Tag: tokyo
IKIMASHO! x DAZED: Visiting an ancient Japanese cross-dressing festival near Yokohama.
by joostay
Ofudamaki was established in 1688 when mothers gave their clothes to male Shinto dancers in the hope of bringing them protection from cholera. My latest piece for DAZED is now online, talking about Ofudamaki, an obscure festival held once a year in a nondescript area 50 km from Tokyo. Check it out here.
Categories: Traditional Festivals • Tags: asia, blog, cross dressing, culture, design, female, festival, gender roles, japan, japanese, male, matsuri, ofudamaki, photography, religion, shinto, tokyo, travel, urban
LITTLE ISAAN BARBERSHOP OF HORRORS: Getting a haircut in rural Thailand
by joostay
This time last year I was getting ready to go to Sri Lanka, Indonesia and Thailand for a couple of months. While looking through my camera the other day I came across some photos from my time in Isaan in the Thai countryside. I remember one day Allan and I went down to get haircuts at the local barbershop. The place was amazing – totally unlike any barbershop I’d seen before, with chickens running about and toddlers getting cool buzzcuts. It’s these daily experiences […]
Categories: Travel: Outside Japan • Tags: asia, blog, cambodia, design, ikimasho, isaan, japan, japanese, photography, rural, thai, thailand, tokyo, travel, writing
Sunday Mornings & Mango Ice Cream
by joostay
Last Sunday morning I cycled to Enjoin (en-jo-in), a small Buddhist temple near my house. Despite it only being 10am, the temperature was already pushing 30 degrees and the air was still. The cicadas haven’t started yet, but I feel they aren’t far away. I bought mango ice cream from an elderly couple’s house across the street, and then wandered around the temple grounds, sitting alongside the turtles and koi carp. This post isn’t really about anything in particular, just the small and simple things in life that […]
Categories: Daily Life in Tokyo • Tags: blog, buddhism, design, japan, japanese, meditation, nature, photography, setagaya, temple, tokyo, urban, wildlife, Zen
Natsubate / 夏バテ
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
IKIMASHO! x DAZED: EXPLORING AN ABANDONED (AND HAUNTED) THEME PARK IN INDONESIA
by joostay
“When the park was dissolved, the owners left the crocodiles there to become wild. There’s an urban legend that the crocodiles ate humans, another reason why the Balinese won’t go near the place” Of all my travels last year, discovering an abandoned theme park on the east coast of Bali was one of the highlights. I wrote a bit about it here on IKIMASHO! – but DAZED have picked up the scent (along with the crocodiles) so here’s my full report […]
Categories: Travel: Outside Japan • Tags: bali, blog, dazed, design, digital, haikyo, ikimasho, indonesia, japan, japanese, journalism, photography, taman festival, tokyo, urban exploration
My night with Pato Banton in Tokyo
by joostay
Just like a soup in a pot we are what?! Bubbling Hot.
Categories: Art, Music & Culture • Tags: asia, blog, bubbling hot, culture, design, ikimasho, japan, japanese, music, nights out, pato banton, photography, reggae, shinagawa, tokyo, travel, uk
Yushima Tenjin Grand Festival
by joostay
YUSHIMA / 湯島 Last Sunday I made my way out to Yushima in east Tokyo – a station one stop from Nezu on the Chiyoda line, not far from Ueno Park. Yushima Tenjin (or Yushima Tenmangu) is Tokyo’s most famous shrine of scholars, and is therefore visited by students all over the city who come to pray for good exam results. Inside the grounds you can see hundreds of ema – small wooden plaques – written by students hoping for entry to the university of their […]
Categories: Traditional Festivals • Tags: asia, blog, design, festival, food, ikimasho, japan, japanese, matsuri, photo essay, photography, shinto, summer, Tenjin, tokyo, travel, ueno, video, Yushima
IKIMASHO! x DAZED: WITNESSING A YAKUZA SHOW OF STRENGTH IN TOKYO
by joostay
Once a year the yakuza openly do a show of strength in Tokyo, disrobing to show their full-body tattoos. Last weekend I got very lucky and managed to see a Yakuza show of strength here in Tokyo. This is extremely rare – and definitely up there with my most memorable travel experiences. Takahashi-gumi is one of the big Yakuza groups in Tokyo. They stripped off in front of the police station to reveal their tattoos then began carrying a portable shrine through […]
Categories: Traditional Festivals • Tags: culture, design, festival, japan, matsuri, photography, tokyo, travel, yakuza
Japan & the Art of Happiness in Doing Nothing
by joostay
Sunshine makes me happy. I’m not sure if I’d go as far as to say I suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), but I also certainly wouldn’t be surprised if that was to be the case. There are many people I know who class winter as their favourite season, loving the snow, and actually preferring to wear about ten layers of clothing day in, day out. I’ve never been able to understand it. Give me shorts, tshirt and bare feet any day. […]
Categories: Daily Life in Tokyo • Tags: art, asia, design, happiness, japan, life, lifestyle, nomadic, photography, tokyo, travel, Zen
Bugaku & Traditional Weddings at Meiji Shrine
by joostay
The start of Golden Week for us – and a new life for many. Today was the first day of Golden Week, a cluster of National Holidays in Japan where many workers get around a week off work. You really couldn’t have asked for better weather – the sun was splitting the trees – and so I headed down to Meiji Shrine for the start of the Spring Festival. Meiji Shrine (Meiji Jingū) is a shrine dedicated to the deified spirits of […]
Categories: Traditional Festivals • Tags: asia, blog, culture, design, golden week, harajuku, japan, japanese, meiji jingu, photography, tokyo, travel
Mono no aware / 物の哀れ
by joostay
The sakura have fallen, swept away by the rivers and lost in the breeze for another year. Living gloriously, albeit for only a week, sakura are the embodiment of mono no aware (物の哀れ) – a Japanese Buddhist concept that recognizes the impermanence of life. In ancient Japan, warriors were compared to sakura blossoms – born to live brilliantly and die young. And so when the petals fall, a gentle sadness can be felt all throughout Japan. Spring is still here, but the pre-summer rains will soon begin.
Categories: Daily Life in Tokyo • Tags: asia, buddhism, design, japan, photography, tokyo, travel, Zen
Tsukemen: CAMINO, Mishiku, Setagaya.
by joostay
Serving up noodles and vegetables that almost look too good to eat.
Categories: Daily Life in Tokyo • Tags: blog, cafe, culinary, design, food, foodporn, ikimasho, japan, japanese food, noodles, photography, ramen, restaurant, sakura, shibuya, tokyo, tsukemen
Hanafubuki: Cherry Blossom Blizzard in Tokyo
by joostay
In Japanese, hana (花) means flower and fubuki (吹雪) means snow storm. So, hanafubuki literally means ‘flower snow storm’ – or more commonly, ‘cherry blossom blizzard’. It happens once a year when the sakura petals begin to fall. Right now, hanafubuki has begun in Tokyo. I walked from my house in Shimokitazawa down to the river at Naka-meguro and the trees were snowing sakura all the way. ❤ Like IKIMASHO! on Facebook
Categories: Daily Life in Tokyo • Tags: animals, beautiful, blog, cherry blossoms, cute, festival, ikimasho, japan, photography, pink, rabbit, sakura, spring, tokyo
IKIMASHO! 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
ST. PATRICK’S DAY PARADE 2016, TOKYO, JAPAN.
by joostay
セントパトリックスデイ・パレード Sunday was the annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade in Tokyo featuring the usual oddball mish-mash of Japanese-Irish flute bands; cute dogs in clothes; terrifying leprechauns; bizarre Brazilian dancers; and green tea promoted simply because it is green. Throw in some samurai, gymnasts and a guy dressed as a Guinness can, and you have one of the world’s more curious St. Patrick’s Day Parades. Slideshow and video below.
Categories: Art, Music & Culture • Tags: blog, culture, design, dublin, ikimasho, ireland, irish, japan, japanese, photography, saint patricks day parade 2016, st paddys, street, tokyo, urban, video
Plum Season in Kanagawa 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
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
IKIMASHO! IN TOP NORTHERN IRISH TRAVEL BLOGS 2016
by joostay
Happy to be featured in a list of top Northern Irish travel blogs put together by fellow countryman and friend Jonny Blair from Don’t Stop Living. Jonny is currently travelling in India (country 112) – but he also goes out of his way to visit micronations and disputed countries that most people have never even heard of. Check out his site to read all about his adventures in bizarre places such as Podjistan, Adammia, Austenasia, Karakalpakstan, Ladonia, Lagoan Isles, Christiania, Uzupis and Gorno Badakhshan. I caught […]
Categories: Travel: Outside Japan • Tags: bangor, design, japan, northern ireland, photography, tokyo, travel, writing
Un-street Street Photography: Tokyo’s Neglected Ordinary
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.
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
Staying at Bandula’s House. (Bandula Homestay, Sri Lanka.)
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
A walk around: Residential Hachimanyama, Tokyo
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.
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
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
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
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
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
Tōryanse / 通りゃんせ
by joostay
Let me pass. Let me pass.
How a sinister-sounding children’s tune can help you cross the road in Japan.
Categories: Art, Music & Culture • Tags: culture, japan, kids, lullaby, school, tokyo, tradional music
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
TWO YEARS WORTH OF FLIGHTS…
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
Living a simple life in Phetchaburi, Thailand.
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
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
Climbing Kawah Ijen Volcano, Java, Indonesia.
by joostay
Taking steps in my own life – and meeting the sulphur miners who risk theirs every day. After being involved in the earthquake in Kathmandu in April, I have to admit that for a few months afterwards I was slightly on edge. The five days I spent in the city pre-evacuation caused my brain to be in a constant state of heightened alert. Even after I arrived home in Northern Ireland, if a truck drove past my house and shook the building my heart rate […]
Categories: Travel: Outside Japan • Tags: adventure, asia, CREATIVE, earthquake, extreme, humans, ijen, indonesia, japan, nature, photography, tokyo, travel, video, volcano, wildlife
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
SRI LANKA: PUNK ROCK BUSES vs. DRUM AND BASS TRAINS
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
MY CRAPPY INDONESIAN GYM JUST GOT CRAPPIER
by joostay
SAY HELLO TO COCONUT! Followers of this blog will by now be well aware of my fondness for tracking down crappy local gyms in new countries I visit. It all started when I visited Nusa Lembongan in 2013 – an island off the coast of Bali. During my stint there I found a hilariously bad (yet amazing) gym which was basically just a wooden shack. Fast forward a few years and I was back on Lembongan last week, so of […]
Categories: Travel: Outside Japan • Tags: asia, bali, bodybuilding, coconut, fitness, funny, gym, ikimasho, indonesia, japan, mens fitness, photography, running, story, tokyo, travel, weightlifting, weights, working out, workout
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
Rejecting the Cliché: Sunset over Mirissa, Sri Lanka
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
SRI LANKAN DEATH NOTES
by joostay
One thing that surprised me on my recent trip to Sri Lanka was the vast amount of Death Notices I saw while walking around small villages. These notes are a Sri Lankan tradition, originally introduced as a way for local people to learn about recent deaths in the area, much like obituary notices in today’s western newspapers. In some rural areas, telephone and digital communications have only recently been introduced, so these physical notices proved to be a useful asset. It was the first time I […]
Categories: Travel: Outside Japan • Tags: asia, backpacking, culture, death, funeral, ghosts, japan, photography, sri lanka, story, tokyo, travel, urban
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
PLEASE VOTE FOR IKIMASHO! AS ‘BEST TRAVEL BLOG’!
by joostay
❤ IKIMASHO! NEEDS YOUR HELP! ❤ IKIMASHO! has been shortlisted for ‘Best Travel Blog’ in this year’s Irish Blog Awards. 30% of the judging for this round is by public vote, so if you would be sooo kind to click the link below and vote for IKIMASHO! You don’t need to register, or give your name, or any of that stuff – just click the link and vote. Remember, IKIMASHO! is 100% my own travel experiences. I’m not a tour operator. […]
Categories: Travel: Outside Japan • Tags: art, asia, awards, backpacking, blogging, CREATIVITY, drawing, japan, northern ireland, photography, tokyo, travel, video, writing
ON TOP OF THE WORLD: SIGIRIYA, SRI LANKA
by joostay
Climbing the ancient fortress-palace of Sigiriya – and the astonishing views from the top. After a good few days bumming about Kandy I caught a bus up to the Central Province of Sri Lanka to visit Sigiriya. (A/C bus from Kandy bus station to Dambulla 300 rupees/2 hours, then 20-minute tuk-tuk to Sigiriya.) UNESCO certified, Sigiriya is perhaps Sri Lanka’s most iconic sight: a huge sheer-walled rock that seems to appear out of nowhere. Its flat-topped summit contains the ruins […]
Categories: Travel: Outside Japan • Tags: 1200 steps, asia, backpacking, climbing sigiriya, ikimasho, japan, jungle, nature, photography, sigiriya, sri lanka, tokyo, travel, wildlife
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
Marrakech or Meh-rrakech?
by joostay
Recently named the world’s best destination – yet I’m still trying to figure out why. I spent some time in Marrakech about a month ago but haven’t really written much about it. During my stay I was struck down with severe food poisoning for the first time in my life. I’ve had a mild case before, but this was something else: 10 hours of hardcore vomiting, delirious and generally festering about in my own filth. (At one point I was […]
Categories: Travel: Outside Japan • Tags: africa, arabic, asia, backpacking, city, culture, design, food, ikimasho, illness, japan, marrakech, morocco, north africa, photography, poisoning, tokyo, travel
Chilling in Tossa de Mar. How Spain’s Costa Brava killed my travel snob.
by joostay
Well, whad’ya know: Spain isn’t all just Brits on Tour & Butlins on steroids. When it comes to Spain I’ll admit I’ve always been a bit of travel snob. Visions of redfaced Brits eating egg and chips, hen parties with huge inflatable penises and drunken bastards singing the macarena. Growing up, I never had any real desire to go there, maintaining that you had to go further afield to get a ‘real’ travel experience, whatever that is. Of course, it was […]
Categories: Travel: Outside Japan • Tags: backpacking, beauty, catalonia, costa brava, europe, food, ikimasho, japan, photography, sand, sea, spain, sun, tokyo, travel, video
IKIMASHO! x The obscure micronation of Austenasia
by joostay
Auste-what? Learning about this tiny country from its new Consul General for Northern Ireland. Stories really don’t get any more obscure and fascinating than the one I am about to share with you regarding the tiny micronation of Austenasia – a landlocked country whose border with the UK is merely a line separating a driveway from a footpath in the south London suburb of Carshalton. The country has a flag, a border and a government. It even has an Emperor […]
Categories: Travel: Outside Japan • Tags: allan wilson, austenasia, bizarre, blogging, country, fitness, ikimasho, independence, japan, jonny blair, micronation, story, tokyo, travel, uk, weird, wrythe
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
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
IKIMASHO! 