Blogs from Ginza, Tokyo, Japan, Asia

From 2009: Omiyage is the art of gift giving. It is a tradition that we follow here in the United States. Japan is a perfect place to finding something that's unique. More than in most places, the Japanese continue to excel at a wide range of traditional arts and crafts, with regional gift specialties, called meibutsu, renowned for their quality workmanship and aesthetic appeal. From Hokkaido in the north to Kyushu in the south, Japan offers distinctive, high-quality arts and crafts. Gift-giving is something of an art in Japan, where a gift, omiyage in Japanese, successfully given honors the recipient, starting with the quality of the presentation. Gifts are traditionally carried in beautiful, printed squares of fabric called furoshiki. Presented as a scarf, for which they double nicely, they make a uniquely Japanese fashion statement back ... read more

Japanese spirits have come a long way over the last few years. Whether it's url=https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.timeout.com%2Ftokyo%2Fshopping%2Fbest-japanese-gin&data=05%7C01%7C%7Cb3717cc915e74448e29708dbf2cc6cf1%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C638370732055017663%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=Xw0WXZoF8n29XcHFyTglk3z7FEw7MV%2FavzuCRiOCaJ0%3D&reserved=0craft gin or a coveted bottle of url=https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.timeout.com%2Ftokyo%2Fbars-and-pubs%2Fthe-best-japanese-whiskies-you-can-still-buy&data=05%7C01%7C%7Cb3717cc915e74448e29708dbf2cc6cf1%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C638370732055017663%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D... read more

This year, Children's Day is May 5. Of all the children-centric holidays, I miss Children's Day the most. Why? I felt it was special, for Japanese American children, in a culture that cherishes tradition, family, and outright spoiling of children. (Written in 2009) Many of you think of May 5 as Cinco de Mayo. But May 5 is a big day in Japan as well, for it is an annual event, now called Children's Day, or originally Kodomo no Hi. It is set aside to respect children's personalities and to celebrate their happiness. It became a national holiday in Japan in 1948. It was always a special day when my son was a little guy. And of course, like most Asian families, the boys are favored with ... read more

We woke to an overcast, but dry morning; a welcome relief from the torrential rain we walked in to get to our hotel last night. We had a good sleep, despite the bed being incredibly hard. It Is a very pleasant temperature in the mornings here, before a humid, warm day. Whilst forecast to be 23 degrees, however it actually reached 29 degrees. We got up and wandered around to the famous, and soon to be gone, Tsukiji Fish markets. Evidently, they are pulling the wholesale section of this market down to build accommodation for the 2020 Olympics and renovate the area. It was a very interesting market. We meandered around, trying many weird and wonderful foods. The sights and sounds of this market are very enjoyable. As the morning progressed, it became harder to walk ... read more

My legs seem to be moving quite well today amazingly! So we went out sight seeing......... After a quick breakfast stop with Grace we headed to the Kabuki theatre. Very japanese and over the top. All the actors are male specialist men play the women. They dress with the white painted faces and perform just one act from 3 different plays. Thankfully they have an English audio description to listen to while the chaos goes on on stage. As we were slightly squashed into the seats we decided to stretch our legs with a walk down to the Imperial palace via the train station to buy our bullet train tickets. We couldn't get onto the palace tour but the moat and grounds are quite impressive. Tomorrow we head out to go snowboarding so I'm not sure ... read more