Travel notes, reviews and useful tips

Hotels

Fresh Cabbages at the Chourever in Kitakaruizawa

Posted by on Sep 9, 2012

We live in the big city, and sometimes we fantasize about owning a summer home in Karuizawa 軽井沢. I wrote about this beautiful place before, and over the years of visiting this...

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Museums + Libraries

Sezon Museum of Modern Art in Karuizawa

Posted by on Aug 4, 2013

Avant garde lover or hater? If you’re the former, you’ll enjoy the Sezon Museum of Modern Art in Karuizawa. Combining works by famous Abstract Expressionists with beautiful...

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Restaurants + Shops

Surabaya Kouhoku: Delicious Indonesian Cuisine

Posted by on Sep 6, 2013

I love Indonesian cuisine. The first time I went to an Indonesian restaurant was in 1998, back when I was a college student in Nagoya, a city in central Japan. I’ve forgotten the...

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Parks + Gardens

Beautiful Irises at Sankeien Garden

Posted by on Jun 4, 2013

It’s early summer, time for the irises to bloom and show off their violet, purple and white gorgeous clothes. There are several places to see these summer blessings, and one...

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Other Posts

Kawasaki Daishi Furin-ichi Wind Chime Market

Kawasaki Daishi Furin-ichi Wind Chime Market

Jul 8, 2013

How do you deal with the scorching heat of summer? Surrounding oneself with cool-looking items to make a place look cooler and thus feel cooler, is a common practice around the world during summer. Japan is no exception. Some of the most popular traditional summer items—used long before the air conditioner was invented—are furin (wind chimes), sudare...

I Left My Heart in a Traditional Japanese Room T-Shirts

I Left My Heart in a Traditional Japanese Room T-Shirts

Jan 4, 2013

Happy New Year! Now that the holiday madness is over… I have the next holiday in mind. Haha, just kidding, because Valentine’s Day isn’t a holiday at all, just another day the card and chocolate companies made up in order for us to spend our money. Having said that, I’m thinking that this year I won’t be giving “edible”...

Sony and the Berlin Phil in Ginza

Sony and the Berlin Phil in Ginza

Dec 12, 2012

An acquaintance of mine who has been in Tokyo for a few months read my previous article on job hunting in Ginza, and asked me what it was that I liked so much about the place. Isn’t the entire district a showroom for high fashion and haute couture from abroad? (Continued after the Japanese...