Asian Travel Blog

It’s always good fun to have a browse around a “pound shop”, or whatever they call them in your neck of the woods. In Japan these are hyaku-en mise, 100 yen shops, and it is really interesting to see the range of goods on offer for this simple amount, compared to the normally astronomical prices of the Land of Wa. In Tokyo a good hyaku-en mise to try is the Daiso 100-Yen Shop, not far from Harajuku Station, which actually has four flours of 100-yen merchandise, including cups, plates, bowls, pots and pans, tea towels, make up, tee-shirts and underwear.

But if you want to go more upmarket, how about a visit to the Museum Shop at the National Art Center in Roppongi? Thrillingly constructed using plenty of glass, this museum houses a number of great exhibitions, and in the shop you can buy postcards of the works on show, books, jewellry, and paper vases.

Feeling hungry? Don’t forget to check out the food basement at Takashiyama Department Store, at Takashiyama Times Square. Here you can buy sushi, a great variety of bento, (that’s a meal in a box, usually consisting of rice, meat and vegetables), traditional Japanese cakes made from rice and beans which taste just gorgeous, and loads of other lovely food.

When you’ve had plenty to eat, how about heading for the Japan Traditional Crafts Center at Ikebukuro? Here you don’t just get to see the crafts themselves, but also the craftsmen and women actually at work. Here you can get traditional raku pottery, lacquerware, traditional handmade paper known as washi, and beautiful wall hangings which incorporate traditional calligraphy.

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With its thousands of shops, its up-to-the-minute sense of fashion, its fantastic array of electrical goods, some simply great Japanese design, plus that inimitable sense of Japanese quirkiness, Tokyo has to be one of the shopping capitals of the world.

So let’s see what are the latest shops to browse.

Tokyu Hands, at Takashiyama Times Square, describes itself as a “Creative Life Store”. Here you can buy such useful items as electrically warmed pillows, a wide variety of teapots, cups, and mugs, and every mobile phone charm that you can think of. They also do collapsible bicycles alongside collapsible umbrellas, and traditional Japanese goods, such as those wonderful split-toed kimono socks.

Do you like manga? How about a stroll around Akihabara, where you will find one manga store after another. Or, if you feel like heading over to Shibuya, you will find Mandarake. Here you can get a wide variety of new and used manga of all the main genres. They also do video games, figurines of your favourite characters, and costumes, if you happen to feel like a bit of dressing up and role play.

Just a short train ride away from Shinjuku you will find the five-floor store of Bingoya, which sells traditional handicrafts. Here you can get lovely traditional hand made toys, bamboo tea canisters, beautifully decorated sake sets with carafe and little cups, Japanese floor cushions, and colourful happi coats to wear on festive occasions.

So are you tempted to get on a plane and head for Narita? In my next post I will have more Tokyo shops to reveal.

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When people think of visiting Japan, they think of beautiful temples, vivid shrines with green tiled roofs and vermilion painted woodwork, fascinating culture, and up-to-the-minute technology. What people tend to forget is that Japan also offers some absolutely top quality skiing, and that skiing doesn’t come much better than Rusutsu.

The largest resort of Japan’s northernmost island of Hokkaido, Rusutsu gets an average of 40 ft of dry powder snow, which makes it a real magnet for skiers in search of perfect snow. However the good news is that, recent reports of the skiing in this resort verify that the place does not get overcrowded, which is reassuring when we are talking about Japan, as, due to the high population, any place of interest to tourists can quickly fill up with a mass of people.

At 310 m above sea level, Rusutsu nestles close to three mountains, West Mountain, East Mountain, and Mount Izora, and offers thirty-seven ski courses, which cover a total length of 42km. The longest run is an impressive 3.5 km. West Mountain is the smallest, and so is good for those who are still on the nursery slopes. West Mountain also has a snowboard park, and night skiing. East Mountain is reached by gondola, and has some good novice and intermediate slopes. Mount Izora offers the most varied terrain, including some pretty severe gradients that are not for the faint hearted, and are strictly for the very experienced skiers.

The skiing season at Rusutsu runs from December to April, and for the non-skiers, the resort also has an amusement park.

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The Pig and Whistle in Kyoto has to be seriously one of the best expatriate hangouts in town. And it’s not just the place where the Westerners go, plenty of Japanese enjoy going there too.

You can get pints of draught beer, bottles of Sam Smiths, (you have a choice of room temperature, or straight out of the fridge), shorts and cocktails, all at reasonable sorts of prices for Japan. There are loads of different varieties of whisky, with Scottish, Irish, American and Japanese alternatives.

Not only this, but you can actually get fish and chips here too – although I think they have never quite got hold of the idea that with fish and chips there are supposed to be absolutely loads of chips. But never mind, the tartare sauce and slices of lemon more than make up for this. Their pizza is plain and simple, but filling.

If you are feeling homesick for darts, then you have come to the right place, as the pub boasts both a southern dart board, and a northern dart board, (southern and northern referring to the opposite ends of England, that is).

Brits, Irish, Aussies, Kiwis, Americans, Japanese – you can find them all here and more besides.

The Pig is especially good on St Patrick’s night, when it’s green everything and Irish music. It’s also an excellent place to go for Halloween, when people are encouraged to go in fancy dress, and there are prizes for the best costume. It’s also good on New Year’s Eve when they have been known to give out free champagne …

Many people congregate in the Pig in the early part of the evening before taking off later to the clubs, when the Pig closes at around midnight.

Well worth a visit if you happen to be in Kyoto.

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Having already developed a liking for Chinese and Indian food in the UK, moving to Japan opened up new food possibilities.

In Japan I found slightly different variety of Chinese food, and enjoyed eating garlicky gyoza dipped in chilli oil, vinegar and soy sauce. Gyoza are a bit like a Chinese verion of ravioli, with a little parcel of meat or prawn wrapped in a type of thin pasta. I also found in Japan the popular Chinese dish known as Ghengis Khan, which is stir fried slices of lamb with vegetables.

Another discovery in Japan was Korean food, and I once had a great meal at a Korean restaurant in Kyoto, where we had fried garlic, delicate slices of raw liver – yes, I really didn’t realise how raw liver could taste so good – and then grilled meat and kimchee.

From Japan I visited Thailand, and here I was willingly seduced by yet another variety of food. The Thai food combines the fieryness and spice found in Indian food, with some of the crispiness and soupiness of Chinese food. I fell in love with Thai green curry, which I now often make at home. An additional feature of Thai food which makes it so tasty from my point of view is the plentiful addition of coconut milk and pulp which I so much like.

One feature that runs throughout all of Asian food is rice, and I am sure that this is one of the reasons why I like it so much. Although British, I am more a fan of rice than of bread and potatoes.

In future posts there will be more mention of Asian food – hardly surprising since it has so much to offer the tastebuds.

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If anyone asks me what my favourite food is, the answer is simple – Asian food. I really do love just about all of it.

As a resident of the UK, my love of Asian food probably started with the excellent Chinese restaurant in my small home town, run by a couple from Hong Kong. The crispness and freshness of the ingredients grabbed me at once, as well as the delicious flavours of char sui, (red cooked pork), duck, and other exciting dishes. Having discovered Chinese food I was then eager to try other establishments, and with other foodies went to restaurants in Leeds and Birmingham.

Then it was Indian food, and many a time, when out with friends, we couldn’t decide whether to go to an Indian or a Chinese restaurant. I once heard that to eat Indian food is to take a glimpse of heaven, and I have certainly found this to be true, with the irresistable flavours, the spiciness, the rich sauces, and the lovely scented pillao rice. My friends in the UK who come from Indian families recommended Indian cookery books for me and other Indian food enthusiasts to try, and we cooked up some very passable and tasty dishes of our own.

Then I moved to Japan, and discovered how delicious sushi can be – particularly liking the sushi rolls. Here I also discovered many different kinds of noodles, from the lovely ramen with pork that you can have in the small ramen shops after a night out, to the fine, white somen that are so cooling in the summer. I also discovered miso soup, which I still have to this day.

Being in Japan also led to other new food findings, which I shall relate in the next post.

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Winter is on its way to the northern hemisphere, and in Sapporo, on Japan’s northernmost main island, that means The Snow Festival, which is held every February mainly in Odori Park, and attracts two million visitors from Japan and all over the world.

During the festival hundreds of fantastic snow statues and ice sculptures line Odori Park, the grounds of Satoland, and the main street in Susukino, turning Sapporo into a winter wonderland of white crystal ice structures and pristine snow sculpture. The sculptures literally are breathtaking – there are fabulous recreations of famous buildings, such as Nijo Castle and the Taj Mahal, crystalline white dinosaurs jostle for attention with giant snowmen.

The Snow Festival began in 1950, when local high school students built six snow statues in Odori Park. Then in 1955, the Self-Defense Force joined in and built the very first massive snow sculpture, something which they now continue to do. From these small beginnings the festival grew to become one of the biggest and most well-known of Hokkaido’s winter events.
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Sapporo is not only famous for its Snow Festival, but also for its lovely beer – well known Hokkaido brands include Sapporo Beer, and the traditional Yebisu beer. Sapporo is also famous for its ramen noodles, and you can also get a very good Genghis Khan here – I don’t mean the Mongolian warlord, but the very excellent Chinese style sauteed lamb with onion and vegetables.To me, the perfect evening in Sapporo is to stroll around the wonderful Snow Festival, marvel at the magnificent sculptures, and then repair to a good eatery for Genghis Khan and Yebisu. Enjoy!

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The Heian Shrine, (“Heian Jingu”), is a famous Shinto shrine located in the ancient Japanese capital of Kyoto, and is not far from the city center. The torii, which is a traditional Japanese gate found at the entrance to to Shinto shrines, is one of the largest in Japan.

Japan is predominantly Buddhist, but Shinto is a native Japanese religion, and the two religions seem to happily co-exist side by side, with the Japanese generally making their weddings Shinto, and their funerals Buddhist.

One of the major sights of Kyoto, the striking thing about the Heian shrine is its eye-catching colors of vermilion painted woodwork, and contrasting green-tiled roofs.

The shrine was built in 1895, and hosts the Jidai Matsuri, “Festival of Ages”, which is one of the three main festivals of Kyoto, and which takes place on October 22nd every year. Portable shrines are carried through the streets starting from the old Imperial Palace and ending at the Heian Shrine, and it is an amazing sight to see so many people in traditional, colorful Japanese dress. Around 2,000 people take part in the procession, and so it stretches for some kilometers in length!

The shrine also has beautiful gardens with ornamental ponds, irises, water lilies, cherry trees and other eye-catching detail. The best times to visit the gardens are in the spring when there is a profusion of cherry blossom, and fall, when the leaves have turned to gold and red.

Kyoto has plenty of top hotels, as well as more modest places to stay such as backpackers’ hostels, and a Hostelling International Hostel.

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