Today’s topic is about Studio Ghibli Museum in Mitaka city, Tokyo. Some or many should know that this is the top animator of Japan, Hayao Miyazaki’s museum, and he also often work inside here.  When guests from the world come to see him, they are often invited into this museum for coffee tolk with Hayao Miyazaki ( what a lovely experience !).

In this studio, we can see many tear dropping animation characters like the robot ( see photo ) played in the Castle in the Sky, Cat bus and big Totoro doll in the movie, TOTORO.

Also probably it’s still playing short animation for visitors, even it’s short, many who saw it say it’s wonderful as always.

If you are a fan of Hayao Miyazaki films, it’s a good choice to visit while your trip in Japan.

Museum house is rather big as Japanese houses go,  yet it’s maybe small for visitors from the USA or such big countries.  Japan has small space only.

It’s often crowded on weekend. If possible it’s better for you going on weekdays.  It’s in Mitaka city in Tokyo, but actually it takes 1 hour or so to get there bu using train and walking from the train station if you come from center of Tokyo.

For ticket information or access, please see  http://www.ghibli-museum.jp/en

Enjoy your trip !

There is a unique study about Kyoto’s origin, which is that Kyoto is similar to the formation of Jerusalem. I heard that Jerusalem means City of Peace, and the old name of Kyoto is Heian Kyo which means also Capital of peace. It is often said that Hata Clan made this city, and some say that Hata Clan is a tribe from the West and even more some say they were Jewish people.

I can’t tell the similarity of 2 cities here enough because there are a lot of facts about it.

If you are interested in that history, please refer to this site: http://www5.ocn.ne.jp/~magi9/isracame.htm

Anyway, Kyoto became the total Capital of Japan then.  The religion, Shinto of Japan, was also based here in Kyoto mainly. You can see a lot of shrines of Shinto religion and also temples of Buddhism are a lot here in Kyoto.  All of them are truly beautiful and the skill of the architectures is historically important for study of Kyoto, or Japan.

There are very traditional festivals in Kyoto such as Gion Festival and Aoi Festival.  ( Just for a sample information, the Gion festival is said to have the same origin and purpose of the Jewish Festival, also the word, Gion,  derives from Zion. )

Kyoto is enjoyable for us Japanese too.  Food of Kyoto is really good and visually beautiful.  I’m not sure if they are also good for travelers from overseas, I think it worth trying at least a time.

Geisha and Maiko still exist in this city and they give us real traditional entertainment of Japan.  Japanese traditional music ( or ancient music ) is called GAGAKU.  The Gagaku music is also originated in Kyoto. Again the founder of Gagaku is said to be Hata Clan.

One of the world oldest novels called Genji Monogatari, or Genji Story was also written by Murasaki Shikibu here in Kyoto, and the book is about the Heian (Kyoto) aristocrats love story.  The aristocrat is called Fujiwara clan at the time, however, still they are very powerful in Japanese society over politics, economy, and culture.  Fujiwara Clan has played a significant role in Japanese history since this Heian period of time.  Fujiwara clan is also said to be related with Hata Clan by a study of Japanese history although some still wonder about it.

Kyoto’s best season is without a doubt Fall, then next, Spring.  Trees turn into amazing colors.  Especially Fall in Kyoto has the busiest time for sightseeing.

It’s not hard to walk around in this city because the train or bus transportation system is well networked. If you are confident in driving skill in Japan, car is also a good option for sightseeing.  But please check the heavy traffic time before you rent a car.

If you like old city sightseeing, Kyoto tour might take 3 or 4 days, or at least 2 days.  After Kyoto, going to Nara city is a good option.  Close to Nara city, there is the main Shinto shrine of Japan, Ise Jingu Shrine.  Ise Jingu is a kind of the heart of Japan.  In the old time of Japan ( still now more or less ), people never failed to visit Ise Jingu while they were alive.  They believed life is completed with the holly pilgrimage to Ise Jingu. Still this custom of Japanese is alive with us.

If you prefer modern cities like Tokyo, maybe 2 days would be enough in Kyoto, so finish Kyoto within 2 days and you can skip to Osaka, Kobe or Nagoya.  From Osaka, it’s easy to take flight to Tokyo or Fukuoka, or even to a far place of Sapporo in Hokkaido.

If you are the first time traveler to Japan,  It’s not a bad idea at all to take a trip to Kyoto.  You will see a very spiritual and beautiful part of Japan there.

KYOTO WALK

ISE JINGU WALK

Shirakawago is well known for its preservation of old houses of the local community.  This area is in Gifu Prefecture of Japan, which is next to Kyoto Prefecture.  As you see in the photo, many houses are kept in traditional form of Japan, which is called Gasshou Tsukuri or Gasshou make as a old house making skill.

Shirakawago is registered as a Japanese cultural heritage and in recent year, this place was also recognized as one of the world heritages by UNESCO.

If you like urban life, this place is not interesting for you at all. However, for seeing the history of people’s life in Japan, many of the old customs are still reserved here.

This place is beautiful in both Summer and Winter.  In Winter it has much snow, then you need a winter tiers in case the you drive.  Also it’s beautiful in the night time.  Night walk in this town gives you a nice memory of your Japan tour.

If you love neon lights city, you can come back in Kyoto or Osaka in the night and you can enjoy the night life there.

However, there are a lot of nice food and beautiful scenery in Hokkaido that we should not miss in our travels.

Joys of Hokkaido travels are really a lot.

Transportation to Hokkaido is possibly either by air or car.  There is a tunnel from mainland to the south of Hokkaido, so we con go through it.  For saving time, the best way is taking airplane to Sapporo city from any large cities in other parts of Japan.  Flight time is not long as Japan is not big like Russia or the USA.

After arriving in Sapporo, you can rent a car and can start driving.  To be honest, the best time for driving is not Winter.  Summer, Fall, and Spring gives you fantastic beauty of landscape.

In Winter, there is a famous snow & ice festival in Sapporo, it’s scheduled from February 6th to 12th in this year, 2012. You can chech it at  http://www.snowfes.com/english/index.html

Staying in Sapporo, we, people living in mainland or southern places of Japan,  feel a little different from our ordinary life.  Land names are a little different, maybe it’s because the origin of the land names are from Ainu tribe.  But the names sound beautiful for us just like exotic places.  Sapporo, Niseko, Furano,  or lake Mashu are some examples of unique names. Actually there are more as such names.

If you like Ramen, I recommend you eat Sapporo Ramen.  It’s Miso soup based Ramen (  Not exactly same as Miso Soup taste but good !).   You can try it in Tokyo or other parts of Japan, but the main area for Miso Ramen is Sapporo.  I think you can have good one there.

Hokkaido is really beautiful.  I like there as much as  I like Tokyo,  Kyoto, and Okinawa.

HOKKAIDO IN WINTER

DRIVE IN HOKKAIDO of FALL Near FURANO CITY

I was born here and traveled a lot in the world. Also I saw nice countries, nice people, and unique cultures. I often thought Japan has no good things to see for inbound travelers to Japan.

Staying far away from Japan, I gradually noticed like “my country, Japan, seems to have many thing we should be proud of”.

A few years ago, I went back in Japan after a long time absence.

Now I think, for me, Japan is a truly best country and one and only place to live until I die. Now I can say, without any hesitation, I love this country, people, tradition, food, nature, technology Japan produces, and even the recent POP culture like Anime, Manga, films and  music.

Now I live in a mountain resort area of Japan. In this place I feel some kind of sacred spirit this country has.  Something tells me there’s God watching over me here in this place…..it might be God of forest, or God of this land.  Some people might think my comment here is odd and crazy.  But it’s also strange for me to feel like that because I didn’t have that kind of emotion until I came back here in my later life stage.

Ordinary scenes like mountains, flowers, rivers, skies, and some old and new buildings of shrines, temples, and even people’s houses sensitively convey the meaning of Japan.. how the ancestors of Japan lived and fostered this country.  Being in Japan now, it’s an amazing experience for me.

Being surrounded by people of Japan, I feel comfort. Having Japanese food, I feel relaxed over my body. Enjoying Japanese music, anime, and more entertainment stuff, I really feel fun and rejoice. Often these stuff of Japan brings me tears.

Although there are many negative aspects in Japan,  I found this is the country of my destiny.  I was born in the right place, right country.  My human nature was raised by this country’s sense, and this is the true pleasure of mine.

I often feel like traveling in Japan. I found that I didn’t travel much here.  There would be more fantastic thing if I trip in this land. There would be more surprising discovery here in this country if I could see now.

I know this feeling of mine is coming from the fact that I’m Japanese.

However, I also want more people from other countries to feel something new in Japan.  I think Japan might have something…. a kind of profound meaning of life for some people too.

Thank you for reading.

Okinawa’s ocean is truly transparent and its beaches are speechlessly wonderful with white sands and warm winds.  People of Okinawa is extremely kind and they live in peace.

This song, HANA, is one of the representing songs of Okinawa. When we Japanese hear this song, something inside us shakes our soul strongly.  And instantly it takes our mind to the beautiful beaches and the ultimate paradise of human life.

Hana is often sung by some other singers in Okinawa, but personally I like Rimi Natsukawa’s version together with the original singer.  Originally this was composed by an Okinawan, Shokichi Kina, who is already a legendary musician of Okinawa even he is still alive in our time.

Rimi Natsukawa’s  Hana is simply beautiful and it reaches our soul deeply.  Shokichi Kina’s version is more soulful and it has stronger sense in conveying the message of the song.

Please enjoy.

Also I especially listen to this song, Nada Sou Sou, by a beautiful female singer, Rimi Natsukawa.  Nada Sou Sou means that tear drops and this song conveys the feeling how beautiful the life in Okinawa is.

Okinawa is often picked up on a news by the issue of American military base or as the war spot of world war 2.  It’s also sad to see this fact that this beautiful islands of Okinawa is faced with such political matters.

But without thinking of such things, I want to enjoy this beautiful song with joy of life we have.  Please enjoy it and please travel to Okinawa if you get interested in Okinawa.

Certainly this song expresses Okinawa people’s mind very well, this melody is very the culture and people of Okinawa.

During the long vacation time called Golden Week in Japan, some worried there wouldn’t be much travelers coming to Matsushima.  But this beautiful travel spot, which has been adored by a lot of people in the history of Japan, actually collected many visitors.

It’s reported as the numbers of travelers during this vacation week seems to be about 90 to 95 % of this week last year.  This is an amazing recovery because Sendai area, or especially the coast places of Miyagi Prefecture ( where Sendai is located in ) are still supposed like  godforsaken places, being still on the process of taking tons of debris out.

At Matsushima, people go sailing on big ship to see many islands in the bay.  They feed gathering birds for food on the deck of the ship, which is a joy of visiting children in Matsuhima.  Many are enjoying this attraction on the ship.  It means many of them already forgot the nightmare of tsunami, and their mind is already nearly being healed.

Other than Matsushima, some famous travel spots like Aizu Wakamatsu in Fukushima Prefecture, Nikko in Tochigi Prefecture, and Nasu in Tochigi Prefecture which is known as a Emperor’s resort place in summer are already back in the normal travel places.

Good Luck Japan !

20 kilometer circled area and some other dense radiation area are prohibited trespassing.  Koriyama is not especially picked up as warning area, as the radiation rate is assessed at 1.6 micro sievert per hour.

People in Kyoriyama city looked normal today.  Maybe some or many like staying home rather than walking on streets.  But the city I saw today was just standard looking with restaurants opened and many cars on the roads.

Staying in Fukushima doesn’t always mean it’s dangerous.  Fukushima Prefecture is rather wide.  As the name of plant is FUKUSHIMA power plant, many may think all the Fukushima Prefecture is risky to visit.  But staying in cities like Koriyama, Fukushima ( this means CITY, not Prefecture ), Shirakawa or Aizu Wakamatsu is not that bad now, I think.

Many officials or media workers are everyday staying in Fukushima City where disaster control headquaters is.  This also proves that above cities are rather safe.

Living in Japan, it’s not that hard to come here to touch his footprints in Japan, but I didn’t have a chance for it since I came to know about this hotel’s relation with John Lennon.

I walked in the hotel and warm welcome by a doorman was a real pleasure for me from the first impression.  I asked if I could look around inside in spite that I was a tourist, and he said ” Yes, please”.   I soon noticed this hotel is really historically grown by gentle travelers in Japan and recently from all over the world.   Dimly light inside is a decent decoration for this hotel’s panach, and the warmly lighted interior woods show the stream of time that this hotel has been well cared by hotel staff and the owner.

I think I’m a frequent traveler and I’ve seen many nice hotels in the world, and in Japan too.  Most of recent renowned hotels are indeed beautiful with new design of architecture and they have all the travelers want.  In that sense, Mampei hotel can’t be said the top modern hotel as it’s made of old style wood materials and probably the wood made rooms are not well protected for noises of next door rooms compared to the modern stylish hotels in majour cities of the world like Tokyo, NYC.  However, the atmosphere of this Mampei hotel can’t be beaten by the modern technology or any new style fashion.  It’s the history that this hotel wispers without a word when we travelers visit.  It means we travelers should adjust ourselves to the old tradition of  travelers, that  hangs over Mampei hotel.

I imagined John Lennon’s figure although Ive never seen him.  His figure in my mind appreared in front of the gate and I really missed John as I remember he is no more here with us. 

It’s sure that all the staff here are accustomed to tourists like me.  I asked one of them ” where is the room John stayed ? “, then soon she answered  “it’s up on the second floor, the room 128 on Alps wing, but today we have a guest there, sorry you can’t go there”. 

I didn’t get disappointed because I can’t knock the door of the room 128.  But I took the room’s photos from outside as you see here ( the room 128 is in the right-hand wing on the second floor, you can see the windows with curtains opened in the middle , That’s 128 ! ).

Walking inside the hotel, I soon found a hotel’s history gallery in a little backside of the main lobby. There, I nearly began to weep when I saw John’s photos taken at this hotel at the time of his visit with Yoko and Sean.  Also there was a very old piano beside photos and it’s explained that the piano was long used in the dining room of the hotel and John also played it sometimes.  I pressed some keys of  the piano, being too old, sound of them are already out of keys.  

Did John play IMAGINE then ?  I wondered bcause he came here in 1970 for the first time, so he already had the song IMAGINE when he was here. After that, John constantly visited this hotel each summer after 1976 to  1979, just before he was shot.

All over any negative thoughts about John’s death,  I was really glad like being over the moon today.  I played the same piano as John played and I sat before the same piano keys as John touched.  I don’t know how many times I dreamt playing music with him or the Beatles.  Although it’s just an image play with him, I might have played a song of imagination with John today over the old broken piano.

It’s just a  song called IMAGINE for me today…….in spite that keys are out of tune.