We currently have an interesting couch surfer staying with – this time from Germany. He is travelling around the world in 80 days. staying as he goes with different couch surfers. And back home, a group of hip hop artists made a track about him. Funky!
He has a blog here, if you read German and want to check it out: http://www.stern.de/blog/94_extreme-couch-hopper.
We have been having a few travellers staying with us recently here in Japan and it has been interesting to hear what they think about this country, and moreover, what their expectations were prior to arrival in these lands.
Any country is a “diverse beast” and Japan is no exception. Surfing the web this morning I came across the following articles which cover a couple of the multitudinous faces of Japan – technology, tradition and ecology.
So lets start with cute technology. Geekyblog has a post featuring a very cute robot: Postkun – Limited Edition Japanese Robot.
They have this to say about the robot:
This funky looking robot is the creation of Tokyo based company Kyosho, he is called Postkun, which means ‘Little Postman’ in Japan.
Postkun will be available in a limited edition of just 10 robots, and only available in Japan for about $3,500.
That price seems a bit steep, so I don’t think I will be getting one unless my boss starts paying me more – a lot more!
You can read more about Postkun here: Postkun – Limited Edition Japanese Robot.
Treehugger – a website I quite enjoy reading, has an interesting piece on Paco House. A long way from Le Corbusier, Paco House is an alternative to dome housing, offering the possibility of a second house that is just gorgeous.
Doesn’t that just look idyllic? Especially from the midst of winter in Tokyo.
They add:
Let’s say you needed a really small house, perhaps a Dome Home, to put on a secluded place on a beach, somewhere far off and away. Schemata Architecture Office Ltd. is a group of designers showing a concept small second house that you could build yourself, or perhaps help to develop. I like the freedom of this. You could put it anywhere. If no-one complains, you are ok to go. Are there laws against second house freedom?
Indeed, who would complain! You can read more about the Paco House, and see some more pictures here: Small House Design “Paco” From Japan.
And finally the traditional – Men at Work: Artisans of Old Japan. No not an Australian 80’s band trying to make music using the remains of last nights dinner, but a well researched article from Slate Magazine. There are three parts up at the moment, and it looks like more are on the way.
The writer June Thomas kicks off:
Every language attracts a special kind of student. Spanish speakers are lazy and charming. Those who have mastered French are sometimes chic and always sybaritic. Hebrew attracts the committed; Turkish, the committed and complicated. Adventurers are drawn to Arabic, and Mandarin is for brainiacs who love a challenge—so much so that they often abandon the language altogether once they’ve got it down. And Japanese? Japanese speakers are serious, serious people. Of course, all languages demand tedious, diligent study, but there’s something about Japanese that calls out to those who are quiet, kind, and, often, spiritual. People who would rather kneel on a tatami mat contemplating a calligraphy scroll than, say, slump on a sofa watching Gossip Girl.
I always fancied myself too frivolous for Japan. Going there would be like visiting a library—a quiet, orderly place where nothing much happens. A world unto itself with lovely things to look at but nothing much to do. I love libraries; I just didn’t want to spend my vacation in one. All that politeness stressed me out. There seemed to be a million rules—take your shoes off here, wear these slippers in the bathroom and nowhere else—and I didn’t understand any of them.
You can read the rest of the article here: Men at Work: Artisans of Old Japan. That should keep you going till lunchtime.
I found this beautiful website – http://www.hdrjapan.com/ while surfing yesterday and thought the photos so gorgeously luscious that I just had to post some of them here.
Katsuren Castle
Katusuren Castle is located on the Katsuren Peninsula on the eastern coast of Okinawa. Today, the ruins of the castle are an educational attraction, hosting tourists, schoolchildren, amateur historians, and curious passersby.
Obon in Okinawa
Obon is a three-day holiday set aside each summer to honor deceased ancestors. During this period, family members celebrate the return of ancestral spirits by gathering together, feasting, and praying.
Hamahiga Island
Hamahiga Island is a small landmass located off the Katsuren Peninsula on the eastern coast of Okinawa Honto. Roughly 2.5 square kilometers in area, Hamahiga’s small size belies its importance in Ryukyu mythology. The island’s name comes from the two communities on opposite sides of the small mass: Hama and Higa.
I haven’t travelled to Okinawa (yet), but looking at these photos makes me really want to visit those idyllic islands. Of course the photos are HDR photos which always makes photos seem completely mindblowing but wow! it does look fascinating. I particularly like the third image posted above as I think it quite captures the ambient mood of early evenings out on the islands.
You can see more of the photos here: http://www.hdrjapan.com/.
Wouldn’t you just love to visit there?
Congratulations to Rent My Flat in Feodosia!
This is a website I help look after for a Turkish friends’ flat in the Crimean resort town of Feodosia. This year they were featured in the Lonely Planet, something they are very proud about.
The Lonely Planet had this to say about the website:
Rentmyflatinfeodosia.com (www.rentmyflatinfeodosia.com) – This private apartment for rent …. also has an informative English website with detailed museum, restaurant and bar listings.
Nice to hear that they think the site we put together is useful and informative.
I put up a page about the Lonely Planet Ukraine Travel Guide.
I was planning to visit Feodosia this month, but got offered a new job that was too interesting to turn down – hopefully we can visit this exciting place next year!
All the best to the Rent My Flat in Feodosia team.
As upstairsforthinking pointed out, Google’s Street View has hit Japan and now you can navigate around some parts of the Isles of the Rising Sun from the comfort of your own home. It is going to take a lot more work before they cover the whole country, and I imagine if this gets more popular there will be some privacy complaints (privacy law is quite strong in Japan), but this is a very useful tool indeed.
Here is the view of the entrance to our apartment building.
Now, can you find Tokyo Tower from here?
This map shows places I have lived and visited within Japan. Places in pink are prefectures I have lived in – Akita, Osaka, Tokyo and Ibaraki. In red are places I have stayed in – including Hiroshima, most of Tohoku, Ishikawa, Chiba (where we stayed at Tateyama at the tip of Boso Peninsula). The other colours represent places we have walked around, or just passed through on the train.
The website is called Keiken – which is a play on the Japanese words for experience, as well as passing through a prefecture.You can check out their website here: Keiken. (in Japanese only).
Upstairs for thinking has a post linking to the Japan Land and Transport Ministry’s “Japan Tourism Policy” website which makes for an interesting read, answering such puzzling questions as:
Q: Is all the Japanese land urbanized like Tokyo? Is there no natural landscape left anywhere in Japan?
Q: Please tell me where Japan is located. Can I go from Tokyo to Hong Kong by Shinkansen bullet train?
or my personal favourite,
Q: Are there samurai in today’s Japan?
The answers to those questions and more can be found here. Is it just me, or are they taking the piss? Of course there are samurai. Here is a picture of one taken in Nagoya:
(credit: Rumpleteaser 
)
And you have to be very careful and stop and bow when they pass by or they will chop your head off. Actually I was late for work yesterday because this happened!
Some other interesting posts about Japan around the net recently include: Things About America I Didn’t Know While I Lived There from Life Nomadic’s blog. They have been doing a bit of travelling recently and one their travels came to Japan. Their post compares life in Japan, the United States and Panama and makes for a good read. You can check it out here. And, Hacking Japan: Inside Tokyo for Less than New York from Tim Ferriss, author of the 4-Hour Work Week reminisces about his time in Japan. His unusual top four is a good little list of places to visit in Japan (although listing Akihabara is perhaps not the most timely):
The Most Unusual Top 4
Ghibli Museum: This is the real-life Alice in Wonderland. The most incredible museum I have ever visited, hidden in a park and designed by animation powerhouse Ghibli Studios, this gem is a home run. Get tickets at a Lawson convenience store well in advance.
Tsukiji Fish Market: Get up EARLY (around 5am) and see the largest fish market in the world. A single tuna for $40,000 USD? That’s low-end. Wrap up eating the best sushi in the world for breakfast in the outer market. Unforgettable.
Takeshita Doori: The kids and fashion here must be seen to be believed. Indescribable, especially sitting right next one of the most beautiful shrines in Tokyo. Red contacts and outfits that make Marilyn Manson look like Pokemon? Prepare to be amused.
Akihabara: From “maid cafes” (you can sit in a mock living room and have maids at your beck-and-call for food, newspaper, coffee, etc.) to electronics years ahead of the US, this “computer city” is the mecca of geekdom. Otaku central. Moe moe kyuuuuu!
You can check out his post here – along with a beautiful photo from Kyushu!
Finally I found a new blog about Japan that has a nice magazine style layout: check out the sevententotokyo.com blog!
Before we left Japan for China, we visited the Boso Peninsula, which is part of Chiba prefecture and forms one side of the entrance to Tokyo Bay. We took the train down from Tokyo through to the Miura Peninsula. Miura Peninsula is the site of the American military base at Yokosuka. From Kurihama on the Miura Peninsula, we took the ferry across the bay (Japanese only site) to the port at Kaneya in Chiba. We visited the Giant Buddha at Nihondera, took the cable car and enjoyed a nice walk around there. We stayed at a little ryokan in Tateyama City. The next day we went around the tip of the peninsula.
It is a nice trip / weekend away from Tokyo. Being vegetarian we didn’t take advantage of the areas bountious seafoods which the peninsula is famous for. We went just after I bought the camera, so some of the photos have a strangely bluish hue to them.
This is where we are heading tomorrow – the Shimokita Peninsula which is the axe shaped peninsula at the top of Japan’s main island of Honshu. It isn’t winter now, so it wont be too much like that video.　Will spend a couple of days up there, and even visit hell.
