The Sanja Matsuri was on Friday 18th ~ Sunday 20th of May. It is one of the three great Shinto festivals in Tokyo.
The festival is held in honor of Hinokuma Hamanari, Hinokuma Takenari and Hajino Nakatomo, the three men who established and founded Sensō-ji temple. Sanja Matsuri is held on the third weekend of every May at Asakusa Shrine. Its prominent parades revolve around three mikoshi (three portable shrines referenced in the festival’s name), as well as traditional music and dancing. Over the course of three days, the festival attracts 1.5 to 2 million locals and tourists every year.
This year was the first Sanja Matsuri for me.. unfortunately, rules this year were really strict about tattoo, and gang mark, so I didn’t see anyone with tattoo dancing on the mikoshi as it happened a lot in the past..

We had a nice full solar eclipse this morning in Tokyo.. so I woke up early to go watch the sun before going to work.. unfortunately it was really cloudy, so at the beginning I couldn’t see anything, but at the time of the full eclipse, the sun start to shown itself and I’ve made this video ^_^
Sadly, I couldn’t do photo in the same time, so we have only a video here ごめんね！

Great Culture Japan Night at Good Smile Cafe in Akihabara hosted by Danny Choo! Lot of interesting people and 2 great performances from UTACO and Vividbalze!

Wanna go to good smile cafe?

In Odaiba, in front of the all new “Diver City Tokyo Paza Shopping mall” you can see a [1/1] scale Gundam! It looks so real. Well it’s real.. but it’s almost as you can feel his presence and you expect the giant robot to move at any moment.. and then it’s happened.. he really moves! haha it’s an awesome experience.. even if you don’t like or know Mobile Suit Gundam, you will love this 18-meters tall robot!

Hakuba is a ski resort town in the northern Japan Alps. As the surrounding valley has an annual snow fall of over 11.1 meters, it is the central hub for 10 ski resorts with more than 200 runs. The village was the main event venue for 1998 Winter Olympics (Alpine, Ski Jump, Crosscountry).

Hakuba consists of seven main ski areas. At the southern end of the Hakuba Valley are the resorts of Hakuba 47, Goryu, and the Olympic ski resort Happo-One (pronounced O-ney). To the north are Iwatake, Tsugaike, Norikura, and Cortina resorts.
(Goryu, Hakuba 47, Hakuba Happo-one, Highland Snowpark, Iwatake, Minekata, Sanosaka)

Surrounded by the Japan Sea (northward), Nagano City (eastward) and the Tateyama Kurobe Dam area (southward), Hakuba is also a popular summer vacation area which offers a variety of outdoor activities at an altitude of 700-800 metres, e.g. hiking, rafting/shower climbing, paragliding, mountain bike, bird sighting etc.
 

Hakuba is a ski resort town in the northern Japan Alps. As the surrounding valley has an annual snow fall of over 11.1 meters, it is the central hub for 10 ski resorts with more than 200 runs. The village was the main event venue for 1998 Winter Olympics (Alpine, Ski Jump, Crosscountry).
 

The Yokohama Landmark Tower is the tallest building and 3rd tallest structure in Japan, standing 296.3 m high. It is located in the Minato Mirai 21 district of Yokohama city. Work on the building was finished in 1993. It has the highest observation deck in Japan.

The building contains a five-star hotel which occupies floors 49-70, with 603 rooms in total. The lower 48 floors contain shops, restaurants, clinics, and offices.

On the 69th floor there is an observatory, Sky Garden, from which one can see a 360-degree view of the city, and on clear days Mount Fuji.

The tower contains the world’s 2nd fastest elevators, originally world’s fastest, which reach speeds of 12.5 m/s (45.0 km/h). This speed allows the elevator to reach the 69th floor in approximately 40 seconds. The elevators’s speed record was surpassed by elevators of Taipei 101 (60.6 km/h) in 2004.

The building was designed by Hugh Stubbins and Associates, now KlingStubbins.

Source: wikipedia

Fuji-Q Highland is an amusement park in Fujiyoshida, Yamanashi, Japan.

The theme park is near the base of Mount Fuji. It has a number of roller coasters, as well as The Haunted Hospital, the world’s second largest haunted attraction, and Thomas Land, a children’s area with a Thomas the Tank Engine theme.

In 2006, on the 9th Season of The Amazing Race, the final 3 teams came here and rode Tondemina, Dodonpa and Fujiyama looking for a clue to their next destination.

Fuji-Q’s most famous roller coasters are the following:

• Fujiyama, 79 metres tall, 130 km/h, opened in 1996 and was once the world’s tallest roller coaster. As of 2007 it is the world’s 8th tallest, 5th longest, and 10th fastest roller coaster.

• Dodonpa, 52 metres tall, 172 km/h, opened in 2001 and was once the world’s fastest roller coaster. As of 2007 it is the 3rd fastest in the world but still has the highest acceleration at launch time.

• Eejanaika, 76 metres tall, 126 km/h, opened in 2006 and is only the second “4th Dimension roller coaster” ever built (the first being X² at Six Flags Magic Mountain in California). As a “4th dimension” roller coaster its seats can rotate 360 degrees forward or backward in a controlled spin, thus allowing Eejanaika to invert 14 different times, even though the actual track inverts only three times. It surpasses the first built “4th dimension” roller coaster, X², in both height and speed.

• Takabisha, opened on 16 July 2011, contains a 121° freefall, as well as seven major twists over 1000 metres of track, and a drop of 43 metres

Source: Wikipedia
Thanks to Aurelien for the 2 videos inside the roller coasters ^_^

Akihabara , also known as Akihabara Electric Town, is an area of Tokyo. It is located less than five minutes by rail from Tokyo Station. Its name is frequently shortened to Akiba in Japan.

Akihabara is a major shopping area for electronic, computer, anime, and otaku goods, including new and used items. New items are mostly to be found on the main street, Chūōdōri, with many kinds of used items found in the back streets of Soto Kanda 3-chōme. New parts for PC-building are readily available from a variety of stores. Tools, electrical parts, wires, microsized cameras and similar items are found in the cramped passageways of Soto Kanda 1-chōme (near the station). Foreign tourists tend to visit the big name shops like Laox or other speciality shops near the station, though there is more variety and lower prices at locales a little further away. Akihabara gained some fame through being home to one of the first stores devoted to personal robots and robotics.

Here is a small video in a game center where young japanese guy ( mostly ) used to spend some times.. Thanks to Aurelien for the video

The Rice Bowl is an annual American Football national championship game held in Japan every January 3rd that pits the Japanese college champion and the champion of the corporate X-League. The game can draw over 60,000 spectators.