Tokyo (東京)

Tokyo (東京) is a very busy city as you might know, and many tourists come to Tokyo for shopping. If you love going for shopping, Tokyo could be the one you have to visit!

The trains are very complicated in Tokyo especially, so you better prepare where you are going. Japanese people in Tokyo are usually generally kind, so if you are lost, try asking people who do not look busy.

Kanagawa (神奈川)

神奈川 (Kanagawa) is ........

Hyogo (兵庫)

Osaka (大阪)



Osaka developed as the largest city in the western Japan. Osaka was called Kitchen of the world (天下の台所) back in Edo era (江戸時代: 1630-1868). Many traders gathered together in Osaka to buy and sell products and they spread all around Japan. So their own food culture developed such as Okonomiyaki(お好み焼き: Japanese pan cake), Takoyaki (たこ焼き). You will enjoy food there.

<Source: http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%A4%A7%E9%98%AA>



Okonomiyaki (お好み焼き)

Takoyaki shop(たこ焼き屋)

 



Kyoto (京都)

Kyoto International Manga Museum（京都国際マンガミュージアム）

Needless to say, Manga is the most famous Japanese products in the whole world.
The Kyoto International Manga Museum was opened in 2006 as a Manga Research Center in cooperation with Kyoto city and the Manga Department of Kyoto Seika University. Monash University in Australia and Universitat Leipzig in Germany support the collection of Manga from all over the world. There are 300,000 books and materials related to Manga as of 2011.

Visitors are able to read 50,000 books published from 1970 to 2005 in the permanent exhibition room. The shelves in the room are called Manga no kabe, the wall of Manga.
Children can learn the process of Manga drawing through educational programs and workshops. Cosplay events and photo sessions are held every month. Patrons can see cosplayers wearing various Anime and Manga costumes in the museum.
Kyoto International Manga Museum HP in English (http://www.kyotomm.jp/english/)

Hokkaido (北海道)

Fukuoka (福岡)

New post

Trip to Japan (沖縄) is updated. :)

Okinawa (沖縄)

Okinawa is located in the very south west part of Japan, and one of very famous tourism spots. Okinawa has a very special history. Before Okinawa officially became a part of Japan in 1879, it used to be an independent country and had a very close trading relationship with Japan, China, Korea, South East Asia and other neighbour countries. Because of that multicultural background, Okinawa built a fusion of culture based on its own culture. If you visit castles and temples there, you can feel how Okinawa has been developing its own culture for a long time.

Shurijo (首里城)

Shisa (シーサー)

Some of you might know that Okinawa was the only one prefecture that experienced land battle during World War Two. You can visit many memorial parks or museums to learn what happened in Okinawa.

<source: http://rca.open.ed.jp/history/index.html>

Okinawa Peace Memorial Park

 Shurijo (首里城) 
Shurijo was one of the strong kingdom back in Ryukyu (琉球) which was an independent country.

I went to Shurijo back in Fwbruary 2009, and it was my first time to trip to Okinawa.

Climb the stairs and enter the big gate of the old kingdom!



The model of Shurijo:
It does not look like tradittional Japanese kingdom from the way so many people sit in that way. I guess it is simillar to Chinese?

The view from the castle

Unfortunately the castle is not the original castle, but I could still enjoy imagining how the kingdom was run, how people were living there by entering in the castle and museum.  The view from the castle was beautiful. I enjoyed the contrast between the area storing its ancient history and modern buildings where people live now. Just visit and feel the history there!