Category: Tokyo

TOKYO – East Imperial Capital 東京都 Out of all the 47 prefectural names, Tokyo (東京) and Kyoto (京都) are the easiest to understand in meaning. The 京 (kyo) kanji character…

Wishing you the best in 2024, the Year of the Dragon. My heart goes out to people in Ishikawa (especially Noto Peninsula) and Toyama Prefectures starting off the new year…

🎍On January 1, 2024, I went to Sensoji Temple (浅草寺) in Asakusa, Tokyo’s most famous Buddhist temple and one of the most popular places in Japan for hatsumode (初詣) or…

Went to see the huge Warner Bros. Studio Tour Tokyo – The Making of Harry Potter in Oct. 2023, four months after it opened in June 16, 2023. It was…

“The Dream of John Manjiro” or John Manjirō no Yume (ジョン万次郎の夢) is the title of a Japanese musical being staged in Japan nationwide from March 2023 to March 2024 by…

Welcome back Tokyo Marathon! It was finally held at full scale (38,000 runners) on March 5, 2023 for the first time since 2019. Runners from overseas also ran en masse…

Updated: Feb. 18, 2023 Tokyo National Museum (東京国立博物館) in Ueno Park, Tokyo is one of Japan’s most prominent museums. Clustered in six museum buildings, one is the swank-looking Gallery of…

First in a series of blog posts on luxury cruising, cruise ships, and cruise ports in Japan in 2022. In early summer 2022 when COVID-19 cases in Japan were relatively…

Overview of Japan’s luxury cruise ships in 2022 by Philbert Ono, Updated: Sept. 25, 2023 On this page: In 2022, Japan’s three major cruise ships were (largest to smallest) Asuka…

Japan’s largest luxury cruise ship. Asuka II (飛鳥Ⅱ Asuka 2) is the only cruise ship owned and operated by NYK Cruises Co., Ltd. based in Yokohama and a wholly owned…