by joostay
A perfect base for exploring Hoi An’s Old Town – and the local villages beyond.
Categories: Luxury Travel, Travel: Outside Japan • Tags: asia, boutique, Hoi An, luxury, photography, se asia, Travel blogger, travel blogging, travel writer, travel writing, video, vietnam
by joostay
On Cloud Nine in District 1. My first ever massage experience.
Categories: Luxury Travel, Travel: Outside Japan • Tags: 5 star, asia, ho chi minh city, hyatt, ikimasho, luxury, Park Hyatt, photography, Saigon, se asia, travel, travel blogging, travel writer, vietnam, Zen
by joostay
Two days of gloriously doing nothing by the East Vietnam Sea / 南シナ海での贅沢な二日間
Categories: Luxury Travel, Travel: Outside Japan • Tags: asia, blog, blogger, blogging, Danang, luxury, Luxury Travel, photography, resort, se asia, travel blogging, travel writer, travel writing, travelling, video, vietnam
by joostay
Pure colonial elegance in bustling Ho Chi Minh City | IKIMASHO!
Categories: Luxury Travel, Travel: Outside Japan • Tags: 5 star, asia, blogging, design, food, ho chi minh city, hotels, interior design, lifestyle, luxury, photography, Saigon, se asia, space, travel, travel writer, travel writing, vietnam
by joostay
Exploring Saigon’s Doan Van Bo Alleyways – once notorious for their criminal gangs and mafia personnel.
Categories: Travel: Outside Japan • Tags: asia, design, photography, Saigon, se asia, street, travel, travel writer, travel writing, urban, vietnam, Vietnamese
by joostay
IKIMASHO! | Daily life in Tokyo, Japan
Categories: Travel: Outside Japan • Tags: asia, photography, se asia, summer, travel, vietnam
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
by joostay
“Gotokuji is an area of the city obsessed with all things feline and many believe its temple to be the birthplace of ‘maneki-neko’ – the cats you’ve seen with one paw held high” I have a new article out in DAZED, exploring the area of Gotokuji in West Tokyo. Gotokuji is a quiet collection of backstreets, bakeries, and flower shops with people going about their daily life. It’s not unlike hundreds of other small stations in Tokyo – apart from one […]
Categories: Art, Music & Culture • Tags: animals, blog, blogging, cats, design, japan, japanese, photography, photos, se asia, temple, tokyo, traditional, travel, Travel blogger, travel writer
by joostay
❤ A little photo essay of some wanderings from the last month or so here in Tokyo ❤ IKIMASHO on Facebook
Categories: Daily Life in Tokyo • Tags: asia, blog, design, japan, japanese, photography, se asia, tokyo, travel, travel writer
by joostay
Working out how to do some working out in Saigon
Categories: Travel: Outside Japan • Tags: asia, backpacking, fitness, gym, ikimasho, japan, japanese, Local Gym in Ho Chi Minh City, photography, Saigon, se asia, tokyo, travel, travel writer, urban, vietnam
by joostay
Right now I’m back in Tokyo after a week in Saigon. I didn’t visit one tourist attraction while I was there, instead choosing to spend my time as I usually do, wandering the backstreets and eating local food. I quickly found out that the most interesting daily life happens deep in the concentrated network of alleyways that exist away from the main tourist centre. By zooming in on Google Maps, you can clearly see areas in Ho Chi Minh where […]
Categories: Travel: Outside Japan • Tags: architecture, city, daily life, design, food, Ho Chi MInh, photography, Saigon, se asia, travel, travel writer, urban, vietnam
by joostay
Noodles, tea, and a song. All served by the nicest person you’ll ever meet.
Categories: Travel: Outside Japan • Tags: asia, blog, HCMC, ho chi minh city, Saigon, se asia, travel, vietnam
by joostay
A cute cafe on the top floor of an abandoned apartment building in Saigon where they serve amazing drinks from skull pint glasses.
Categories: Travel: Outside Japan • Tags: asia, Cafe culture, coffee, culture, design, food, ho chi minh city, photography, Saigon, se asia, street, travel writer, urban
by joostay
6am – 8am: SAIGON / SÀI GÒN
Categories: Travel: Outside Japan • Tags: architecture, asia, design, food, ho chi minh city, photography, Saigon, se asia, travel, Travel Photography, urban, vietnam
by joostay
Right now I’m sitting in a coffee shop at Terminal 2 in Narita Airport listening to a super cheesy sax solo playing over the radio. I have a few hours to kill before a flight to Ho Chi Minh, where I will be hanging out until Friday. Next week is Golden Week in Japan – a string of National holidays giving people five days off this year. Looking back over my blog from the last few months, I’m aware that I’m not posting as often […]
Categories: Daily Life in Tokyo • Tags: blog, japan, japanese, photography, se asia, travel, travel writer
by joostay
Quite often when you travel a lot – and particularly when you are a travel writer – so many little moments can get lost; photos relegated to the the depths of memory cards, overlooked in favour of bigger articles that are being written at the time. As a perfect example, I was freeing up some space on a card the other day when I came across a group of photos I hadn’t looked at since the day they were taken. Cycling […]
Categories: Travel: Outside Japan • Tags: asia, asian, backpacking, bali, blog, food, indonesia, japan, japanese, photography, sanur, se asia, travel, travel writer, travel writing, writing
by joostay
THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO FOLLOWED IKIMASHO! IN 2016!
Categories: Daily Life in Tokyo, Travel: Inside Japan, Travel: Outside Japan • Tags: asia, blog, festivals, ikimasho, japan, japanese, living in asia, living in japan, living in tokyo, photography, se asia, tokyo
by joostay
With textures like these, it’s hard not to fall in love with the backstreets of Japan. [Taken in Kagurazaka, Tokyo.] Like IKIMASHO! on Facebook.
Categories: Daily Life in Tokyo • Tags: asia, japan, kagurazaka, old, photo, se asia, texture, tokyo, travel
by joostay
“A six-centuries-old tradition, showing allegiance to the mountain gods, feels like a religious test of endurance, writes Justin Egli recounting what he witnessed atop the volcano.” In 2014 I climbed to the top of an active volcano in Indonesia at midnight to witness a very unique festival. It was an extremely intense experience, with pilgrims throwing live sacrifices into the heart of the caldera. I’m really happy to have my account of the experience published by New Mandala – an […]
Categories: Travel: Outside Japan • Tags: asia, festival, geography, indonesia, photography, se asia, travel, travel writer, travel writing, volcano
by joostay
A millennium-old Japanese dance on the grounds of Sensoji Temple, Tokyo.
Categories: Traditional Festivals • Tags: asakusa, asia, blog, culture, dance, dancing, design, fashion, festival, japan, japanese, matsuri, photography, se asia, sensoji, shirasagi-no mai, tokyo, traditional, travel, white heron dance
by joostay
Those of us who work in Japan are lucky enough to get one or two national holidays a month. Health and Sports Day – also simply known Sports Day – is one such day held annually on the second Monday in October. It commemorates the opening of the 1964 Summer Olympics held in Tokyo, and exists to promote sports and an active lifestyle. To coincide with the national holiday, many traditional sporting events take place throughout the city. And so a few weeks […]
Categories: Daily Life in Tokyo • Tags: archery, asia, design, fabric, fashion, japan, japanese, photography, se asia, sports, tokyo, travel
by joostay
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Categories: Daily Life in Tokyo • Tags: asia, blog, design, food, japan, japanese, kichijoji, photography, se asia, shimokitazawa, tokyo, travel, urban, west tokyo
by joostay
When the spirits of mountains and forests roam the streets of Tokyo The summer matsuri season may have died down but there are still plenty of smaller cultural festivals happening all over Tokyo each weekend for those curious enough look that little bit further. For me, visiting these festivals is an integral part of living here: for as well as helping me understand more about Japan, they also satisfy my need to ‘travel’ in that I am constantly seeing something new and fresh for […]
Categories: Traditional Festivals • Tags: akasaka, asia, blog, blogger, festival, hikawa, japan, japanese, matsuri, photography, se asia, tokyo, travel, video
by joostay
Hanging out with a crew of graffiti artists in Kota Kinabalu
Categories: Travel: Outside Japan • Tags: art, asia, asian, blog, borneo, design, ikimasho, japan, kota kinabalu, photography, sabah, se asia, STREET ART, tokyo, travel, writing
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
by joostay
The sights and sounds of the city within walking distance – or water taxi. I first visited Borneo seven years ago, spending three weeks in the Malaysian state of Sabah with my ex from Northern Ireland. On that particular trip I always remember toying with the idea of going to Brunei, but for whatever reason it just never happened. Perhaps it was because to get to Borneo we had to fly from Belfast to London to Kuala Lumpur to Kota […]
Categories: Luxury Travel, Travel: Outside Japan • Tags: asia, bandar seri begawan, borneo, brunei, ikimasho, indonesia, japan, malaysia, photography, se asia, travel, where to sat yin brunei
by joostay
With its own mosques, schools and police station it’s the largest stilt settlement in the world. Built entirely of stilt houses and wooden walkways, Kampong Ayer in Brunei is a collection of 42 villages housing more than 39,000 people. It is the world’s largest water village. I was lucky enough to visit Kamopong Ayer a few weeks back, and it was probably the highlight of my most recent trip to Borneo. From a distance, the water village looks like a slum, but many of the houses […]
Categories: Travel: Outside Japan • Tags: asia, borneo, brunei, bruneian, design, ikimasho, indonesia, malaysia, photography, se asia, travel, urban planning
by joostay
Five-star luxury in Sabah – with design that gets better at every turn.
Categories: Luxury Travel, Travel: Outside Japan • Tags: asia, borneo, five star, hotels, hyatt, ikimasho, islands, japan, japanese, luxury, malaysia, photography, sabah, se asia, tokyo, world travel
by joostay
Reflecting upon a reflection in Bandar Seri Begawan
Categories: Travel: Outside Japan • Tags: asia, blog, ikimasho, japanese, photography, se asia, travel
by joostay
I’m currently in Borneo after spending a few days in Taipei. Taiwan’s political and international status is messy: it has declared itself as independent, but The People’s Republic of China say sod that, Taiwan belongs to us – a claim controversial due to the unresolved Chinese Civil War. I’m not going to sit here and pretend I know the ins and outs of it all: I don’t. Hell, I don’t even know the political goings-on of my own country. What I do […]
Categories: Travel: Outside Japan • Tags: asia, blog, china, ikimasho, japan, japanese, photography, se asia, Taipei, Taiwan, travel
by joostay
Two days of VIP Treatment in Taipei’s most luxurious location Right now I’m back in my regular stomping ground of SE Asia for a couple of weeks. First stop: Taipei, capital of Taiwan. I’ve actually been to Taipei twice before, the last time being memorable for all the wrong reasons when I stupidly decided to break up with my ex-girlfriend in a hotel room on the last day or our trip here. Not something I recommend: an awkward bus back to […]
Categories: Luxury Travel, Travel: Outside Japan • Tags: asia, blog, design, far eastern plaza hotel, five star, ikimasho, japan, japanese, luxury, photography, se asia, Taipei, Taiwan, tokyo, travel
by joostay
Tōrō nagashi is a long-held Japanese tradition where candle-lit lanterns are released into rivers to guide the spirits of the departed back to the other world.
Categories: Traditional Festivals • Tags: ambient, asia, blog, buddhism, buddhist, culture, darren mcclure, design, eilean rec., festival, ikimasho, japan, japanese, peace, peaceful, photography, Porya Hatami, se asia, tradition, travel, Uwe Zahn, video, Zahn | Hatami | McClure, Zen
by joostay
Right now I’m sitting in Starbucks listening to some god-awful freestyle jazz over the cafe speakers. If I was CEO of this place I’d just have Music for Airports by Brian Eno playing on repeat – my go-to music when I wanna bash out a load of writing. Sundays for me in Tokyo probably resemble that of many people around the world: laundry, cleaning, getting ready for the week ahead, yadda yadda yadda. But of course as well as a kindergarten teacher, […]
Categories: Daily Life in Tokyo • Tags: advertising, asia, balance, bmx, career, CREATIVE, CREATIVITY, design, ikimasho, japan, japanese, job, photography, se asia, sun, tokyo, travel, work, writing
by joostay
A rare glimpse into the art and culture of one of the world’s most intriguing countries. A few weeks back I was invited along to the Ueno Royal Museum in Tokyo to check out its latest exhibition of art and relics from the Kingdom of Bhutan – a country I’d love to go to. Unfortunately, the only time I have ever seen the Himalayas was from the window of an airplane as I was evacuated from the earthquake in Nepal. […]
Categories: Art, Music & Culture, Travel: Outside Japan • Tags: art, asia, bhutan, blog, buddhism, buddhist, culture, design, himalayas, ikimasho, japan, japanese, masks, nepal, se asia, travel
by joostay
Of the many countries I visited in 2015, I’d say Sri Lanka was the highlight. I was fortunate enough to be working with the Jetwing Hotel Group for a portion of my trip, and so was able to experience some really amazing hotels. When I wasn’t reviewing these properties, however, I chose to stay in homestays across the country: families who have turned their spare rooms into lodgings for travelling guests. (Another post about that here.) I fondly remember one family that […]
Categories: Travel: Outside Japan • Tags: accomodation, asia, backpacking, blog, budget, design, food, foodie, japan, se asia, sigiriya, sri lanka, tokyo, travel, where to stay in sigiriya
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
by joostay
Did you know that if you are using Chrome as your web browser and type “my flights” into Google it will bring up a list of all the flights you have booked via gmail over the past two years? I really didn’t think I had flown as much as I had, and my own list surprised me. When I moved to Tokyo three years ago I still had a bit of an itch to see parts of Asia I’d never seen, but I think I’ve achieved that […]
Categories: Travel: Outside Japan • Tags: air travel, asia, bagan, dougal, flights, flying, girls, hardcore, ikimasho, indonesia, japan, japanese, java, mandalay, monks, myanmar, rave, se asia, sumatra, toba, tokyo, train, travel, vibes, video, yangon
by joostay
Quiet days. Simple food. And Monks playing hide & seek…
Categories: Travel: Outside Japan • Tags: asia, backpacking, buddhism, countryside, ikimasho, japan, monks, Phetchaburi, photography, religion, rural, se asia, temples, thailand, tokyo, town, travel
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
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
by joostay
❤ THANK YOU! / ありがとう! ❤ IKIMASHO! has made it through to the final for Best Travel Blog in this year’s Blog Awards Ireland. Thank you to everyone who voted for me! I guess now it’s a case of whether the judges go for a straight down-the-line entry or my oddball stuff. To be honest, despite there being a number of great travel blogs out there, there are also far too many generic sites around today: the whole scene is swamped with people […]
Categories: Travel: Outside Japan • Tags: asia, bali, CREATIVITY, festival, ijen, indonesia, photography, se asia, thailand, travel, video, writing
by joostay
How different types of transport can influence the tunes you listen to…
Categories: Travel: Outside Japan • Tags: asia, bus, colombo, CREATIVE, CREATIVITY, dnb, drum and bass, fitness, huntingtons, ikimasho, japan, kandy, photography, pop punk, punk, punk rock, screeching weasel, se asia, seba, sri lanka, the queers, tokyo, train, travel, video
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
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
by joostay
A fisherman makes his last catch of the day as his wife looks on from the shore In travel photography circles, sunsets get a bad rap – widely considered as overdone and clichéd. The chances of taking a shot that’s different to the millions of others is slim, yet when the sun begins to set and the colours fill the sky most of us feel compelled to take out our camera. Photography means recording beautiful light. And sunsets are all about beautiful, […]
Categories: Travel: Outside Japan • Tags: art, asia, beauty, buddhism, CREATIVE, japan, mirissa, nature, photography, se asia, sea, seascape, sunset, tokyo, travel, video
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
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
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
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
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
by joostay
Becoming one of the family. My experience as one of the locals in Broken Road. For the last few weeks I’ve been living in a small village called Broken Road in Nang Rong, the Isaan province of northeastern Thailand. Just 40km from Cambodia, it’s where my mates Allan and Fanfan now live with her mum and a few others of her extended family. Allan is originally from my hometown of Bangor in Northern Ireland, though bought a condo in Bangkok […]
Categories: Travel: Outside Japan • Tags: asia, backpacking, country, countryside, farming, ikimasho, isaan, japan, live less ordinary, living in rural thailand, northeast thailand, rural, se asia, tokyo
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
by joostay
Categories: Travel: Outside Japan • Tags: aphex twin, asia, backpacking, bangkok, head, hua hin, i found a ahead, not working, se asia, thailand, travel
by joostay
Categories: Travel: Outside Japan • Tags: art, asia, backpacking, bangkok, graffiti, grime, hua hin, photography, real life, se asia, thailand, travel, urban
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