Yayoi Kusama Museum, Tokyo

When you plan to visit Tokyo and you wanted to visit Yayoi Kusama Museum; do make sure that you have purchased your tickets in advance through the museum's website! Tickets are not available on the door, and sometimes it is fully booked--so you have to book them way in advance.
The entry is timed and only valid for a specific 90 minute time-slot. 

Nezu Shrine, Tokyo

Ever since I planned my Tokyo trip this 2019, I was aiming for April or early May. Within that period, I knew that the Nezu Shrine will have their famous Azalea Festival (Tsutsuji Matsuri). Nezu shrine is one the city's "most spectacular spring scenes". But then holiday shifted to later...

This Shinto shrine is located in the Bunkyō ward of Tokyo. You can take the train and stop at Nezu, then walked about 700 meters towards the shrine.

Allow me to mourn

I am just gonna interrupt a little bit the travel posts with this one personal post, as I felt a little overwhelmed these past weeks. I lost several friends in short amount of time, one of my friend was ending his own life by committed suicide.  And then my best friend must face the reality of the fact that the word remission is now vague; it's back.

Just yesterday the image of one of my friend pass-away of a heart attack while he was driving; IS haunting me back. It was quiet a mess when we have to say goodbye.

I ALWAYS move on from all sad events in my life; of course! But this time I want to allow myself to move on much slower than I always did.

Ode to the loved ones, I love you, just in case you guys are watching from heaven...

Idemitsu Museum of Arts, Tokyo

Opened in 1966, The Idemitsu Museum of Arts is an exhibition hall that is located on the 9th floor of the Imperial Theater Building. When you did a round tour for it's displayed collections, you will arrive at the museum shop on your left near the museum lobby on your right.

The lobby has a huge window that looking down over the beautiful Imperial Garden in Marunouchi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo.

Free tea vending machines are available in the lobby and drinking is limited only in the rest area with sofas in the Lobby, which for me is the perfect place I wanted to be after the tour of the exhibition.

Mount Fuji, Japan

At some point along the way while I was 

planning the itinerary for my Japan trip; I wanted to have one day of joining a group tour. So I bought from home a one day tour to Mt. Fuji with combination of Lake Kawaguchi and the onsen experience. Here goes the trip,

Harajuku, Tokyo

Harajuku is an area around Tokyo's Harajuku Station. Harajuku station was opened October 30th, 1906. It is a train line between Shinjuku and Shibuya on the Yamanote Line. Harajuku is the center of Japan's most extreme teenage cultures and fashion styles, but aside from the shopping, it is also offers some historic sights.

The main  point of Harajuku's teenage culture is Takeshita Dori (Takeshita Street) and its side streets, in which lays many trendy shops, fashion boutiques, vintage clothes stores, crepes stands such as Wolfgang Puck and fast food outlets that are trendy these days.

The shops along Takeshita Streets are open daily from 11:00 to 20:00. It is a narrow, roughly 400 meter long street lined by shops, boutiques, cafes and fast food. Because of the street's popularity, it becomes extremely busy and crowded on the weekends. Interesting shops and restaurants can also be found along some of the side streets.

Ueno, Tokyo Museum Quarter

Ueno is a district in Tokyo's Taitō Ward, best known as the home of Ueno Park.

The park was established in 1873 on lands formerly belong to the temple of Kan'ei-ji (the park was founded following the western example as part of the borrowing and assimilation of international practices that characterizes the early Meiji period).

Ueno Park is also celebrated in spring for its cherry blossoms; the park's attractions have drawn over ten million visitors a year, making it Japan's most popular city park.

Tokyo Disneyland

Tokyo Disneyland is a 47 hectare theme park at the Tokyo Disney Resort in Urayasu, Chiba Prefecture.

The Tokyo Disneyland main gate is directly adjacent to both Maihama Station and Tokyo Disneyland Station. It was the first Disney park to be built outside the United States, and it opened on 15 April 1983. The park was constructed by WED Enterprises in the same style as Magic Kingdom in Florida and Disneyland in California. It is owned by The Oriental Land Company, which licenses the theme from The Walt Disney Company. Tokyo Disneyland and its companion park, Tokyo DisneySea, are the only Disney parks not wholly or partly owned by the Walt Disney Company (however, Disney has creative control).

The park has seven themed areas: the World Bazaar; the four traditional Disney lands: Adventureland, Westernland, Fantasyland and Tomorrowland; and two mini-lands: Critter Country and Mickey's Toontown. Many of these areas mirror those in the original Disneyland as they are based on American Disney films and fantasies. Fantasyland includes Peter Pan's Flight, Snow White's Scary Adventures, Dumbo the Flying Elephant, based on Disney films and characters.

Asakusa Nakamise, Tokyo

Nakamise is the most famous shopping street in Asakusa. The street runs for 250 meters on the main approach to Sensoji Temple and is lined on both sides with shops selling traditional souvenirs, snacks, and sweets.

This street is actually on temple property and so it starts and ends with a temple gate: at the southern end is the outer gate of Kaminarimon, and at the northern end is the inner gate of Hozomon. Between these two gates are 89 shops, with 54 shops on the east side, and 35 shops on the west. “Nakamise” is a traditional name given to shopping streets on the grounds of temples or shrines, so this is not the only “Nakamise” in Japan, but it is one of the oldest and most famous.

Asakusa’s Nakamise shopping street is believed to have got its start sometime between the late 17th and early 18th centuries when local people in Asakusa were granted permission to open shops on the temple grounds. In return, the new shopkeepers were expected to perform cleaning services and keep the temple precincts nice and tidy. 

Sensoji Temple, Tokyo

Jigen (vision) is when the gods appear in different ways to save the people. Sho-kannon bosatsu appeared in Sensoji Temple in March 18th, year 628.

• The kannon (=deity, deity is a god or goddess in polytheistic religion) 
• Bosatsu (=bodhisattva, bodhisattva in Buddhism is any person who is on the path towards Buddhahood but has not yet attained it) 
• Guanyin (=goddess of mercy, the one who perceives the sounds of the world).

The legend says that in the year 628, two brothers fished a statue of kannon, the goddess of mercy, out of the Sumida River, and even though they put the statue back into the river, it always returned to them.

Sensoji temple was completed in year 645, making it the oldest and most significant temple in Tokyo. The temple is located at the Asakusa area, built to honor deity of Guanyin.

Kon'nichiwa Tokyo!

 

I am so sorry for the silence since my last post, it has been hectic! 

Between work, chores, pottery, and other life stuff; I am planning a trip to visit Tokyo, Japan! I was quiet surprised when a question was thrown at me before I leave for Japan.

"How long is the flight Denpasar Bali to Tokyo Japan? What is the season in June? And if its more than 3 hours flight; why is it that far since it is within South East Asia?"

Surprised and shocked actually!

Please google the map of the world, click preference to image and find a shape of elongated string of islands in Asia by the Pacific Ocean.

Think about it, World War II, the movie Pearl Harbor? Do you have clue already where Japan is?

Yes, yes please note that the world is round and that when you see a flat map, you have to bend it in tubular shape (well rounded, but that'll be tricky).

Anyways, Japan is an island nation located in East Asia (NOT South East Asia). The country occupies a group of islands in the Pacific Ocean, east of the Korean Peninsula. These islands stretch from the East China Sea in the south to the Sea of Okhotsk in the north.