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Day 11 – My Trip to Japan
Day 11 – My Trip to Japan We were taken to a restaurant called CICADA by our very good friends and their family. It is situated in historic Omotesando, and has Mediterranean-style cuisine along with fine wines in an oasis of lush greens, soothing waterfalls, and gentle lights. CICADA moved to a 50-year old building built […]
Continue ReadingDay 10 – My Trip to Japan
Day 10 – My Trip to Japan Today was a visit to the Meiji Jingu, which is a Shinto shrine. This shrine is dedicated to the divine souls of Emperor Meiji and his consort Empress Shoken. They passed away in 1912 and 1914 and people wanted to commemorate their virtues by donating over 100,000 trees from all […]
Continue ReadingDay 9 – My Trip to Japan
Day 9 – My Trip to Japan Eric and I went off on our own. We found the Sengakuji Temple, which is the grave site of the 47 Samuri who avenged their master by beheading his enemy. This is the story we heard about at Kabuki yesterday and so it was particularly resonant to visit […]
Continue ReadingDay 8 – My Trip to Japan
Day 8 – My Trip to Japan Today we were taken to the Kabukiza Theater for a full day of kabuki theater. The theater is located in Ginza Area in Tokyo. Kabuki is a classical Japanese dance-drama. Kabuki theatre is known for the stylization of its drama and for the elaborate make-up worn by […]
Continue ReadingDay 7 – My Trip to Japan
Day 7 – My Trip to Japan Today was really fantastic. I was taken to the Tsukiji Market. It was the most fascinating and frenetic place I have ever been. Thank you Reiko for the wonderful tour!! Tsukiji Market is a large wholesale market for fish, fruits and vegetables in central Tokyo. It is the most […]
Continue ReadingDay 6 – My Trip to Japan
Day 6 – My Trip to Japan We went to Gakushuin University on a tour. Noriko, my step mother, went there. Her niece was very kind and picked us up from there and toured us around in her car. We went to a department store called Tokyu Hands, which has an amazing cooking / kitchen equipment department. […]
Continue ReadingDay 5 – My Trip to Japan
Day 5 – My Trip to Japan Our friends picked us up and took us out for a wonderful lunch at Obika Mozzarella Bar. Obika means “Here it is!”, which is a dialect from Naples Italy. We were seated in a private room. Our host is friends with the owner and he asked the chef […]
Continue ReadingDay 4 – My Trip to Japan
Day 4 – My Trip to Japan At the ryokan, we opted for the traditional Japanese breakfast. You can get a western style breakfast, but why would you do that? There was freshly squeezed Yuzu juice, pickled vegetables, Miso cod, Shishito peppers (my favorite!), etc. Exquisite is how I would describe it. After breakfast we took […]
Continue ReadingDay 3 – My Trip to Japan
Day 3 – My Trip to Japan We took the bullet train to Kyoto and arrived around lunch time. We found a wonderful little place in the train station and had some amazing soba noodles. The train station in Kyoto puts most shopping malls to shame. There were so many interesting shops. After lunch we […]
Continue ReadingDay 2 – My Trip to Japan
Day 2 – My Trip to Japan Mitsukoshi department store was founded in 1673 with the yagō (shop name) Echigoya (越後屋), selling kimonos. Ten years later in 1683, Echigoya took a new approach to marketing. Instead of selling by going door-to-door, they set up a store where buyers could purchase goods on the spot with […]
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