Japan tips and travel 

CHECK OUT OUR NEW VIDEO CHANNEL ON YOU TUBE FOR WALK-THROUGHS OF TOKYO'S LUCKIEST SHRINES, TEMPLES. 
LEARN THE LUCKY SECRETS OF  ASAKUSA SENSOJI, TOKYO DAI JINGU. ASAKUSA JINJA, IMADO JINJA, MEIJI JINGU AND MANY MORE! 

travel like a local:  
​         JAPANESE PICK TOKYO'S BEST SIGHTS

Kanda Myojin Shinto Shrine held a Sakura (cherry blossom) light-up event in March/April in cooperation with
Art Event group, Flowers by Naked.
Watch a video tour HERE. 

Hydrangea Season Is June

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KAMAKURA'S ICONIC HYDRANGEA TEMPLE: MEIGETSU-IN
This stunning temple garden is an easy walk from Kita Kamakura Station on the Yokosuka Line (that's one stop before the main Kamakura Station.) Go out of the station to your right and keep walking. You will see a sign on your left after about ten minutes for Meigetsuin. Keep walking, the street will bring you to the gate. 
Admission: 500 yen
Click HERE to learn more. ​

HARAJUKU'S FIVE SWEETEST TREATS
​Click HERE

Tokyo's cutest cafe: Q-Pot 
Read all about it:  Click here!

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​Only in Tokyo can you have your cake and wear it, too!
   Popular Japanese jewelery maker Q-Pot has branched out into the patisserie business, cooking up the hottest -- and cutest -- new cake shop in the city.
   Following trends isn't really an option in this country; it's a social imperative. In the West, we have the 'ladies who lunch.' In Japan, it's the 'ladies who line up' for lunch or cake or coffee. If something is popular in Tokyo, expect a line.
HOW TO TAKE A RICKSHAW 
TOUR IN TOKYO

THE TOKYO SUGAR RUSH

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Tiny animal-shaped cakes at the Ueno branch of bakery Namikoshiken.
These tiny cakes filled with chocolate or sweet bean paste are a hit at the Namikoshiken bakery right on the concourse inside Ueno Station. Ueno is home to Ueno Zoo and the country's most famous pandas. Here's a link  in Japanese with lots of pictures of the little cakes. 

How To Cherry Blossom Like A Japanese.
​Read it on Huff Post.

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Tokyo Cherry Blossoms by the numbers: Pink Party Madness.
Read it on Huff Post.

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Japan's favorite pink, party madness. 
   Cherry blossom viewing is not the quiet, haiku-writing, kimono-sleeve-fluttering event you might think. There's a slightly more bacchanalian edge to it.

Atago Jinja, the spiritual fast track to success.

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 Fast track to the top at Tokyo's success shrine
At Tokyo’s Atago Shrine in central Minato Ward a short walk from Onariomon Metro Station , the steps to career success are just that -- steps. Lots and lots of them, climbing almost vertically from the street to the shrine 26 meters away atop Atago Hill. 
Come here to pray for finding a new job or success in a new one. Their good luck charms are famous for job seekers.

Read all about this lucky shrine HERE.

Hello Kitty Sweets in Diver City Hello Kitty Japan Store

TOUR TOKYO'S BEST SIGHTSEEING SPOTS FOR FREE.
Interested in climbing Mt. Fuji? Or even just getting to it for the best possible views?  Click here. 

Japan's Amazing
​ Summer Festivals.

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Summer is the season Japanese go all out to celebrate their culture. Festivals are bigger, brighter and louder. Ghosts and demons come out to play too, dancing to the beat of drum and flute. Is it hot? Oh, yes. And sweaty. But there's cold draft beer or sweet shave ice to help you cool down, and the sights, sounds and colors of a Japanese summer are worth the heat.

Northern Japan especially pulls out all the stops in the first week of August. It's one big party. Don't let the distance from Tokyo put you off. Smart travelers can use their Japan Rail Pass (check out the details here) to speed from Tokyo to Aomori in around three hours. The real problem is picking which festival you want to attend.
Read the full article here. 
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 THE POPULAR ROBOT RESTAURANT IN SHINJUKU IS CLOSED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE DUE TO COVID. 
Hopefully it will reopen once visitors are allowed back into Japan. 
http://www.shinjuku-robot.com/pc/ 
Link to my pre-Covid  Huffington Post Robot Restaurant article!

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​Offering box at Kappa Dera near Kappabashi (real name, Sougenji ) in Kappabashi. This is  Japan’s most famous temple to the Japanese blood sucking imp, the Kappa. The water logged beast has a taste for human flesh and cucumbers. Yes, cucumbers. In folklore, giving it a cucumber will keep it from dragging you under to a watery death. I  think the priests at shabby little  Kappa Dera want to scream at the end of every day, “Money god damn it! We need money, not vegetables, you idiots!"
Give your Love Luck a boost with a visit to one of TOKYO'S or  KYOTO'S
famous LOVE SHRINES!
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 how to rent kimono in tokyo and kyoto click here

The streets, temples and shrines of magnificent Kyoto and Tokyo are once again full of kimono-clad beauties and dashing men in traditional wear and it’s all thanks to tourists.
​Learn how you can do it, too!  
​Click here.

Kyoto's Best Walking Tour

    Ni Nen Zaka, one of Kyoto's most beautiful walks. Start on Kiyomizu Zaka, the hill leading to and from Kyomizu Temple. There'll be a sign for San-Nen-Zaka. Walk down the steps and stroll until the road branches right and left. Take the left branch and keep walking.  
For the full article, click here. 

GET OUR  guide to Tokyo's
LUCKIEST  Temples and Shrines ​on AMAZON!
​Just $2.99

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   The Japanese are a people in love with luck. New ventures, new houses, new babies must be blessed at just the right shrine or temple if they are to get off to an auspicious start. This book introduces the best of Tokyo's temples and shrines grouped together exactly the way the Japanese would look at them: those for luck in love, business, happiness, and health.
   Packed with fun facts, secrets, and folklore,  every entry in this handy guidebook has detailed information on how to reach the shrines and temples by public transportation, the closest exit out of the station, and step-by-step directions from there. Also including an All-Access, Barrier Free directions and tips.


Read  more on travel and culture in japan with these Quick links to My articles 

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FIVE FUN THINGS TO DO AT THE TOP OF TOKYO SKY TREE!
(Besides look out the windows!)

CLICK HERE. 
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Halloween has come and gone, but in Japan, the ghostly season really starts in the summer during the O-Bon festival.
This is a Demon Mask from the Kitakami Demon Museum. 
​The museum is called the Oni No Yakata in Japanese and has an amazing collection of demon folk art. Unfortunately, it is out in the middle of nowhere in Iwate Prefecture. The reason they chose the location is those fields are where the demons used to come to dance according to all the folklore. Couldn't they have danced closer to the Shinkansen!
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Esthetic face  masks to lift, firm or whiten are very popular and inexpensive in Japan. Many are imported from Korea. Instead of boring white, now there are masks decorated in whimsical  Japanese themes, Kabuki,  Chinese Opera and super heroes like Captain America and Iron Man.   

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