Neil Duckett

I guess we all have to start somewhere, i suggest this young fella starts with a few more bowls or Ramen.

Picture from Japan Sugoi

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Last week i came up with the idea to visit all 29 stops on the JR Yamanote Line. After a false start with a flat battery in my Canon Camera this week i returned to Akihabara, the first pitstop on the Amazing Race, well not so amazing and not a race at all, just a massive fan of the show so i couldn’t resist throwing a reference in.

On the weekends in Akihabara the main drag is closed to traffic and the streets swell with interesting sights, sounds and smells.

As a Gaijin in Japan, Akihabara is the place to go for English versions of Software, it’s also the place anyone with the slightest interest in Anime and Cosplay. Although i’m sure there are many other facets to Akihabara, it’s best known for it’s vast Electric Town. I’m not going to uncover massive amounts of traditional culture in Akihabara, that’s not what most people are looking for when they come here and it’s not what they get. 

Akihabara (秋葉原, Akihabara) (”Field of Autumn Leaves”), also known as Akihabara Electric Town (秋葉原電気街, Akihabara Denki Gai) Its name is frequently shortened to Akiba in Japan. While there is an official locality named Akihabara nearby, part of Taitō-ku, the area known to most people as Akihabara (including the railway station of the same name) is actually Soto-Kanda, a part of Chiyoda-ku.

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This weeks theme in The Photo Hunt is Wooden or Mokusei (もくせい) in Japanese.

Prior to living in Japan i would have said this seat was divided in two so that seperate parties can share the same seat without feeling like they’re imposing on the other. Now i live here i can safely say it’s to stop homeless people sleeping on it at night, or anytime for that matter.

Being homeless in Tokyo is quite different than many other places in the world.

Nojuko - people sleeping in the open air - is one of the most conspicuous hangovers of Japan’s burst bubble economy. The fabled salarymen of post war Japan have, in contemporary parlance, been “cut loose”, and along with their jobs has gone their livelihood.

While official estimates vary, the current rate of homelessness is almost twice as high as five years ago, and anyone who has lived long in the city will have noticed emergent colonies of blue tarp tents spreading across Tokyo’s parks and train stations. With unemployment at and all-time hign, an aging population and few government measures to tackle the problem, the numbers will continue to spiral. According to figures released by Tokyo Metropolitan Government last March, 70 percent of homeless people in Tokyo are able-bodied, and often skilled, men who lost their jobs through corporate restructuring and a decline in the day-laborer market. Eighty percent of homeless people want to find work. (Source - Metropolis)

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Since my last post on this years Cherry Blossom Forecast i’ve had a few comments and emails asking where there best spots to view Cherry Blossoms in Tokyo, so here’s a list i’ve put together of 7 spots to view this years Cherry Blossoms and the nearest station access for each.

Yoyogi Koen - is one of the largest parks in Tokyo, located adjacent to Harajuku Station and Meiji Shrine in Shibuya. A few minute walk from Harajuku station.

Ueno Park - is a spacious public park located in the Ueno section of Taito-ku. Right next to Ueno station.

Shinjuku Gyoen - is a large park with an eminent garden in Shinjuku and Shibuya. A 5 minute walk from Shinjuku Station.

Aoyama Cemetry - is a cemetery in Minato. Although maybe a little creapy for some it’s a 5 minute walk from Nogizaka or Gaienmae stations. 

Chidorigafuchi Senbotsusha Boen - is the Japanese cemetery for war dead, near to the Imperial Palace and Yasukuni Shrine. The easiest access is by Kudanshita station.

Sumida Park - The park stretches for a few hundred metres along both sides of the Sumida River. Asukusa station is the closest.

Inokashira Park - This pary straddles Musashino and Mitaka in western Tokyo.  Kichijoji station is your best bet.

If you want to know the dates for years Cherry Blossom Season you can go here.

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A few weeks ago the good folks from Mark Batty Publishers approached me saying they were putting out books on Japanese visual culture and wanted Japanophiles to review them. The first thing i did was check what the word Japanophile meant.

Japanophile - Japanophilia is an interest in, or love of, Japan and all things Japanese. (It’s opposite is Japanophobia.) One who has such an interest or love is a Japanophile. Various cultures and peoples have gone through various periods of Japanophilia, for various reasons, throughout history.

Once the word checked out I promptly agreed and a week later they sent me a book on “Face Food: The Visual Creativity of Japanese Bento Boxes”

I’m not a massive reader of books these days, so lucky for me there’s lots of pictures and what fantastic pictures they are, all about the Bento Box.

This book provides a fascinating insight in to the Japanese Bento Box and the integral part It’s played for the last several hundred years.

The book is not only very entertaining for the pictures of the Bento Box but at the back there’s a how to section providing a great example for you to try on your own. I probably won’t be rushing out to do it myself but for anyone with kids it would be a bit of fun.

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