. I can’t get rid of it, and come to think of it, it’s always been there. While other kids were sticking posters of tits and footballers to their bedroom walls, I was down the local library photocopying pages from an atlas to stick to mine. Granted, I had tits and footballers too, but I also had a rather odd life-sized poster of a famous Swiss skiier […]

Categories: Daily Life in Tokyo, Travel: Outside Japan • Tags: atlas, japan, map, tokyo, travel, world

Deconstructing Tsukemen

October 28, 2013 by joostay

Noodles and soup. Simple. A closer look at ramen’s lesser-known cousin. I’ve been eating a lot of tsukemen lately. Too much probably, but I love it. Basically tsukemen is like deconstructed ramen: cold noodles which you dip into steaming hot soup. The thing I like about tsukemen is its simplicity – there’s no place to hide as a chef. There are just two main components, noodles and soup, so chefs are faced with the difficult challenge of making it as delicious […]

Categories: Daily Life in Tokyo • Tags: asia, china, cooking, eating, food, japan, noodles, ramen, restaurant, shop, south east asia, tokyo, travel, tsukemen

Watching over you

October 26, 2013 by joostay

This is my hairdressing salon. It used to be anyway – it hasn’t been open in over a year as I haven’t been well. Every week I tell myself that next week will be the one when I’m well enough to work, but that day hasn’t come just yet. I pray it will though. I knew all my customers by name. They were my friends and I don’t see them any more. We used to talk for hours. I remember […]

Categories: Daily Life in Tokyo • Tags: asia, hairdresser, hairdressing, japan, salon, tokyo, travel

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Spider Hunting in Hadano

October 15, 2013 by joostay

Mount Kobo is a nice way to spend an afternoon. Just watch you don’t bump into the locals… I’ve always been fascinated with insects. As a kid I would spend hours in the garden overturning rocks, wondering which weird and wonderful creatures I would find next. At a young age spiders did scare me to an extent, but not to the point that they would keep me at bay. I’d find a web, throw a leaf onto it and then […]

Categories: Daily Life in Tokyo, Travel: Inside Japan • Tags: asia, hadano, hiking, hummingbird hawk moth, japan, kogane gumo, kumo, mount kobo, nature, odakyu, spiders, tokyo, train, trekking

Sunset over Zojoji

October 1, 2013 by joostay

No one travels Along this way but I, This autumn evening.

Categories: Daily Life in Tokyo • Tags: asia, haiku, japan, shrine, temple, tokyo, tokyo tower, zojoji

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The Curator

September 24, 2013 by joostay

At midnight Tokyo can feel like a dream. A silent suburbia awaiting the onset of sleep. Vending machines hum and glow, pulsating, while cats peer down from above. Mass tangles of electrical cables silhouette against the moon. By 1am most of the shutters in my neighbourhood have closed. Yet one store is always open. It sells toys. Old toys. Spin tops and paddle balls, wind-up cars and forgotten plastic treasures. Inside, the Curator sits content: a pupa encased in a […]

Categories: Daily Life in Tokyo • Tags: dream, japan, shimokitazawa, sleep, tokyo

Neon Memories

September 14, 2013 by joostay

“I wonder if neon has memories,” she says as she jumps off the 35th floor of the Marunouchi Building. Falling through the night we close our eyes, the only sound the low drone of an eight-lane freeway about a mile away. “I never see any stars in Tokyo,” she questions. “Does that mean they don’t exist?” “Maybe,” I reply, absorbed by the reflection of the city in her eyes. Below us salarymen dot the warm pavement, a collection of uniformed […]

Categories: Daily Life in Tokyo

Takuhiro’s shoes

July 22, 2013 by joostay

Me? You want to know about me? I dunno. What do you want me to tell you? Well, I’m Takuhiro. I’m from Kajicho. It’s in Kanda. Do you know Kanda? They have a famous festival there every year. It’s very traditional. But I guess my area is all office blocks now. There isn’t much to see. I’ve lived in the same house all my life. I’m nearly 50 now. Can you believe that!? My wife and I live with with […]

Categories: Daily Life in Tokyo • Tags: asia, dancers, harajuku, japan, lebels, music, park, rockabilly, strangers, sunday, tokyo, travel, yoyogi, yoyogi park

Todoroki: the lost art of keeping a secret

June 30, 2013 by joostay

Brush past spider webs and dusty shrines and immerse yourself in Tokyo’s best kept secret. As I stand motionless in a trance watching a spider hypnotically spin its web I’m hit by an odd sensation. Absolute nothingness. I can’t hear Tokyo. I close my eyes and instead feel the sound of water splashing against rocks and nature breathing peacefully. Not to sound like a hippy, but Todoroki truly is a special place. It’s the only natural gorge left in Tokyo, […]

Categories: Daily Life in Tokyo • Tags: commute, gorge, hiking, japan, metro, nature, shrine, station, subway, temple, todoroki, tokyo, train, travel, valley, Zen

Raindrops

June 13, 2013 by joostay

Because the mind is free – Listening to the rain Dripping from the eaves, The drops become One with me.

Categories: Daily Life in Tokyo • Tags: art, asia, beauty, culture, dark, drawing, guidebook, japan, rain, sun, tokyo, train, travel, weather

Beauty in grimness

June 3, 2013 by joostay

Nature entangled in concrete. Opaque skies. Silence. Every Thursday I make the trip to Saitama to hang out with the crows and the lonely vending machine who hasn’t been touched in years. He’s OK though. Content in stillness. The clouds above are grey, the roads below the same. A rusty beer tin hides in the verge, watching the people who pass him by day, after day, after day. No one notices him. The train station is unmanned, the bus stop […]

Categories: Daily Life in Tokyo • Tags: asia, brian eno, crows, dull, grim, happy, inaka, japan, music, saitama, tokyo

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The Missing Wallet

May 19, 2013 by joostay

Be a nice guy and you’ll be rewarded with cash and ice cream… So the other day I found a wallet on the train with ¥50,000 in it. That’s £320 or $500. Along with the cash, there were about ten different bank cards, a million loyalty cards and the guy’s full medical history. There was also one of his own business cards – so being the nice guy that I am, I called him up to arrange to give the […]

Categories: Daily Life in Tokyo • Tags: asia, chiyoda, gaijin, japan, nice guy, reward, sun, tokyo, urban

Peace & solitude at Mt Oyama

May 5, 2013 by joostay

Why Mt Oyama earns its place on the list of ‘Kanagawa’s 50 Most Scenic Sites’ One of the best things about living in Tokyo is the ease of which you can escape it. Travel an hour in any direction and you’ll either end up on the beach or on top of a mountain. Izu and Hakone are both great day escapes – as is Takao, just an hour away from central Tokyo on the Keio line. The problem with Takao, however, is its popularity. 3 […]

Categories: Daily Life in Tokyo, Travel: Inside Japan • Tags: asia, cable car, food, hiking, isehara, japan, nature, odakyu, oyama, south east asia, train, travel, udon, walking

Shimokitazawa: End of the Line

March 25, 2013 by joostay

On 23 March 2013, the level crossings at Shimokitazawa in Tokyo lifted for the very last time. It was a sad day for anyone who has ever lived in the area. The Odakyu train line has now gone deep underground, and with it has brought a huge, brand new station that is both sterile and soulless in equal measures. It is not what Shimokitazawa is about, but I guess this is what you call ‘progress’ in the modern age. I […]

Categories: Daily Life in Tokyo • Tags: alleyways, art, culture, graffiti, japan, keio, odakyu, otaku, shimokitazawa, street, tokyo, train, urban

Yoshino Baigo: Plum Village

March 14, 2013 by joostay

Takoyaki, trees and silence: a plum pilgrimage to the hills of western Tokyo. Nobuo Umeatsu is a genius. Composer of the Final Fantasy soundtracks, he somehow manages to create atmospheric pieces of music that lie dormant in your brain only to burst to life once again at the most random moments. The reason I mention him is because the other day I visited a place called Plum Village. Nestled somewhere between the Tama River and the Yoshino mountains in the […]

Categories: Daily Life in Tokyo, Travel: Inside Japan • Tags: culture, guidebook, hinatawada, inaka, japan, mountains, ome, plum, tokyo, ume, yoshino baigo

Setusbun: my bean-throwing pilgrimage to Sensoji

February 9, 2013 by joostay

Evil spirits, a man with a cat on his shoulder and people throwing beans at each other. It can only be Setsubun ??? Japan’s own unique way of saying hello to spring. When I was nine years old I threw a plate of baked beans over some kid in my class …

Categories: Daily Life in Tokyo • Tags: asakusa, culture, festival, japan, matsuri, setsubun, tokyo

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