Tag: hotel
IKIMASHO Luxury Stays: mesm Tokyo, Autograph Collection
by joostay
Daily life in Tokyo, Japan | IKIMASHO
Categories: Luxury Travel • Tags: asia, design, hotel, japan, japanese, luxury, photography, tokyo, travel
Fine Dining in Tokyo: Nadaman at Shangri-La
by joostay
Daily life in Tokyo, Japan | IKIMASHO!
Categories: Luxury Travel • Tags: asia, design, five star, food, hotel, interior design, japan, japanese, luxury, Luxury Travel, photography, Shangri-La, travel, Travel blogger, travel writer, travel writing
Fine Dining in Tokyo: The Steakhouse, ANA InterContinental Tokyo
by joostay
Daily life in Tokyo, Japan | IKIMASHO!
Categories: Daily Life in Tokyo, Luxury Travel • Tags: asia, design, fine dining, five star, hotel, japan, japanese, Luxury Travel, photography, tokyo, Travel blogger, travel writer
Fine Dining in Tokyo: The Strings by InterContinental Tokyo
by joostay
IKIMASHO! | Daily life in Tokyo, Japan
Categories: Daily Life in Tokyo, Luxury Travel • Tags: architecture, asia, design, five star, food, food photography, Food Writing, hotel, Hotel Review, interior design, japan, japanese, luxury, photography, se asia, tokyo, travel
IKIMASHO Luxury Stays: Le Méridien Saigon, Vietnam
by joostay
Modern escapism in the heart of Ho Chi Minh City
Categories: Luxury Travel, Travel: Outside Japan • Tags: aesthetic, design, five star, food, Ho Chi MInh, hotel, japan, luxury, photography, Saigon, tokyo, travel writer
IKIMASHO Luxury Stays: Agora Fukuoka Hilltop Hotel & Spa, Fukuoka, Japan
by joostay
A peaceful retreat in one of Japan’s most vibrant, cosmopolitan cities
Categories: Luxury Travel, Travel: Inside Japan • Tags: Agora Hotsel & Spa, architecture, asia, design, food, food photography, fukuoka, hotel, interior design, japan, photography, resort, travel, travel writer
IKIMASHO Luxury Stays: The Grandis Hotel, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah.
by joostay
Touching down in the bustling state capital of Kota Kinabalu On my most recent trip to SE Asia I visited three countries: Taiwan, Brunei and Malaysia – specifically the Malaysian state of Sabah in Borneo. I had visited Sabah’s major hub Kota Kinabalu before, but that was seven years ago and so I was interested to see if the city had changed in any way. Fortunately, Kota Kinabalu has retained its character and has not changed dramatically simply in order […]
Categories: Luxury Travel, Travel: Outside Japan • Tags: asia, borneo, food, hotel, ikimasho, japan, japanese, kota kinabalu, photography, se asia, tokyo, travel
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
IKIMASHO Luxury Stays: Villa Sabandari, Ubud, Bali
by joostay
Two days of blissfully doing nothing in Bali’s cultural capital
Categories: Luxury Travel, Travel: Outside Japan • Tags: asia, bali, boutique, CREATIVE, design, holiday, hotel, ikimasho, inaka, indonesia, interior design, japan, luxury, nature, photography, review, rice fields, se asia, tokyo, travel, ubud, video, wildlife
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
IKIMASHO Luxury Stays: Villa Atulya at Ocean’s Edge, Mirissa, Sri Lanka
by joostay
Sun. Sea. Sand. And a jaw-dropping villa to take it all in. With just one week left of my three-week Sri Lankan adventure, I decided to leave Central Province and head for the south. On this trip there were so many places I didn’t get a chance to see; there just wasn’t enough time. In the end though, I’m glad I took things slow as it meant I got a better appreciation of local life and Sri Lankan hospitality. I didn’t see Ella, and I […]
Categories: Luxury Travel, Travel: Outside Japan • Tags: asia, hotel, mirissa, review, se asia, sri lanka, travel
IKIMASHO Luxury Stays: Heritance Kandalama, Dambulla, Sri Lanka
by joostay
Have you ever wanted to stay in a five-star luxury tree house? Now you can. Did anyone actually have a tree house as a kid? The older I get, the more I think they were purely between the pages of Enid Blyton novels and the intros of coming-of-age 80s movies on TV. Deep down, I think everyone secretly wishes they had one though – a place to escape, looking down at the world below. So when I saw a picture […]
Categories: Luxury Travel, Travel: Outside Japan • Tags: asia, CREATIVE, dambulla, hotel, japan, monkeys, nature, photography, review, sri lanka, tokyo, travel, wildlife, writing
IKIMASHO Luxury Stays: Jetwing Vil Uyana, Sigiriya, Sri Lanka
by joostay
Eco Retreat? Nature Reserve? Luxury Resort? Jetwing Vil Uyana is all of these, and more… Truth be told, after being caught up in the earthquake in Nepal in April I was a little apprehensive about coming back to Asia. But I’ve been drawn to the region for the past ten years, and so it was only a matter of time before I jumped on a plane back East. Coming to Sri Lanka was the best decision I ever could have […]
Categories: Luxury Travel, Travel: Outside Japan • Tags: 5 star, animals, asia, backpacking, dambulla, design, endangered, five star, hotel, lizards, luxury, photography, resort, sirigiya, snakes, sri lanka, travel, video
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
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
Reflections: Living through the Nepal earthquake / Part 2
by joostay
Evacuation: Life on the ground and taking a relief flight from Kathmandu to London. It’s been nearly a month since I was evacuated on a relief flight back to the UK by the British Foreign Office after the earthquake in Nepal. Flying home I was a little unsure whether I had made the right decision, thinking I was fine to continue on travelling. But it’s only now that I acknowledge that I was probably more stressed during that first week […]
Categories: Travel: Outside Japan • Tags: airplane, asia, backpacking, disaster, earthquake, flight, fundraising, government, help, hotel, kathmandu, london, nepal, red cross, relief, se asia, travel, uk
IKIMASHO Luxury Stays: The Dalai-La Boutique Hotel, Kathmandu, Nepal
by joostay
This review was written two days before the earthquake in Kathmandu. I have contacted the hotel and am pleased to report none of the staff were injured, nor was the hotel damaged. Quite often the worst thing about travelling is the actual travelling itself. Struck down with food poisoning in Bangkok, I had to somehow pull myself together and take two flights in one day when all I wanted to do was crawl under the covers and think of anything […]
Categories: Luxury Travel, Travel: Outside Japan • Tags: asia, boutique, hotel, kathmandu, luxury, nepal, review, thamel, travel
Visiting Denpasar: The only tourist in town
by joostay
Like it or loathe it, Bali’s bustling capital doesn’t care what you think of it. Bali’s capital, Denpasar, is untamed. There’s something about it that sets it apart from Bangkok, Ho Chi Minh, Phnom Penh et al… cities which, over the last fifteen years, have become firmly established on the tourist trail. These cities, once exotic, are now epicentres for the travel industry, with virtually all foreign visitors on the SE Asia loop passing through them. As a result, travelling […]
Categories: Travel: Outside Japan • Tags: backpacking, bali, bangkok, cambodia, denpasar, guidebook, hostel, hotel, indonesia, kites, Kuta, puputan square, sanur, satay, south east asia, street food, thailand, travel
Home is where you lay your head…
by joostay
Right now I’m looking into arranging a homestay in rural Bali. It got me thinking of some of the amazing (and not so amazing) places I’ve stayed over the years… 1. Primary Rainforest – Borneo Three hours from civilization in a 4×4 lies Borneo Rainforest Lodge, a spectacular resort buried deep in the Danum Valley Conservation Area – 438 square kilometres of relatively undisturbed lowland dipterocarp forest in Sabah, Malaysia. Indulgent luxury, each room with its own outdoor hot tub […]
Categories: Travel: Outside Japan • Tags: asia, borneo, chunking mansions, danum valley, deer farm, hong kong, hotel, japan, malaysia, milford sound, nature, new zealand, rainforest, rainforest lodge, san francisco, tenderloin, tokyo, travel
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