I think most travel sites aren’t very helpful, and I found an easy way to upload a few pictures per temple. Consider these a teaser to help you decide where to go. Also, they’re all on the map. Nisonin is pretty big, and pretty pretty, but not overly distinguished from some other temples you’ll go […]
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Giouji, Kyoto (祇王寺)
I think most travel sites aren’t very helpful, and I found an easy way to upload a few pictures per temple. Consider these a teaser to help you decide where to go. Also, they’re all on the map. I guess this is a sentimental favorite of mine. If memory serves, it’s one of those places […]
Adashino Nenbutsuji, Kyoto (化野念仏寺)
I think most travel sites aren’t very helpful, and I found an easy way to upload a few pictures per temple. Consider these a teaser to help you decide where to go. Also, they’re all on the map. Adashino Nenbutsuji is pretty well-known because of the ‘garden’ of little statues. The effect is kinda spoiled […]
Otagi Nenbutsuji, Kyoto (愛宕念仏寺)
I think most travel sites aren’t very helpful, and I found an easy way to upload a few pictures per temple. Consider these a teaser to help you decide where to go. Also, they’re all on the map. Otagi Nenbutsuji was one of my favorites. It’s small but very quiet (at least at 10 AM […]
New York Bar, Park Hyatt, Shinjuku
Darkness envelopes me as I exit from the medicinally quiet stillness of the Oedo line’s City Hall terminus. This is a dead part of town at night, with no walkers and only the occasional filming session for a TV police procedural to break the womblike, tomblike silencium. Walking south along Shinjuku Central Park, the menacing […]
Grill Chateau, Yaesu
Ye’ll find this elegant chateau down a narrow alley in Yaesu, the east side of Tokyo station. The crennelations and gothic woodwork are particularly striking against the backdrop of small, worn buildings that populate the rest of the region. As you cross the expansive drawbridge, you’ll be heralded by a row of trumpeters in livery, […]
Okamoto, Asakusa (岡本)
Full-screen If guts are your thing, this whole street is for you. It’s a string of little izakayas with tables on the street, cheap japanese bar food with a slight Korean slant, and a different special ‘beef stew’ at each location. The individual recipes feature varying degrees of nasty bits (if I was writing a […]
Sumidagawa Fireworks
There’s a first time for everything, and this was the first time I’ve been dragged along to brave the crowds at the Sumida River Fireworks festival, Tokyo’s biggest (though pretty limited by the urban setting; some other displays are much bigger). If you’re really up for a big evening, you should pony up for tickets […]
Ginza, Ginza
Sorry, no time to get up a real post about dinner (Saturday and Sunday nights were both quite good!), but here’s a little randomness from Saturday afternoon in Ginza, pre-dinner. ‘White Rose’ has always amused me. It’s a hostess club, but it sort of inverts the whole ‘privacy and discretion’ thing that I associate with […]
Hourai, Yaesu (蓬莱)
Cold Noodle Exploration Month (season?) continued today as I wandered through Yaesu looking for a likely candidate among the largish concentration of Chinese places there. Hourai was advertising their construction of cold noodle dishes (it’s the white page on the blackboard, so definitely seasonal), and I like the look too. A very pleasantly family-feeling place, […]