Discover Tokyo - Beautiful places never seen before!

Train curry cafe - Niagara Curry

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 09 May 2014 13:46:00 +0000

Japan is home of all the special and exotic cafes serving niche clients with special interests. Niagara curry cafe is one of them and it is a train theme cafe. Below is a picture of the cafe, with lots of trains props decorations.

This cafe is owned by the man in the picture below. He used to be train captain working for JR East. But, when he got retired he founded this beautiful train cafe, because he himself is train 'otaku' (fanatic). Guess, how old is he???

He is closing to 80 years old, cant believe rigth? I got a shocked too when I got to know his age, he looks younger than that! You could see him easily in the cafe, most of the time he will be there.

What makes this cafe interesting is, all the food will be served with train "plates". The food will be delivered to you using a train. There are train tracks attached to all the dining tables. It is a great experience, to see your food delivered to you with a train. Besides, you could hear the biiii biiii train sounds when it is coming to you.

There are so much details provided in the cafe to stimulate the atmosphere of trains.

The cafe is not huge, it is quite small, but it is well decorated with all the trains props with some dated decades ago. All these items are collected by the founder during his young days.

The waitress are dressed like a maid to serve you, because in Japan the train attendants used to wear them.

An old piece of clock and train map displayed in the cafe. It is a mini train museum cafes, because most of the items are very old.

An old train transfer board displayed.

If you are interested about this cafe, you can check out the cafe in the link below. It is quite far from Tokyo, and the store is located deep inside a small town and check the operating hours, it does not open everyday!

here

Host in Shinjuku earning > 30,000 USD a month!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 08 May 2014 13:07:00 +0000

In Japan, there are host and hostess clubs. Hostess clubs are pretty girls serving rich guys and host club are cool and handsome looking guys serving womans!

There are many host clubs in Japan, but Kabukicho in Shinjuku, is the hub of all the famous and popular host clubs. The job of a host is simple, they just chat and make their clients to be happy. Most of their clients are rich young working lady, and it costs a fortune to hire these hosts to make you happy. There is strictly no hanky-panky involve, but purely chatting.

This is a very nice documentary from Vice Japan which you can get most information of being a host, you can check the video below that tells the life of a number 1 host in Japan - Naoki from Fantasy Group in Kabukicho!

The video is in Japanese, but you can enable the English subtitle in the Youtube player!!!

Why Musk melon is so expensive in Japan???

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 07 May 2014 12:59:00 +0000

Musk melon is the most expensive fruit in Japan, and in the world!!!

A good quality musk melon sold in a well known fruit retailer in Japan such as Takano and Sembikiya can easily cost more than 10,000 yen (100 USD) Yes, 100 USD for a small melon, isnt this is the most expensive fruit in the world!!! Let me know, if you know any fruit which costs more!!!

Even the cheapest musk melon will cost > 3000 yen (30 USD)

Even though, musk melon costs so much, but every penny you spent on this fruit is worth it! Trust me! worth it! It is the most tasty fruit I ever had! It is so juicy and sweet! The taste of melon will get you to crave more of it!

I have decided to research more on musk melon, why it costs so much and I went to a musk melon farm in Shizuoka, which supplies most of the musk melons to Tokyo. The farm is located in the rural area of Shizuoka, it took us 2 hours to get there from Shizuoka station! But, the long journey is rewarded with beautiful country side view! Growing paddy farm!!!

There is a small patch of green tea near the farm, and this old otto-san (uncle) is harvesting the green tea leaf using a machine.

Also a cute cute girl!!! KawaiiI!!!

We are in the farm, and there is a chart that provides information on how musk melon is planted. There are 9 steps before the melon is ready to sell!

Step 1: Preparation of seeds and soils, and it is important to keep the musk melon at the optimum temperature and humid. The entire farm is encapsulated in a green house, with humidity and temperature regulated. It is slightly warm inside the greenhouse to keep the musk melon grow healthily.

Step 2: When the seed starts to grow, each of it will be planted along the terrace

Step 3: It starts to grow, during this stage, the musk melon is vulnerable to pesticide and disease attack

Step 5: The baby musk melon appears, the farmer will remove the extra melons and keep the precious melon right below the plant. They kept only a single melon for each plant, so all the nutrient and sweetness will accumulated on it! that what makes the melon so sweet and juicy!

Step 6: The melon starts to grow bigger, and the farmer will wrap it with some shield to protect the outer layer of the melon

Step 7: Waiting for the right time, before the melon is harvested

Step 8: Musk melon is now ready to eat!
On the left, 1/4 slice of the melon, and it costs 800 yen!!! (8 USD) and on the right is musk melon parfait, it contains slices of melon, melon sherbet and ice cream! It is so tasty, we cant stop craving for it!

If you notice, the texture of the melon doesnt look good, the melon looks too ripped! But, it is not! According to the farmer, this is the right time to eat the melon, at this time, the melon contains the most juice and it is at the sweetest. Next time, dont get fooled by it, trust me, once you ate it, you cant stop craving for more! :)

Delicious melon parfait

Interesting fact about the melon is at the bottom part, if you chew it, you will be rewarded with sweet flavor of melon. It is the sweetest part of the melon because of all the sweet are accumulated at the bottom, when the fruit is growing due to gravity. If you chew at the top, there is not much taste! isnt that interesting! try it next time!

This is the beautiful and naturally decorated cafe owned by the musk melon farm!

This is the only melon farm available for public, but everything is in Japaneses and it is quite secluded! You can check out this musk melon farm in the link below:

info

Shibazakura in Chichibu

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 01 May 2014 13:19:00 +0000

Shibazakura is a Japanese word for moss, and it has varieties of species with various colors, the popular and often seen in Japan is pink, white and purple moss. These moss will bloom in spring, it will fills the land with beautiful colors.

There are many shibazakura spots near Tokyo, but today I am going to show you Chichibu, which is north of Tokyo.

A scenic view in Chichibu with shibazakuras

Getting there
You can get there from Ueno station, using the JR lines, it takes about 2 hours. Along the journey, you can see rural areas of Tokyo and as you get closer to Chichibu, greens and mountains are abundance. The trip to Chichibu is more beautiful during the autumn, when the trees start to change color!!

A beautiful heart shaped decorated with different colors of shibazakura.

Expect a lot of people in the park, especially when shibazakura is at the peak!. People are walking leisurely and enjoying the nature.

The shibazakura is so well planted. Everything is arranged precisely to give the best contrast and design to the people.

A close up of a purple shibazakura, I found this picture lovely, because the shibazakura is starting to wilt, but the greens leaf are growing tall and stronger! A big contrast of life!

and another shot with different colors of shibazakura, pink, white and purple! People are busy snapping pictures and doing hanami too!

Not to miss out in Chichibu is their famous buta-don (roast pork rice). This is the best buta-don, I had in Japan! The pork is perfectly barbecue and smoked with thick and delicious miso sauce! The meat is so juicy and tender, especially the burn fat, it is so crisy and yummy!!!

The portion is huge but you will never stop craving for it!

It is a small shop, and this is the store front, expect a long queue for it! I waited almost 2 hours to eat this tasty meal, and you should come here early, else they might sold out their buta-don!

You can check the store below: map

Morning Exercise

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 30 Apr 2014 13:29:00 +0000

Morning exercise is a norm in every country, but what makes Japan morning exercise unique is everyone has the same dance!

A morning view of people exercising in Warabi park.Notice, everyone has the same exercise movement!

It is just so fortunate that Japanese people have the privilege to exercise in such a beautiful park surrounded with sakura trees! it makes people to be so fresh and relaxing!

During the exercise, everyone will synchronize themselves with the "morning exercise music" broadcast from a portable radio. They are taught of this exercise since they are young! Everyone is an expert of that exercise, you can see perfect synchronization here! From far, it feels like they are dancing for some major events, perhaps preparing for Toky Olympics 2020! :P

Even, the young Japanese are here exercising!

Thou, most of them are the elderly people, everyone finds their best spot before they start exercising!

People strolling around the park, after they have finished exercising.

Shinjuku - Flea Market

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 30 Apr 2014 00:26:00 +0000

Flea market is not so popular in Tokyo, rarely you are able to find them. But, there is one big flea market in Shinjuku, just in front of the Tokyo Metropolitian Government Building in Shinjuku Central Park.

The flea market operate every Sunday, and they are huge variety of items sold, ranging from second hand cloth, antiques, collectible items and cute cute stuff for girls! It is very busy and crowded.with family and students. You can see lots of cute little girl running around and young girls hunting for a good bargains!

There are many stalls selling their stuff, usually the seller are young couples trying to get rid of their old possessions, try to get a good bargain from them!

The majestic Tokyo Metropolitian Government Building, a center for all the administrative works in Tokyo.

Busy, busy and crowded with people!

The flea market is located in front of "Niagara Falls" a water fountain located inside the park

Check out this place, if you want to know about the locals lifestyle!

Yukinko Akira - Rhythm Painter

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 26 Apr 2014 14:13:00 +0000

Yukinko is a very talented artist, I have seen in Tokyo. He popularize himself as a rhythm painter, which means he paints based on the music beats! isnt that interesting?, he custom made a special portable DJ player.

A picture of him dancing and painting an artwork

Isnt that cool and unique???, I google about it, and he is the first person in the world who does this!!!

He will use pen knife to cut and makes shape before he applied color spray on to the drawings. What makes it exciting is, he is dancing based on the music beats and simultaneously cutting the paper with pen knife!

Yukinko will dance continuously and paints at the same time, You could see so tiring after completing an artwork! Here is a nice video I found in Vimeo, documenting about his artwork!

Yukinko Akira ユキンコアキラ from Matthieu Delattre on Vimeo.

He draws a beautiful flower and gives it to one of his audience as a birthday gift! that is so sweet of him!!!

If you are lucky, you can catch him in Yoyogi park during the weekend! he not always there, as he travels around the world to showcase his talent!

You can check him out in his official website:

Yukinko Akira : Official website

Sakura in Myogadani

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 24 Apr 2014 13:16:00 +0000

This is another beautiful sakura spot which is not popular for tourists, only the local will know this place well!!!

Myogadani is just 2 stops from Ikebukuro station. You can take Marunochi Metro line and alight in Myogadani station, it is only 5 mins from Ikebukuro station. Once, you got into Myogadani, the park is just few minutes walk from the station. There are many universities and small corporation in this area.

A lot of people are doing "hanami" (picnic) during lunch time!

What makes this sakura spot unique is the park is situated in between the road. There are more than 10,000 sakuras. But, there are mostly white color species. This is the entrance to the park.

A close up shot of a beautiful sakura flower.

Sakuras trees are planted in the park and the roadside too. When the sakura blooms, the entire street feels like being covered with cotton candy and when the breeze blows, the tiny and gentle sakura pedal starts to fall off creating a snow like effect. It feels so comfortable and relaxing.

A cute little girl is playing near the river stream and their parents are busy chatting or eating. What a relaxing life!

A shot from the roadside.

This place is definitely worth visiting, if you are seeking for new adventure in Tokyo!

NEW Interface

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 24 Apr 2014 02:37:00 +0000

We are getting lots of traffic, within 3 days, we hit our milestone of 1000 viewers! and we are growing rapidly!

We have visitors from all over the world, and we have decided to optimize our page loading speed, by keeping our page simpler than before!

We are very excited to show this new interface to all of you! :)

Drop us a comment, if you have any suggestions or improvements!
Stay tune!

1000 viewership!

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 23 Apr 2014 05:07:00 +0000

Today is a great day, this blog has surpassed the 1000 viewership!

Share this blog more, and discover greater stuff here!
If you are interested to be co-author, drop me a comment or message! :)

Nokogiriyama

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 22 Apr 2014 12:57:00 +0000

Nokogiriyama is located in Chiba, Japan which is about 1 hour train ride from Tokyo station. This is another hidden treasure in Japan, which doesnt get much publicity. It has wonderful view and amazingly rich history in this place!

We took a local train ride from Tokyo station to go to Nokogiri-yama, it took us 2 hours to get there! the train ride is long, but the view along the way is amazing.

This is an old train station, surrounded with greens. By the way, Nokogiri-yama means see-saw shapes mountain.

We arrived to Nokogiri-yama, as it is located near the coastal area. We passed by a fishing village. This is a small fishing boat dock at the village.

We took a ropeway to the peak of Nokogiri-yama, and the view is fabulous.

The cliff is very steep and it is surrounded with dense forests. The cliff stiffness is man-made, long time ago, there are many quarry workers and monks stay at this place. They carve the mountain into this shape.

Most of the monks are Buddhism, they make huge Buddha statues.

Nokogori-yama is famous for this spot, the protruding area of the cliff. Below the protruding edge, it is few hundreds meter deep below.

And this picture is taken right below the edge. It looks like Broccoli vegetable to me!

Beautiful panoramic pictures at the peak, which gives Kanto area visibility during clear day!

This is another side of the peak

There are many Buddha statues on the mountain peak, and this is one of the tallest statue in Japan.

Nokogiri-yama is amazing and definitely one of the underrated spots in Japan! If you do have time, and bored with all the norms in Tokyo, tried out this area!

Tulip

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 21 Apr 2014 14:16:00 +0000

I took this tulip in Hitachi Seaside Park, Japan last year during spring!

Car virtual girlfriend iOS app

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 21 Apr 2014 13:30:00 +0000

This is an interesting iOS application currently developing in Tokyo, Japan.

It is known as 助手席カノジョ (Virtual girlfriend)

It collects CAN data from car using a OBDII connector and the data will be sent to the cloud. CAN (Controller Area Network) data provides car information such as speed, steering angle, engine RPM and etc.

The virtual passenger girlfriend will react based on the CAN data. If the driver drives very fast, the virtual passenger will scream to alert the driver to slow down!

Okutama

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 21 Apr 2014 12:52:00 +0000

Last weekend, went for a hike in Sakura-yama (Sakura mountain) in Okutama. It was 2 hours train ride from Shinjuku station with few transits. It was a long journey with beautiful country side view along the train track.

A picture we took when we are descending from the sakura-yama. The trail is beautiful with many sakura trees along the way! and now she is gone in the picture! isnt this beautiful??? peaceful!

Near the sakura-yama, there is a huge reservoir which provides water source for the Tokyo people. It is known as the Okutama water reservoir.

Having a break at the top of the sakura-yama, with a beautiful view overlooking the dam and sakura trees!

Walking at the dam wall, on my left is filled with water but on my right it is deep down valley (maybe is 30m in depth)

Okutama station is pretty old, and the station decorated with old movie posters inside the station

Interesting video about Japan culture

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 17 Apr 2014 15:34:00 +0000

If you ever wanted to know more about the exotic activities happening in Japan, check out this Youtube channel, they have all sorts of interesting videos about Japan culture!

and it is in English! :)

Shinjuku Park

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 17 Apr 2014 15:01:00 +0000

Here are the pictures I took during my hanami (picnic) last week in Shinjuku Gyoen (park) in Tokyo, Japan. There are so many sakura tress of various species and also thousands of people gather in the park and to enjoy the beauty of sakuras!

This is one of the best season to visit Tokyo, Japan - beginning of April, when the sakura blooms and decorate the dull cityscape of Tokyo, with beautiful flower petals!

Sakura

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 17 Apr 2014 03:56:00 +0000

Spring is here in Tokyo, Japan and the temperature is getting warmer!
Last week, Tokyo is encapsulated with beautiful sakura of various species.

I took a picture of a sakura in Shinjuku Park, when I was having a 'hanami' (picnic)!

Tokyo Ramen

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 17 Apr 2014 02:35:00 +0000

I am currently developing a website about the top, delicious and special ramen that you can be found only in Tokyo, Japan.

You can check out this website here

I am expecting to launch this website beginning of May! so stay tune!

Small vs Big company!

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 27 May 2013 12:52:00 +0000

I am currently working in a middle sized company which has >20 employees in Tokyo and half of my engineering department are "gaijins"!

So, what is a small company in Japan? those with <10 employees and those big company are >1000 employees! There are many MNCs (multi national company) in Japan such as Sony, Panasonics, Toyota and etc, they hired hundreds of thousands employees!

This is how company size is categorised purely based on the number of employees the company hired!

But, the most crucial point is most of the MNCs in Japan has way better working welfares compare to small company! Employee usually received better medical welfare, various allowances such as subsidized computer purchase (Rakuten), free meal (GREE), language training and Japanese culture adaptation (Toshiba), discounted rental (usually 60% cheaper than normal price - Asahi Glass) and the most important of all! the bonus! usually Japanese company will pay bonus twice a year - winter and summer bonus! for big company, their employee could get up to 5 months of bonus a year(Asahi Glass)!!! that hell lot of money!

However, there is a surprising fact that both actually pay almost the same starting salary for their staff! in fact smaller company pays slightly higher compare to the big company! the range of starting pay for engineer is > 210,000 yen!

Tokyo Hotaru Matsuri 2013

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 26 May 2013 13:14:00 +0000

I just went to Tokyo Hotaru Matsuri 2013 yesterday, and the view was amazing!

Matsuri means festival and Hotaru means firefly! it is an annual event held in Sumida river which is near to Asakusa!, if you are not familiar about Asakusa, you might heard of the famous temple there name Sensoji temple, it is one of the biggest temple in Tokyo!

This is the picture that I took from the center of the bridge! there are 100, 000 of floating LEDs are released on that day for the festival!

The LEDs are manufactured by Panasonics to resemble the firefly that flies through the Sumida river in older days! because of rapid development in Tokyo, it is rare scene to see firefly flying through it! thus, Panasonics has decided to bring back the beauty scene back!

The LEDs light are shown below, it is powered with a AA battery! it has a high intensity blue LED and it has diffuser to spread the light. Below the light, it has 2 screws which allows electricity conduction when it touches the water!, it only glows when it touches the water else it wont!

and another interesting point, is the design of the light shape, do notice that at the bottom is flat and at the top is rounded, this allows the light to float upwardly regardless on how it orients itself on the water! it is due to the buoyancy of the light! brilliant engineering by Panasonics for providing this modern firefly!

So, on that day about 7pm, we are given the light and to throw it to the river! It is kinda interesting, it is like the modern Chap Goh Mei instead of throwing oranges we throw "fake" firefly!

Besides, the people constantly throwing the light, the organiser did release thousands of the lights! this makes a spectacular view and it lights up the river! Here is the video on how it looks like!

Now, I will share about the travel tips for this festival! I have to queue up for 1 hour just to get the ticket and 1 hour to get in! There are thousands of people and it is so congested on that day!

Here is the official website for the festival:
http://tokyo-hotaru.jp/

You have 2 options to see the festival either you pay or you see it for free!
a) if you choose to pay for the entrance fee which costs 1000 yen for different zone
> they will give you the light and you can throw it to the river, once you have thrown it you are asked to leave the area because behind you there are so many people queuing up for it! Remember to choose the zone, which has the view of the Skytree!
> to get the ticket, you have 2 options to buy it online or to get it on that day! if you get it on that day it will cost you 1200 yen and you need to queue up for 1 hour!

b) you can see it for free! just get there early in the morning along the Sumida river (near the Asahi buidling), find a spot that you love and camp there! you got to enjoy it for free! but, you just dont get to throw the light that all!

Here is the gallery of pictures of the festival!

Getting a Job!

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 12 May 2013 12:58:00 +0000

If you looking for a job in Japan, you can try to be a English teacher!

Teaching English is one of the most popular job for foreigners in Japan. I have many friends from the Western countries work as a English teacher in primary school or language school! English teacher is the easiest way for you to come into Japan. If the language school is interested at you, they will sponsor your visa to allow you to stay in Japan for few years! and most of the language school do not require you to have Japanese!

You can check the list of English school below:

http://www.eslbase.com/schools/japan

Nova is one of the biggest language school in Tokyo, they have advertisement in every train cabin!

The average salary for English teacher is from 220,000 to 250,000 yen. It depends on which level you are teaching. If you are teaching the older students, you will get more! In addition, you can give private lessons and you can earn more! An average you can charge is 2000 yen per hour!

Is that salary enough for you to survive in Japan??? What is the working culture in Japan??? Stay tune! I will tell you more on my next update! :)

I am a mechanical engineer graduate specializing in mechatronics. I am currently working as a robotics engineer in Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo. To my surprise, Japanese companies are eagerly hiring foreigners! I always thought that Japanese is very closed corporate culture! But, now they are trying to shed off this image. The government is relaxing the rules, making the immigration process much easier and convenient for gaijin!

My company is the only commercial robotics company in Japan, you can google it and I am sure you can find it easily! The good news is my company is actively hiring foreign engineers!

Furthermore, there are few job portals that you can look out for. If you are fresh graduate, you can try the link below:

http://www.topcareer.jp/inter/

or you can try the link below, but this is mostly language career
http://www.gaijinpot.com/

Starting engineering career in Japan don't pay well, the average salary is from 190,000 yen to 230,000 yen per month before tax. Besides, the net take home pay is about 80% of your base salary! But, Japanese company is known for their good bonus! If you are working in big company you can get about 5 months bonus per year! and bonus is paid twice a year! I will address those in the future post, stay tuned! :D

and again most of the starting career in Japan does not require you to know Japanese. This is my biggest surprise to me! So, do not let language as barrier for you to come here! Try to apply and woola you might land a job here! However, I strongly advised you to learn Japanese beforehand because most of the Japanese are really bad in English!, they usually cant speak but they are able to listen to you!

Introduction

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 09 May 2013 13:54:00 +0000

This blog is about me getting my 1st job to work in Tokyo, Japan!

I am from Malaysia and I got this wonderful chance to work abroad after graduating from my university!

I will share my experience on how I got this job and flying here to work and getting all the complicated administrative stuff done! Also, addressing some of the common questions that the 'gaijin' (foreigner in Japanese) wannabe will encounter!

and I make my adventure to Japan more exciting, when I cant even speak a single word of Japanese!
Yes, I could not speak Japanese at all! That is how exciting my journey is! :D

Stay tuned for more! :)