Weekend in Tohoku.

Weekend in Tohoku.

Monday, 31 August 2009

I spent a weekend in Tohoku - the northeastern region of Japan. The biggest attraction of this trip for me was my 6-year-old neice who lives in Sendai, spending the whole weekend with her was really wonderful :)

We also went up to Yamagata prefecuture, only one hour drive from Sendai and visited a place called Yamadera which literally means "Mountain Temple" and is famous for the "Narrow Road to the Deep North" (Oku-no-hosomichi 奥の細道) where a haiku poet Matsuo Basho stopped by and penned famed haiku poem. The "Narrow Road" leads up to the top of the mountain with a hard climing of over 1000 steps, and another 1000 down to come back which nearly killed me but the view along the way especially from the top was really rewarding. And "onsen" (hot spring) afterwards was also devine!
Back in Tokyo it's heavily raining and rather chilly (typhoon is approaching), seems like this summer is ending so much faster. But I will be going to Taiwan and Vietnam in a couple of days, back to a really hot weather! All the yummy foods are waiting for me and I'm very excited. yay!

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Fading Memories of Kanazawa

Fading Memories of Kanazawa

Wednesday, 8 July 2009

I had more photos from Kanazawa in the roll of film I just had developed so here they are.

The bottom four photos are taken at a lovely little shop/cafe called Collabon which is run by two local artists. There are some shops like it in Kanazawa but this one had the most welcome atmosphere of all. I had a cute company too ;)

I can't stop thinking about the wooden tray in the last photo which was seen at another shop in Kanazawa. I will try if I can get it somehow.


I bought 2 types of really cute japanese vintage papers at this shop. I thought they are made locally, but were actually from Yonagado 夜長堂 from Osaka. Their beautiful papers are also sold at keibunsha.
Collabon
1-4 Yasue-cho Kanazawa-Shi
Ishikawa Prefecture 920-0854
PH: 076-265-6273
11:00 - 20:00 / Closed on Tuesdays

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City guide to Kamakura : Komachi Area

City guide to Kamakura : Komachi Area

Friday, 3 July 2009

My favourite osusume shops around Kamakura Station:

01. cafe vivement dimanche - very famous cafe that is said to be where today's japanese cafe culture started. good coffee and brazilian music. just off Komachi street. 2-1-5 Komachi Kamakura-shi

02. claro - a small record shop specialising in Brazilian music run by (and is next to) cafe vivement dimanche.

03. Kosuzu - the best soba noodle restaurant in Kamakura! 2-13-4 Komachi Kamakura-shi

04. Toshimaya - "hato sable" (pigeon shaped biscuit) shop that has 200 years of history in Kamakura. You can get "hato sable" in many places around tokyo but "hato sable zakka" is only available at this main shop! Unfortunately the day went it was closed... but you can check out the "hato sable zakka" at 8tokyo.com. 2-11-9 Komachi Kamakura-shi

05. Kamakura farmers market - good place to visit ealier in the day. Little soufle shop inside the market is VERY GOOD! 1-3-10 Komachi Kamakura-shi

06, 07. Milk Hall - an old cafe and antique shop. great "taisho" atmosphere. 2-3-8 Komachi Kamakura

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Trip to Kanazawa #04: Shin-tatemachi Area 新竪町商店街

Trip to Kanazawa #04: Shin-tatemachi Area　新竪町商店街

Monday, 29 June 2009

Ten to fifteen minuite walk from the 21st Centrury Museum, you find Shin-tatemachi shopping street 新竪町商店街. The street goes only for about 200 meters and it looks pretty deserted, but if you see carefully you find some interesting shops selling antiques and japanese homeware zakka made by local artists here and there along the way. Many of the buildings seen here are the traditional machiya (town house) style and throughout the street there is a really nostalgic feel to it. I wouldn't say it's a must-see place, but if you have some extra time it could be interesting to wonder around.

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Trip to Kanazawa #03: 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art

Trip to Kanazawa #03: 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art

Thursday, 25 June 2009

Ever since this museum opened in 2004 I've been longing to see it. After 5 years finally I got there, it was fantastic! And yes this was the main purpose of my Kanazawa trip.
I kept going back to my favourite James Turrell's "blue planet sky".
Famous "swimming pool" by Leandro Erlich was fun!
I just loved walking around and around taking photos in the round shaped museum building, enjoyed the transition of the scenery as the time passes by, it was so beautiful.

21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa
Architecture by SANAA
On Fridays and Saturdays they open till 8pm (other days close at 6), i think it's best to visit there in the late afternoon (if in summer around 5pm while the sun is still pretty bright) and stay untill the evening on Friday which I did!

I found a good movie about the "swimming pool" on Youtube:

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