The street I live in in Tokyo
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
Tag: blog
Escape to Izu: Jogasaki Coast
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
IKIMASHO! x ACCLAIM
by joostay
My Disposable Japan series is featured in ACCLAIM this month. Check it out here.
Categories: Art, Music & Culture • Tags: 35mm, blog, disposable, film, hiroshima, ikimasho, japan, japanese, photography, tokyo, travel
Laundry & Lunch: Suburban local life in Tokyo, Japan.
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 #2
by joostay
Random images from Japan taken with a disposable camera 2003/04 [click to scroll] DISPOSABLE JAPAN #1
Categories: Art, Music & Culture • Tags: art, asia, blog, culture, design, ikimasho, japan, japanese, photography, se asia, south east asia, tokyo, travel, urban
IKIMASHO Luxury Stays: Ascott Waterplace, Surabaya, Indonesia.
by joostay
A room with a view… Taking time to unwind after climbing Kawah Ijen volcano.
Categories: Luxury Travel, Travel: Outside Japan • Tags: ascott waterplace, asia, blog, boutique, five star, hotel, indonesia, japan, java, luxury, photography, review, surabaya, tokyo, travel, urban
INSECTS OF ISAAN
by joostay
For the past week I have been living in the small village of Broken Road in Nang Rong, Isaan. Isaan is Thailand’s largest region bordered by the Mekong River to the north and east (along the border with Laos), and by Cambodia to the southeast. (Roughly speaking, the larger red circle on the map above represents the whole of Isaan, while the smaller solid circle is where I have been staying.) I’m visiting my friends Allan & Fanfan for the second […]
Categories: Travel: Outside Japan • Tags: animals, ants, asia, bangkok, blog, butterflies, caterpillers, countryside, creatures, fauna, flora, ikimasho, insects, japan, japanese, moths, nature, photography, se asia, spiders, thailand, tokyo, travel
IKIMASHO Luxury Stays: Landesi by Jetwing, Galle, Sri Lanka
by joostay
Exploring Galle with classic colonial style, cricket and Jungle music. Apart from a quick stopover in Negombo in order to make an early-morning flight, the historic fort city of Galle was my last stop on my three-week Sri Lankan itinerary. The trip from Mirissa was painless, my local bus taking under an hour as it belted along the palm-fringed coast. After having already stayed in three impressive Jetwing properties, this was to be my fourth, and once again it didn’t […]
Categories: Luxury Travel, Travel: Outside Japan • Tags: architecture, asia, blog, CREATIVE, design, drum and bass, galle, hotel, ikimasho, interior design, japan, mirissa, photography, review, se asia, sri lanka, tokyo, travel, video
My crappy Sri Lankan gym
by joostay
A Careless Whisper – and a lesson on the importance of chocolate.
Categories: Travel: Outside Japan • Tags: asia, blog, bodybuilding, city, fitness, gym, ikimasho, japan, kandy, keep fit, sri lanka, sri lankan, tokyo, travel
IKIMASHO Luxury Stays: Jetwing Sea & Jetwing Beach, Negombo, Sri Lanka
by joostay
Sea. Check. Beach. Check. Boutique bliss at two of Negombo’s finest hotels. There’s never really been an easy way to get to Asia from Belfast in Northern Ireland. Skyscanner lured me in with a very good price to Sri Lanka (£270) but it was quite the hellride: a two-hour bus journey to Dublin; a three-hour wait; an hour-long flight to Heathrow (+ pick up my bag and re-checkin); another four-hour wait; then a turbulence-belting eleven-hour flight to Colombo. It was […]
Categories: Luxury Travel, Travel: Outside Japan • Tags: asia, blog, boutique, food, ikimasho, japan, jetwing beach, jetwing hotels, jetwing sea, luxury, negombo, se asia, sri lanka, tokyo, travel
When only the streets remain. Bangor, Northern Ireland.
by joostay
A puzzling postcard – and how the ghosts of generations walk the streets of my home town. From a travel point of view this year has been pretty varied. I spent the first three months of the year finishing up a contract in Japan, then went to visit my friend near the Cambodian border in Isaan, Thailand. From there I flew to Nepal and was caught up in the earthquake in Kathmandu and subsequently evacuated back to the UK. In […]
Categories: Travel: Outside Japan • Tags: 1900s, bangor, blog, county down, ghosts, history, ikimasho, japan, northern ireland, nostalgia, old, photography, photos, pictures, postcards, puzzle, tokyo, war, world war 1, world war 2
IKIMASHO! x WANDERLUST [The World’s Lamest Gyms]
by joostay
“I asked how much the gym was and he told me he didn’t know. He said he just bought the owner petrol now and again. I told him I didn’t have any petrol so he said for me to just go in and use it for as long as I wanted. So in I went.” I’m in Wanderlust Magazine this month talking about some of the funniest gyms I’ve come across on my travels. Check it out here.
Categories: Travel: Outside Japan • Tags: bali, bangkok, blog, fitness, gyms, ikimasho, indonesia, japan, marrakech, morocco, thailand, tokyo, travel, working out
From Bangor to the world: The Hereford Mappa Mundi.
by joostay
How my small home town was once regarded as one of the most important places in the world. Having an interest in travel means I also have an interest in maps: the ongoing progression and evolution of how our planet is perceived. It’s amazing to think that at one time people’s knowledge of the earth was not so different than our own perception of space today: not exactly knowing what was out there. This curiosity drove explorers to go beyond […]
Categories: Travel: Outside Japan • Tags: bangor, belfast, blog, church, county down, hereford, history, ikimasho, japan, map, mappa mundi, medieval, normans, northern ireland, tokyo, travel, uk, united kingdom
The sleepy little town of Phetchaburi, Thailand.
by joostay
Monks, monkeys and mentalists… why these underdog towns will always reign supreme. As many people would attest, so often when you travel it’s the seemingly crappy little towns that leave the biggest impression: the nondescript two-bit places with no visitors, quietly going about their business, content not to make a fuss. Back in April I spent some time in Phetchaburi in Thailand – an unassuming agricultural town of just 25,000 about 160km south of Bangkok. Any visitors that do come […]
Categories: Travel: Outside Japan • Tags: asia, backpacking, blog, blogging, hot, ikimasho, monkeys, Phetchaburi, rural, se asia, south east asia, sunny, thailand, town, travel, urban, weather
Reflections: Living through the Nepal earthquake / Part 3, Camp Hope.
by joostay
Please contribute to Camp Hope & help those affected by disaster rebuild their lives. It’s been two months since the 7.8 magnitude earthquake left a profound trail of destruction in the villages surrounding Kathmandu, Kavre District and Sindulpalchowk – along with many other areas of central and western Nepal. To date, more than 8,000 lives have been lost with countless homes and villages destroyed. Small (unreported) aftershocks continue to hit the country, and so those who survived the disaster unfortunately still have to live in fear. […]
Categories: Travel: Outside Japan • Tags: 25 april, aid, art, blog, charity, development, earthquake, fundraising, hotel, ikimasho, japan, kathmandu, nepal, schools, travel
Welcome to my crappy Thai gym
by joostay
Stumbling across a cheap outdoor public gym in the centre of Bangkok. Simple post this one that will hopefully will be of some use to anyone looking for a dirt cheap place to work out in the centre of Bangkok. Gyms are often expensive in the city so if you don’t mind sweating outside with the locals, head to Lumphini Park not far from Silom BTS station. Once you go through the main gates veer to the left and you’ll […]
Categories: Travel: Outside Japan • Tags: asia, blog, cheap, fitness, free, gym, ikimasho!japan, japanese, lumphini park, lumpini park, thailand, weights, working out
IKIMASHO Luxury Stays: Riad Star, Marrakech, Morocco)
by joostay
For the past two nights I’ve been staying in the Riad Star – the former home of 1930s vaudeville star Josephine Baker in Marrakech. Baker dropped out of school at the age of 13 and lived as a street child in the slums of St. Louis, sleeping in cardboard shelters and scavenging for food in garbage cans. By 1934 she was the first black woman to star in a major motion picture and the most famous woman in the world. […]
Categories: Luxury Travel, Travel: Outside Japan • Tags: africa, best riad in marrakech, blog, hotel, ikimasho, japan, japanese, josephine baker, marrakech, medina, morocco, photography, tokyo
The Sound of Marrakech, Morocco.
by joostay
I’ve always been interested in field recording – that is, the recording of everyday sounds in their natural surroundings. My best friend dabbles in it, and there is a fantastic Japanese sound blog called World Listener which I have just started following. I don’t own a high quality mic myself, but while shooting some simple video the other day in Marrakech I realised just how much sound was all around me. Marrakech is an intense place: especially in terms of sound and smell. There’s no […]
Categories: Travel: Outside Japan • Tags: africa, ambient, blog, electroacoustic, field recording, ikimasho, japan, marrakech, marrkesh, mics, morocco, noise, recording, sound, street, urban
Medan: Entry point to North Sumatra
by joostay
Nice for a visit, kind of. Would I want to live here? Hell no. Quite often when I travel to new cities I judge them by whether or not I could live there. Kuala Lumpur has a great food scene with unrivalled access to the rest of SE Asia. Bangkok is crazy busy, but in a nice way. Even Denpasar in Bali, which is certainly more grubby than the other two cities, has a certain charm hiding behind its chaotic […]
Categories: Travel: Outside Japan • Tags: asia, backpacking, blog, city, ikimasho, indonesia, japan, japanese, medan, se asia, sumatra, tokyo, travelling, urban
Skydiving over Lake Taupo, New Zealand.
by joostay
Hanging out at the wrong end of 12,000ft. These days, throwing yourself out of a plane just for the sheer hell of it is not uncommon – especially in New Zealand, a country famous for its adventure sports. I’ve only ever skydived once, and that was a tandem jump in 2007, flying over Lake Taupo on the North Island. Jumping solo takes a lot of training, expense, and well for lack of a better word, balls. So while I didn’t get […]
Categories: Travel: Outside Japan • Tags: adventure sports, backpacking, blog, ikimasho, japan, japanese, lake taupo, new zealand, skydive, skydiving, tokyo, travel
Songkran Festival in Isaan, rural Thailand.
by joostay
Discovering the true meaning of Thailand’s most important festival For the last few weeks I’ve been staying in a small village called Broken Road in Isaan, northeast Thailand. My stay coincides with Songkran – the Thai New Year celebrations from 13-15 April – during which people throw water over each other as a a symbol of their sins being washed away. Unfortunately, in the larger cities these celebrations have become rather hedonistic: an excuse for people to get wasted and […]
Categories: Travel: Outside Japan • Tags: asia, backpacking, blog, buddhism, buddhist, ikimasho, isaan, japan, monks, photography, rural, se asia, songkran, thailand, tokyo, travel
IN PICTURES: HUA HIN, THAILAND
by joostay
Hua Hin: A nice beach, good food and less sleazy than other Thai beach towns. That’s the reason I chose Hua Hin to spend the first few days of my trip. I’ll not try and make it out to be some sort of mystical and untouched travel paradise: it’s not. There are many tourists there, as well as many upscale resorts. But if you are looking for a place to swim, relax and get a bit of Thai culture, it’s a perfect getaway […]
Categories: Travel: Outside Japan • Tags: asia, backpacking, bangkok, beach, blog, cha-am, food, hua hin, ikimasho, japan, motorbike, mountain, se asia, thailand, tokyo
Monkeys in the Sea. Radars in the Sky.
by joostay
Exploring Khao Takiab “Monkey” Mountain, Hua Hin, Thailand. One week after quitting my job in Tokyo I flew one-way to Bangkok to hang out in Thailand, Nepal and some other countries for a while. I was excited about the trip, but with so much to sort out – and the inevitable goodbyes – I was apprehensive too. It wasn’t until I actually landed here that I knew I’d absolutely made the right decision. That moment came when I was walking […]
Categories: Travel: Outside Japan • Tags: asia, backpacking, blog, culture, how to get to Khao Takiab, hua hin, ikimasho!japanese, japan, Khao Takiab, monkey mountain, thai, thailand, things to do
Hellrides: Tokyo to Hua Hin, Thailand.
by joostay
I’m sure there are easier ways to relive your youth than this. Back when I was younger I was in a punk band. We toured a fair bit, our drummer relentless in his thirst for a gig – any gig – and so we drove thousands of miles in a green VW Estate plastered with an assortment of stickers of bands you have probably never heard of. The tours were planned well in advance, so if we were offered a gig […]
Categories: Travel: Outside Japan • Tags: backpacking, bangkok, blog, hellride, how to get from don muang airport to hua hin, hua hin, ikimasho, japanese, punk, punk rock, thailand, the dangerfields, travel, van
Spring Fuji
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.
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
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 Labour of Love” / The Tokyo Rail Network
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
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
Shun Owada / “dissolution”
by joostay
I should explain what is happening in the picture above. This is “dissolution” – an impressive sound installation by Shun Owada at the Tokyo Experimental Festival 2015. Chunks of limestone filled with extinct fossils from 270 million years ago are slowly dissolved by weak acid dripping from intravenous bags hanging from the ceiling. When the surface of the stone dissolves, it generates CO2 – releasing gas from the fossils which lived when reptiles first roamed the earth. The room is completely […]
Categories: Art, Music & Culture • Tags: acid, art, blog, dissolution, dissolve, ikimasho, installation, japan, japanese, performance, raindrops, shun owada, sound, tokyo, tokyo experimental festival
I ♥ THE YURIKAMOME LINE, TOKYO
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
Ami Yamasaki / “till a quiet room sings”
by joostay
“Every space has its own sound, according to its shape and material, and it has already been singing long before you entered it.” A few weeks back I attended the Tokyo Experimental Festival where I saw a performance by vocalist and cross-media artist, Ami Yamasaki. The space was limited to 20 people, the walls covered with thousands of origami feathers to catch and diversify the sounds of the room. Of course, a quiet space is never truly quiet, and so […]
Categories: Art, Music & Culture • Tags: Ami Yamasaki, art, blog, culture, ikimasho, installation, japan, Ochanomizu, performance, surreal, TEF, till a quiet room sings, tokyo, tokyo experimental festival 2015, Tokyo Wonder Site, voice, weird
Daikoku Matsuri: Tokyo’s Answer to the Ice Bucket Challenge
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
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
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
Christmas throwback + Ikimasho! 2015
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
Homestays. The best way to immerse yourself when travelling.
by joostay
Biking it into the hills and staying with a local family in Cemoro Lawang, Java. Cemoro Lawang is a tiny mountain hamlet in East Java. With a negligible local population it would remain largely unnoticed if it weren’t for its giant neighbour, Mount Bromo, standing watch over the village and attracting visitors from all over the world. Despite Bromo’s fame, the village of Cemoro Lawang has managed to remain a quiet, peaceful place: one where locals go about their daily lives […]
Categories: Travel: Outside Japan • Tags: accommodation, backpacking, blog, cemoro lawang, East Java, hindu, homestay, ikimasho, indonesia, japan, java, Mount Bromo, Probolinggo, tokyo, travel, volcano
Sulfur & Sacrifice: Yadnya Kasada Festival, Indonesia
by joostay
Mount Bromo shows its darker side at this haunting Hindu festival. This is Mount Bromo, an active volcano in East Java, Indonesia. I took this photo while flying over the area from Denpasar to Surabaya in a small aircraft. Five days earlier, I had been standing on top of the volcano at midnight, about to take part in Yadnya Kasada – a haunting Hindu ceremony unlike anything I’d ever seen before. What is Yadnya Kasada? Yadnya Kasada is the biggest […]
Categories: Travel: Outside Japan • Tags: asia, backpacking, Batok, blog, Bromo, cemoro lawang, climbing, crater, East Java, hiking, ikimasho, independent, indonesia, japan, Mount Bromo, Probolinggo, Semeru, summit, Tengger Semeru National Park, Tenggerese, tokyo, tour, travel, trekking, volcano
IKIMASHO! x ACROPLANE RECORDINGS
by joostay
From Northern Ireland to Nippon with one of the world’s leading netlabels From its humble beginnings in a room in Belfast, Northern Ireland, Acroplane Recordings – headed up by Paul Moore – has matured to become of the world’s leading netlabels. Boxcutter (Planet Mu) and Space Dimension Controller (R&S) put out their first releases on Acroplane, and over the years Paul has played alongside artists as diverse as Autechre, Scorn, Luke Vibert, Remarc and Surgeon to name but a few. Acroplane […]
Categories: Art, Music & Culture • Tags: acid, acroplane recordings, ambient, art, beats, blog, culture, design, electronic music, electronica, Himuro Yoshiteru, idm, japan, japanese, music, netlabel, street, techno, tokyo, urban
The Sound of the Japanese Autumn
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
Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space
by joostay
“Our battered suitcases were piled on the sidewalk again; we had longer ways to go. But no matter, the road is life.” – Jack Kerouac You know what? Planet earth is an amazing, beautiful place. And we live here. Of all the places in all of the infinite universe, we have somehow managed to end up right here, right now, alive at this exact moment in time. We are floating in space surrounded by forests, mountains, cities, rivers, seas, avenues, […]
Categories: Travel: Outside Japan • Tags: australia, backpacking, blog, boat tour, buddhism, cambodia, canada, chinese new year, hong kong, ikimasho, inonesia, japan, japanese, laos, maid of the mist, malaysia, mekong, milford sound, national park, new zealand, niagara, riot police, road trip, round the world, sandboarding, singapore, stockton, sumatra, sumo, Taiwan, tokyo, tortoise tours, travelling, usa, vietnam, volcano, world trip, yosemite
geometry / 幾何学
by joostay
Categories: Daily Life in Tokyo • Tags: angles, art, blog, geometry, gym, japan, japanese, outdoors, photography, tokyo, working out
Kagurazaka Bakeneko Parade (Ghost Cat Parade)
by joostay
Nya-nya-ing our way through the cat-strewn streets of Tokyo Working in a Japanese kindergarten not only affords me the luxury of coming into close contact with every single germ known to man, it also provides me with an abundance of information that is essentially useless to anyone over the age of six. For example, did you know that in Japan dogs don’t go woof-woof, they go wan-wan; frogs don’t ribbit, they go kero-kero; cats don’t meow, they go nya-nya. Now I say this information is useless but actually it came in quite handy […]
Categories: Traditional Festivals • Tags: asia, bizarre, blog, cat, cats, festival, ikimasho, japan, japanese, matsuri, neko, parade, se asia, surreal, tokyo
The Grandfather Clock
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
Sticking up for Berastagi, Sumatra.
by joostay
A quiet town with not much going on. But that’s exactly why you should go. The picture above is one of my favourite photos, taken down a quiet street in the town of Berastagi in north Sumatra. There’s nothing spectacular about its content, but I remember the moment very clearly – a group of kids playing just down the road from the house I was staying in. Berastagi is visited by many travellers who use it as a base to […]
Categories: Travel: Outside Japan • Tags: asia, backpacking, berastagi, blog, budget, carts, climbing sibayak, homestay, horses, ikimasho, indonesia, japan, japanese, roadtrip, se asia, sibayak, sinabung, street food, sumatra, tokyo, travelling
Android: What is Human? Innovations in Humanoid Robotics.
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
A DATE WITH SKYWHALE
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
DIY: Travelling from Yogyakarta to Mount Bromo Independently
by joostay
How to get to Mount Bromo from Yogyakarta without joining a tour. Java, Indonesia. In my late teens I toured a lot in a punk band, doing gigs all over Ireland and the UK. It was very much a DIY ethos with Griswold, our drummer, booking any shows he could get his grubby little mits on – no matter how far the distance or how long we’d have to drive to get there. These wretched all-night jaunts soon became known as ‘Hellrides’, with […]
Categories: Travel: Outside Japan • Tags: blog, Bromo, cemoro lawang, DIY, ikimasho, indonesia, japan, japanese, java, Mount Bromo, tokyo, train travel in indonesia, travel, yogyakarta, yogyakarta to bromo
Dancing in the Streets: Koenji Awa Odori, Tokyo
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
Illegal Street Racing & Raving in Surabaya, Indonesia
by joostay
Saturday nights are fun in the port capital of Java I don’t think I’ve ever been stared at as much as when I unwittingly walked into a fenced-off compound on the outskirts of Surabaya, a port city in Eastern Java one Saturday night. Having only just arrived at 9pm – and having to leave again the next morning at 6am – I only had a few hours to meander about and see what Surabaya kids get up to on the […]
Categories: Travel: Outside Japan • Tags: asia, backpacking, biking, blog, cliff jumping bali, drum and bass, hip hop, ikimasho, indonesia, japan, java, motorbikes, party, racing, rave, street culture, surabaya, tokyo, travel, travelling, tricks
JUGHEAD IN JAPAN: AN INTERVIEW WITH JOHN PIERSON
by joostay
The co-founder of Screeching Weasel and Even in Blackouts chats to Ikimasho! about Japan, music… and popcorn. John ‘Jughead’ Pierson is a busy man. Not content with forming one of the most influential pop-punk bands of all time – Screeching Weasel – he is also a playright, novelist and actor. Now, he has went one step further – moving from Chicago to Osaka to work for Universal Studios Japan. I asked Jughead how he was settling in, picking his brain […]
Categories: Art, Music & Culture • Tags: blog, even in blackouts, ikimasho, japan, japanese, john pierson, osaka, pop punk, punk, screeching weasel, tokyo, universal studios
I can see my house
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
by joostay
Categories: Daily Life in Tokyo • Tags: art, blog, ikimasho, japan, photography, space, tokyo, urban
Tsuyoshi Hisakado / Quantize
by joostay
“The flowing river never stops and yet the water never stays the same.” – Kamo no Chomei (12th Century Buddhist Poet) Born in Kyoto in 1981, Tsuyoshi Hisakado completed an M.F.A. at the Department of Sculpture of Kyoto University of Arts in 2007. He formed the artist group SHINCHICA in 2002 while he was in university, taking charge of sound and installation. From this background, the two elements ‘sound’ and ‘sculpture’ are the main features in Hisakado’s art creation. I was recently invited […]
Categories: Art, Music & Culture • Tags: art, blog, culture, ikimasho, japan, ota fine arts, quantize, sonic, sound, sound installation, tokyo, Tsuyoshi Hisakado, wako fine arts
Becoming a kindergarten teacher in Japan
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
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
Institute for Nature Study, Tokyo
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
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
IKIMASHO! 