PhotoJapan

Kitain in Kawagoe

2012-01-31T06:03:00.000-08:00

The temple Kita-in in Kawagoe it is believed to have been founded in 830 by monk Ennin, burned down in 1205, the temple was rebuilt in 1296. The temple was patronized by the Tokugawa shoguns, and after another fired destroyed the temple in 1638, Iemitsu Tokugawa transferred part of the Edo castle to kita-in. These buildings are the only surviving of the castle after the damage to Tokyo during grand Kanto earthquake.

One of the rooms is believe to be the one where Iemitsu was born.

The tahoto pagoda built in 1639, was moved several times, until finally being set to its current location in 1973.

The Jingendo, located in a hill was built by order of ieyasu in 1645 it is considerate an important cultural asset.

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500 statues of rakan at Kita-in

2012-01-18T01:22:00.001-08:00

Among the attractions in Kawagoe Saitama prefecture, the 500 statues of Rakan at Kita-in temple are extremely popular, and are indispensable stopover for visitors of not only temple’s but to the Kawagoe area as well.

The Rakan figures, one of the three largest in Japan, are statues representing the disciples of Buddha. The 500 statues (actually 538) with no two alike, all in different position and with different face expression: smiling, crying, angry, praying, at rest, and many others, represent the various aspects of the Buddhist life.

Carved in stone between 1782 and 1825, the statues are in a walled area, in front of the Kita-in temple, hiding the statues to temple visitors, and thus often missed to visitors with not prior knowledge of the statues.

According to the tradition if you come in the middle of the night and feel the head of rakans you will find one that is warm, if you come in the morning to see this statue, this will be the one that most resembles you.

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Haneda Otorii

2012-01-09T05:00:00.001-08:00

The Haneda Otorii in Ota ku is a legendary torii found in a small area, surrounded by the Haneda airport, the Tamagawa River and the Kanpachi Street. According to the urban legend, this torii was to be relocated with the Haneda shrine in 1945, but as several workers died during the moving effort, the work was suspended and the torii was left at his original location.

A more informed version of the story, notes that this torii was left behind on purpose, perhaps as a Japanese symbol for the airport. The torii was actually moved 800m in 1999 during the construction of a new runway, with no casualties or mysterious accidents reported.

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Jiyu Gakuen Myonichikan

2011-12-20T06:50:00.000-08:00

Jiyugakuen Myonichikan “The house of tomorrow” is the original building complex of Jiyu Gakuen girls’ school in Toshima, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, one of the most renowned architects of U.S.. Lloyd Wright fascinated with Japan, set up residence in the country for six years, to supervise the construction of the Imperial Hotel. Busy with this project, he accepted the request to design the school only after hearing the founders’ educational philosophy of free education in at-home atmosphere.

In the 90s after a long battle with the government to save the aging building, the government rewrote its regulations so the building could be used after obtaining the “Important Cultural Property” designation.

Built of wood and plaster, the complex consists of four buildings: the main building at the center, west and east buildings at the sides forming a U-shape, and the Auditorium across the street.

The Lounge Hall in the main building has a big window facing the courtyard. The window frame and crosspieces have a very characteristic Lloyd Wright design. The mural on left wall of the hall discovered after the restoration was painted to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the school, and it is unknown when it was concealed under a thick layer of mortar.

At the back of the main hall, there is the dinning hall, with a beautiful V-shaped pendant light.

A small room between the Lounge and the dinning halls is dedicated to Lloyd Wright, with a display of his most famous designs.

There is a classroom In each of the East and West hall, it is now used for receptions and seminars.

The building was renovated hoping that it will be used for the next 100 years, with its beautiful design I am sure that it surely deserves it.

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Shinbashi SL Square Illumination

2011-12-09T07:02:00.001-08:00

Shinbashi station has decorated the Steam Locomotive (SL), on display at the fittingly named SL square, with a futuristic themed illumination.

The square usually has a nostalgic elegance due to the old locomotive, and by night takes a more futuristic air with the new illumination.

The square is definitively livelier with the illumination and I hope the area office workers, consequently will take the seasonal good feeling, back home with them.

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Shibuya Station and center-gai

2011-12-06T07:15:00.001-08:00

Shibuya station, never a dull place to visit, has this year opted for a very austere Christmas decoration. Almost no existent if you exclude the decoration on the archs at the entrance of Center gai.

At the same time, a more natural decoration is provided by the autumn colors, in the trees lining the streets around the station.

A pleasently surprise was the number of people on the streets, minimum by shibuya standards, undoubtedly due to an unexpected morning rain.

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Tokyo Sky tree update

2011-11-27T04:57:00.001-08:00

The Tokyo sky tree reached its full height of 634.0 meters, and is currently on the last stage of the construction, it is scheduled for completion on December 2011, and with the gran opening for spring of 2012.

The four tower cranes used at the top during the construction have been dismantled and a small crane is still being used on top of the first observatory.

Some members of the media have been allowed to ascend to the first observatory, and the view is breathtaking. I cannot wait until next year for the opening.

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Chrysanthemums festival at Yushima Tenjin

2011-11-23T05:11:00.001-08:00

Yushimateijin celebrates the chrysanthemum flower festival every year, around November. The temple grounds fill up with the autumn flower aroma as a large number of arrangements of this flower are on display.

Displays are in two varieties: flower arrangements and theme arrangements.

Flower arrangements are displays based on varieties of the flower.

Theme arrangements have a scene created or decorated with the flower; artisans paint a scene with the chrisantemum flower..

Every year there is a display of mannequins with Kimonos made of the flower. This year the theme of the display is “Gou” a trendy sengoku period soap opera based on the life of the Oeyo, wife of the second Tokugawa Shogun and mother of the third one.

Additionally, many families visit the temple to celebrate the Shichi-go-san, or celebratory temple visit for girls of seven, five, and three years old of age.

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Chouryu temple in Moriya city.

2011-11-16T08:04:00.001-08:00

Chouryuji is an ancient temple in Moriya city Ibaraki Prefecture, founded in 1590. The general Asano Nagamasa stayed at the temple during the conquest of the Odawara castle by Toyotomi Hidayoshi. The general consequently issued a decree, forbidding the soldiers from looting the temple, and thus protecting it.

The temple approach and the esplanade in front of the main hall are lined with ancient cedar trees that gave the temple great range of colors during the autumn.

The temple also has dramatically aged wooden gate and bell tower that give testimony of the temple long history.

The temple is a short walk from the Moriya station on the tsukuba express and is definitely worth of a visit if you are around the area.

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Saint Paul’s Festival in Ikebukuro

2011-11-07T04:51:00.001-08:00

Saint Paul’s University (Rikkyo University), in Ikebukuro celebrates the school festival in November, where food, music and entertainment are provided for other students and visitors.

The University founded in 1874, with the Ikebukuro building being built in 1918. The school buildings are gorgeous and well maintained, as only a private school can afford to do.

The School library is relatively new, completed in 1960, but its design manages to keep the harmony with the older buildings.

The festival is not so different from other countries school festivals, apart from the menu on the stands, and some of the bands music.

The festival is open to everybody and looking at the attendance, seems like some of the students invited the whole family.

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Prada’s Epicenter in Aoyama

2011-10-30T07:15:00.001-07:00

The epicenter building is Tokyo Prada’s flagship store, located in Aoyama in the Minato ward. Designed by Herzong and de Meuron, the winners of the Pritzker prize, and completed in 1999, it has since become ‘a must see’ for lovers of modern architecture.

The freestanding glass and steel honeycomb building has 6 floors and 5 sides, in a diamond/kaleidoscope like shape, that skillfully uses natural lighting to highlight the store interiors.

The glass walls formed of diamond-shaped glass panes of flat, concave and convex shapes, giving the building a very dynamic structure. The shape of the panes provides a sence of a multidimensional space from the inside of the store.

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Little Edo town Kawagoe

2011-10-24T07:39:00.001-07:00

Kawagoe city in the Saitama Prefecture is one of Tokyo Satellite cities. In the Edo period, this city located at the north of the great city of Edo (now Tokyo), was called little Edo, and was the location of the kawagoe castle, a close ally to the Tokunaga shogunate, most of the buildings were dismantled in 1870, but some of them remained and now allow appreciation of the period life.

The kurazukuri (old storehouse style) buildings zone. Kura buildings were originally used for storage of household tools, and then due to his fire resistance developed into residential buildings and stores in kawakoe. The zone is lined with 100-year-old culturally significant buildings.

The Toki no kane or time bell tower, used to announce the time since the early Edo period, Even today the bell rings four times a day. The current tower is the fourth version after the tower was rebuilt immediately after the great fire of Kawagoe in 1893.

Kashiya Yokocho or penny candy lane, a narrow street lined with traditional sweets, hard candy, and senbei rice cracker shops.

The Koedo loop bus is a retro-style bus made to match the streets of kurazukuri, provides a convenient way to travel from Kuruzukuri, to other city sightseeing spots.

Stores not only preserver the edo period building, but also the interior is arranged in harmony with the era.

Some of the buildings contrast with the area buildings, as they are from the Meiji period, as the resona bank building, built in 1878 has been designated by the country as culturally significant, other buildings nerby are from the same era.

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View from roof garden at Takashimaya Shinjuku

2011-10-12T07:27:00.001-07:00

Takashimaya ‘Times Square’ in Shinjuku has a roof garden with an excellent view of Shinjuku and some of Tokyo landmarks. Skytree is visible on the background on this view.

South Tokyo Landmarks from left: Izumi garden Tower, Tokyo Tower, Shibaura Island, Midtown, and Roppongi hills.

A small shrine and the Cocoon tower on the background.

Meiji dori normally a very busy street, it is no so terrible before midday.

The large department store is a good reason to visit it, with the added bonus of the roof garden views.

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Apple Store in Ginza

2011-10-07T06:29:00.001-07:00

A large number of Apple fans have flock to the apple stores in Japan to pay the final respects to Steve Jobs. The Ginza store, the first Apple store outside the US and a popular spots for young people shopping in Ginza, has become a gathering place for Apple fans.

A large number of offerings of flowers, apples, letters and messages, lining up at the entrance the store.

A fan praying after laying flowers. The fan was genuinely distressed by the passing of Jobs.

A TV crew for a popular news program also showed up to cover the fans tribute.

RIP Steve Jobs.

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Sunshine city rooftop aquarium

2011-10-05T06:35:00.000-07:00

Sunshine Aquarium in sunshine city, Ikebukuro, the first rooftop aquarium in Japan, has just reopened in August 4^th after closing for one year for renovations.

The aquarium is small compared to normal aquariums but the premium location gives a great advantage over other aquariums. As with most of the popular places in Tokyo, there are large crowds on weekends, but late in the afternoon and weekdays is no so bad.

The renovated marine garden area, has a large elevated see-through pool, where the seals swim under the open sky. The Sea lions perform at the same area several times per day.

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Shuzenji Temple

2011-09-25T19:58:00.000-07:00

The Shuzenji temple in the hot spring area of the same name in The Izu peninsula is a temple built in 807. Originally a Buddhist temple, converted to Rinzai sect in 1250, the current temple was rebuilt in 1883.
The second shogun Minamoto Yoriie was exiled to this temple, and later murdered here in 1204. Famous Japanese writers Natsume Sozeki, Okamoto Kido and Shimaki Kensaku, wrote stories inspired by the temple after visiting.

The temple entrance, close to the famous Tokko-no-yu hot spring, is at the center of the city and thus visitors in Yukatas are a common view at the temple gate.

Trees and a small hill beautifully frame the main hall, there is also small bamboo forest located next to the bell tower.

A dozen small stone statues of monks are lined up at the entrance of one of the hall. The temple used to be a monastery and housed hundreds of monks, currently no monks live at the premises.

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Jonanjima Seaside Park

2011-09-16T06:04:00.000-07:00

Jonanjima in Ota, Tokyo, is a marine park located in the Tokyo bay, in operation since 1991, managed by the Tokyo port authority.

The park location overlooking Haneda airport offers an unmatched view of the airplanes landing or taking off from the airport. Airplane lovers are treated by the large aircrafts flying at very low altitude while approaching for landing. The park gets very noisy at airport peak times, early in the morning, and late in the afternoon.

The artificial beach in the park is a great place for walking, as like most of the beaches in Tokyo bay fishing and swimming is prohibited.

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Hot spring resort-town Shuzenji

2011-09-08T01:21:00.001-07:00

Shuzenji in the center of the Izu penizula in Shizuoka prefecture, the town was built 1200 years ago around the the Shuzenji temple, famous for its hot springs.

According to the legend the great monk Kobo Daishi, pounded on a rock with his walking stick, called a ‘tokko’ to bring forth the hot spring water. The spring was therefore named Tokko-no-yu, or Tokko Hot Spring. The spring is at the center of the town, and it is used now as a foot bath only..

The town is full of ryokans, Japanese style Inns, many of them open their hot springs to non-staying visitors.

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Iris at Shikinosato park

2011-08-29T05:42:00.000-07:00

The shikinosato park is one of the largest parks in moriya city, Ibaraki prefecture. Moriya city developed a large industrial park at the beginning of the 90s, designating some areas as green zones as part of the project, the shikinosato with 20,660m² is one of the largest parks created on the designated green zone.

The park was built to use the terrain original features as much as possible. Centered around a pond, over 50,000 plants of 200 species flower each season, hence the name of the park “village of the four seasons”.

At the time of my visit, the iris were blooming beautifully around the pond.

A watermill, a stream and a boat in the area next to the playground; A great place to sit and relax.

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Children matsuri Parade

2011-08-25T06:46:00.000-07:00

It is customary that on matsuri or Japanese festivals to have the first day held for childrens, the usual parade on this day is held accordingly by childrens, under adult supervision.

I run by chance on this small parade inviting to the local bon dance festival.

The banner on the drum car reads loosely translated, "we pray for recovery from earthquake disaster".

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Nirayama Furnace

2011-08-21T07:38:00.000-07:00

Nirayama reverberatory furnace in Izonokuni city in the Shizuoka prefecture, are the remains of the furnace build by the izu magistrate Egawa Tarezaemon in 1854 at end of the edo period, to cast cannons.
At the end of the edo period, Japan closed its port to foreign countries, as a result, many countries tried to force the opening of its ports. To protect the country from these attacks, Japan developed a costal defense, with a large number of cannons required for this. Many furnaces were built to manufacture the required cannons, with only two remaining to this day, the one in Nirayama and other in Hagi, with the Nirayama one being the only one retaining most of its original form.

The reverberatory furnace was built following a Dutch design. The quality of the refractory bricks and the sophistication is said to be comparable to today’s blast furnaces. The furnance has been designated a national historical site.

Large and small cannons were cast here to be used, mainly for the Edo bay defense. The Odaiba artillery was built at this furnace.

The site is next to a small stream, tea field and factory (this being Shizuoka after all) giving a peaceful background for a site with such industrious past.

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Shinjuku after the rain

2011-08-11T23:50:00.001-07:00

Shinjuku is one of the busiest areas in Tokyo. I was in the area just after a small rain, and was pleasantly surprised on how few people were on the street.

Tokyo is not so busy these days due to the Obon season, when people go back to their hometown to honor the departed spirits of their ancestors.

Also is striking how the buildings, billboards and signs are now modestly illuminated due to energy saving measures.

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Fukugawa Fudoudou Temple

2011-08-06T07:25:00.000-07:00

The fudogawa fudoudou in Fudogawa, Koto ward, Tokyo, is a branch of Naritasan Shingon buddhism temple.

At the beginning of the Edo period, Kabuki actor Danjuro Ichikawa (the founder of Kabuki’s Ichikawa family, now in the 12th generation) performed exceptionally as Acala in a hit play, as a result, paying a religious visit to Acala at the Naritasan temple to improve one’s fortune become popular among the people in Tokyo. In 1703 a special religious display from Naritasan was held at the former eidai temple, marking the beginning of the Fudogawa temple.

This year the temple has just completed the construction of the new hall, a modern building with a mantra to Acala in Sanskrit written around the building façade.

As in the Naritasan temple, there is a fire ritual held everyday, with the first part of the ceremony held outside the temple. Unfortunatelly photographs are not allowed inside, so you will have to visit the temple to witness the ceremony.

The new building is connected to the old one, creating a striking contrast, and a bold statement from this very conservative temple.

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The Iceberg in Harajuku

2011-07-26T18:52:00.000-07:00

The Iceberg is an outstanding glass building structure, representative of the modern Japanese architecture, designed to reflect light from all angles.

Designed by Tokyo based British architect Benjamin Warner, completed in 2006, it is listed as one of the seven architectural wonders in Condé Nast Traveler.

The building located in Meiji street, between Harajuku and Shibuya, hidden between other structures, just stand out once you get close by its form and unique design.

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PhotoJapan

Kitain in Kawagoe

500 statues of rakan at Kita-in

Haneda Otorii

Jiyu Gakuen Myonichikan

Sponsored illumination at Yurakucho

Shinbashi SL Square Illumination

Shibuya Station and center-gai

Tokyo Sky tree update

Chrysanthemums festival at Yushima Tenjin

Chouryu temple in Moriya city.

Saint Paul’s Festival in Ikebukuro

Prada’s Epicenter in Aoyama

Little Edo town Kawagoe

View from roof garden at Takashimaya Shinjuku

Apple Store in Ginza

Sunshine city rooftop aquarium

Shuzenji Temple

Jonanjima Seaside Park

Hot spring resort-town Shuzenji

Iris at Shikinosato park

Children matsuri Parade

Nirayama Furnace

Shinjuku after the rain

Fukugawa Fudoudou Temple

The Iceberg in Harajuku