Close to my hometown, there is a popular resort palce, NASU.  Emperor would visit there every now and then, remembering the time of his visit, the roads are crowded with people to celebrate the visit with national flags in their hands.

This summer, emperor and Price visited Nasu respectively. Both visits reminded me of those old days I remember as I spent summer time in Nasu after a long time overseas stay.

For me, nothing is so special even if they come, however, the Nasu town looks totally different with exciting atmosphere everytime it happens.

Usually Emperor or Prince spend a week or so here in Nasu for relaxing.

Now we have, what we call, Obon time in Japan, which is one of traditional national events with consecutive national holidays.  Usually people of Japan enjoy holidays from 13th to 15th of August, and many go back to their hometown.  The reason for their retruning home is mainly the memorial service for the dead by the custom of Japan, which should be what Obon is.  Recently this vacation time tends to expand longer, consequently companies often give workers to have discretion for longer vacation time. Now the trains or highways are all crowded in rush.

Origin of this unique tradition of Japan is not known well as it’s not stated clearly in the history documents either.  As one of the analogies, it’s said Obon comes from custom of Buddhism.

In the genesis of historic time of Japan, or maybe before 8th centry or older time, in the sense of ancestor worship, spirits of ancestors are believed to fall down on the world of ours to visit their descendant twice a year. One of the visits became the ceremony of new years day and the other one became Obon we have now. It’s not known when the present formation was completed as such 2 spirit fall down times, New Years Day and Obon time.

Also the influence of Buddhism can’t explain all the origin and history stream of this national custom, some say that it’s also under the shadow of Shinto of Japan, which is also an original religion that was formed in ancient time of Japan.

It seems true that this Obon used to be held on July 15th each year on the lunar calender ( old calender ) before the solar calender or Western calender was adopted in Japan.

Tomorrow, August 15th, will be the last day of Obon vacation time.  People who went back to their hometown are now on their way to their life places and they need to prepare for their work again with refreshed mind.

As a footnote, around the Obon time, there are many firework events, old style festivals called Omatsuri, visiting graves called Hakamairi, and also memorial events of the 2nd world war.  Especially the last one includes the memorial evens for the termination of the war ended together with a prayer for peace in the atomic bomb city of Hiroshima.

Actually, most famous castle we can see is Edojo Castle, which is a Castle in Tokyo. Emperor of Japan now live in that castle, so nobody can go in now.  Edojo, or Tokyo castle is relatively new among those remaining castles. That was built about 400 years ago by Ieyasu Tokugawa, who dominated Japan over 200 years by his family members.

Also, Kyoto has a castle and Osaka has one. Like them, still there are many castles in cities, for example, Kumamoto city, Nagoya city, Matsumoto city, Aizuwakamatsu city, Sendai city, Hiroshima city, Himeji city….and more.  It’s said there werre about 30,000 castles in total at the maximum mumber in the history. 

It’s nice to know the history through the castles for us too.  As an amazing fact, many of them are still existing nearly in the original form, which means the old builders’ skill were amazing too.

 Please see some of the beautiful castles here.

It’s said that the world is facing global warming. However, this year started with heavy snow in my hometown and in the northern parts of Japan.

When we were kids, every year we had heavy snow and we could enjoy skiing and skating. Recent years, the amount of snow in winter of Japan decreased apparently, compared to the time of our childhood.

But this year’s snow reminds me of that old time. 

I had been very busy since December last year, but with this snow, I have to start working again.

Now Japanese skiing season has come !

For the last 4 years, it’s been more than 7 million. This big reduction in numbers is mainly because of the financial crisis, which led higher Japanese Yen rate. The report says so.

Japan’s target of tourist numbers from overseas is, at this stage, 10 million people, and they want to realize it by 2015.

Asian countries are located far from America or Europe, that’s why the increase of tourist number always depends on nighbour Asian countries like China or South Korea, and Taiwan.

Sooner or later it will be more than 10 millon travelers a year because Asian countries will more grow rich. But tourism often depends on promotion or good information to the world. But I don’t know if Japan can create more Japan fans even if they promote Japan more to the world.

Now popular tour purpose of world travelers to Japan are food, pop culture, technology, or sightseeing of old cities.

I like Japan and I think Japan has many things for tourists, but in fact, I’m not sure if Japan has more attractive aspects than Asian popular destinations like China, India, Thai or Indonesia.

I like traveling in Japan, but when compared to them, I don’t think travelers choose Japan first of all for their destination.

As everyone knows, godsent genius John Lennon chose a Japanes for his second wife, Yoko Ono. While John was busy as house husband for his son, Sean, Yoko Ono and John Lennon came to Japan with Sean.

In Japan, John and Yoko visited Karuizawa, a city of resort, each year from 1976 to 1979 before John was shot to death.  Then the hotel they stayed was always MAMPEI HOTEL.

Actually each summer, some often reported with huge surprise that they saw John Lennon in JAPAN!!!!  Often, the first time they see John, they don’t understand who it is, but beside the tall cool guy, they see the one and only unforgettable face of Yoko Ono. Then, they notice it’s John.  Of course, real fans recognized John with jumping joy to the moon. 

One of my friends told me with unbelievable excitement that he saw John at a coffee shop in Karuizawa smoking cigarettte with Yoko.  He was a crazy fan but he could not say anything because something bound all of his body. He just saw the unbelievable scene, and after they two left the coffee shop, he approached to the table and picked up John’s cigarette butt from the ashtray.  As a fact, it became his life time treasure ! 

MAMPEI HOTEL is a traditional & semi modern accommodation in KARUIZAWA. Its old but mixed culture sense of building impresses us with Meiji era atomosphere, when long time of closed country ends and started importing Western cultural influence.

If the video is still available, you can see the foot prints of John Lennon at  MAMPEI HOTEL.

Here in this video, bakery and coffer shop where John used to use, and a hut where John used to sleep are shown. Also beautiful photos of KARUIZAWA and MAMPEI HOTEL will invite you to the real beauty of Japanese resort place.

If you are a fan of John Lennon, without hesitation, we can recommend this hotel and Karuizawa for you to visit.  Even if you are not, this place is a very nice place to choose for your memorial trip.

Tohoku Zao area is famous for its beautiful snow trees ( juhyo: see photo), which natural wind and snow makes in the winter highland area. Also Hokkaido snow is really wonderful powder type, so many skiers once visited there can’t forget the experience.

Now if you go from Tokyo, Nagano highland area might be the best.  It’s not that distant from Tokyo, and the facilities in skiing area are always great enough to a lot of skiers from Tokyo or Osaka.  In Nagano, there was Olympic games and at the time, many skiing area were upgraded for international use.

Until the end of April, Nagano Skiing area will be accepting a lot of guests from Japan and from overseas.

If you choose a place, Nagano area is one of the recommendations. Please check from next link. There are many ski hotels and skiing areas shown.

Hotels and Travels in Japan