Osaka in 24 hours

OSAKA (TR) – As Japan’s third largest city, Osaka offers a mix of modernity and traditional touches: culturally important structures, culinary delights, interesting art — it’s all here. What follows is a guide to this city for a single day’s stay.

08:00: Osaka may be considered Japan’s second city in many ways but when it comes to urban sprawl it has just about as many flashing neon signs, packed trains, and towering skyscrapers as that found in Tokyo. For an idea of how things used to be, start your day by heading over to Osaka Castle, nearly an oasis of serenity in the center of this city of 2.6 million people. Around the grounds, paths wind beneath cherry trees, near the moats, and up to the imposing stone walls that surround the structure. Osaka Castle Museum includes displays that feature the history of castle, which was originally constructed by warlord Hideyoshi Toyotomi (1537-1598), elaborate samurai armor and helmets, and a top-floor observation deck. The area surrounding the compound also offers no shortage of vendors peddling grilled mochi (rice cakes) wrapped in nori (seaweed) and piping-hot red bean cakes. Read more

Tour of Asakusa

TOKYO (TR) – Tokyo can be crudely described as a metropolis of soaring and undulating concrete collectively illuminated by a glow of garish neon. Yet bordering the Sumida River in the east is the Asakusa district, which adheres to many of those characteristics but also retains certain cultural elements of life back in the Edo Period (1615 – 1868).

Tourists and locals will often flock to the area’s temples and shrines, which create a lively atmosphere around the New Year’s holidays, a prelude to the various festivals and carnivals held throughout the year.

It was once Japan’s version of Vaudeville, with one district having offered many performance theaters, a legacy that still lingers today.

Ladies in kimono shuffling through Asakusa’s narrow alleys is not an unusual site as it is one of Tokyo’s six remaining hanamachi, literally “flower town,” a reference to the locales in which customers can be entertained by a geisha.
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Kyoto in 24 hours

KYOTO (TR) – As Japan’s seventh largest city, the ancient capital of Kyoto blends modern urban sprawl with traditional touches. Falling somewhere in between has been the development of an environmental movement considered to be one of the nation’s largest. What follows is a “green” guide to Kyoto for a single day’s stay.

09.00: Kyoto’s nearly 2,000 temples and shrines are well known, yet culinary delicacies are not to be overlooked, and numerous varieties are available at the Nishiki Market, where over 100 family-run shops have offered locally sourced products for four centuries. A walk down the narrow corridor reveals aromas of grilled fish and boisterous shopkeepers enthusiastically peddling sushi and other seafood (oysters, squid and sweetfish), sweets, fresh vegetables and some of Japan’s finest cutlery. For a sampling of the wares, order breakfast at Iyomata (Tel: 075-221-1405), which offers sushi sets, including chirashi zushi (various raw fish over rice).

10.30: In 1997, Kyoto hosted the United Nations conference that set greenhouse gas emission targets, but the streets of Japan’s former capital are often jammed with cars. As an alternative, the Kyoto Cycling Tour Project provides various types of two-wheelers from its outlet just in front of Kyoto Station. Cycle down to the Fushimi Inari Shrine, notable for its path of 5,000 orange entry gates, and back up the bike route hugging the Kamogawa River. Then venture over to the Kyoto Handicraft Center to peruse its selection of painted screens and kimono wear or partake in making your own woodblock print or folding fan in the center’s studio. Read more

Tokyo in 24 hours

TOKYO (TR) – Tokyo is a sprawling and mercurial metropolis that often confounds the traveler. What follows is a guide for Japan’s capital for a single day’s stay. For navigation assistance, a peek at the Tokyo Metro subway map might be useful.

07.00: The world’s largest fish market is at Tsukiji, whose fishmongers provide a fascinating glimpse at just what lurks in the sea: massive tuna carcasses are carved by saws, eels squirm on tables, and clams fill buckets. Yet care should be taken as the slick-floored, darkened maze of stalls is continually inundated by steady streams of gasoline-powered carts and ice haulers. No flash photography is allowed during the live tuna auction but there is a distinct viewing area. Inside the market grounds is restaurant Yamato, which serves truly delicious morning sushi sets for around 2,000 yen.

09.00: Rebuilt twice, the Kabuki-za in Ginza has been Japan’s premier home to kabuki theater performances since its founding in 1889. The matinees start in the afternoon, but the ornate building, set to be demolished in 2010, is definitely worth a peek. Also facing the wrecking ball is the nearby Nakagin Capsule Tower, a thin residential and office structure of stacked concrete modules designed by architect Kisho Kurokawa in early ‘70s that is generally considered to be the purveyor of the coffin-like accommodations found in capsule hotels. Read more

Taro Okamoto in Tokyo

TOKYO (TR) – Glimpses of Taro Okamoto on television or in photographs often showed the avant-garde artist with his hands moving in circles in front of his face, flashing the cheeky grin and bulging eyes that became as well-known as his proclamation: “Art is an explosion!”

Such expressions and imagery usually found their way into self-reflective paintings and sculptures—colors bursting forth, swirling patterns and distorted facial features—that made Okamoto one of Japan’s most revered contemporary artists.

Born in 1911 in Kawasaki, Okamoto studied philosophy and sociology at the University of Paris before serving in the Imperial Army in China during World War II. Following his return to Japan in 1946, he harbored antiwar sentiments. Soon after, he established a studio in Setagaya that would later move to Aoyama, which today is the location of the Taro Okamoto Memorial Museum. He died of acute heart failure in 1996. The installation of one of his masterpieces, “Myth of Tomorrow,” inside Shibuya Station later this month will certainly renew interest in his output, which can be widely seen in Tokyo and the surrounding area. Read more