Naritasan-Shinshoji Temple

Japanese have a custom to visit Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines during the New Year holiday to pray for happiness in the New Year. There is a famous temple, which attracts the second largest number of visitors following the Meiji-jingu shrine in central Tokyo, near Narita international airport. It is Naritasan-Shinshoji temple. Over three million people visit there every New Year holiday. It takes about 10 minutes on foot from the nearest stations, JR Narita and Keisei-Narita station, to the gate through the approach. Many souvenir shops, restaurants and small inns line the narrow approach. The temple has a long history; actually it was established in 940 to make the eastern Japan area peaceful. During the Samurai period, a popular Kabuki actor had his son after praying there and many commoners wanted to visit there, so the temple allowed building of many other related temples, kind of branches, in many different places. One of them is in Fukagawa in central Tokyo. The precinct is large and there are several temple buildings. Among them five buildings including a three-story pagoda were built over 200 years ago and they were designated as important national assets. The temple enshrines Fdomyoo, a very scary looking deity, who enlightens the people by his over-powerful figure. The monks recite the sutras while building a bonfire and hitting drums. They say the deity goes up with the fire and receives a favor from the sky. There are many sects in Buddhism and the Shingon sect has this unique ritual.

Sunshine City and Otome Road

Sunshine City
'J World' at Sunshine City in Ikebukuro is a theme park of the Japanese popular Manga weekly magazine, 'JUMP'. They can enjoy many attractions of 'Naruto', 'Dragon ball' , ' BLEACH' and so on , all of which are world popular Manga created in Japan.
'NANJATOWN''NANJATOWN,' located in the same facility as 'J World'World,' is an anime and video game related theme park. The original characters are cats and they can eat many kinds of Gyoza, savory dumplings, at the... restaurant. They periodically change the attractions to attract repeaters.

Otome Road
A 200 meter-long arearea of a road located in Higashi-Ikebukuro is called Otome Road. Otome means girls in Japanese. Along this street there are many Manga, anime and Cosplay related shops, whose target is not Otaku but Fujoshi, I mean not boy fans but girl fans. They say Otome Road is a girls' version of Akihabara. Quite a popular restaurant is 'Swallowtail Butler Café', where handsome men looking like a western butler treat customers politely like their lord's daughter or wife. 'Acos' is a shop selling clothing and wigs for Cosplay, and 'Hakosuta' is a studio which has many small box typebox-type studios where Cosplay people take pictures against the background of several anime or Managa locations. The shops cooperate and hold Cosplay eventevents called 'Hakosuta' regularly. Participants can walk around the area and enter several shops freely. There is also a girls' only Manga café named 'Café 801' with many Fujoshi favorite books.

Good Memories in 2015

Many tourists visited Tokyo in 2015. I also enjoyed my tour guide days with many wonderful guests.

I guided an American honeymoon couple to Matsumoto in April. It was snowing in the morning, which is very rare after cherry blossoms started to open, but, they were really impressed with Matsumoto Castle in Nagano surrounded with a lot of cherry blossoms. Luckily, they could also see the unusual view of snowing and cherry blossoms from the windows of the Azusa train from Tokyo t...o Matsumoto.

Another honeymoon couple enjoyed a Tokyo tour and sushi making in my home. After having a Sushi-party, I put a kimono on her. She was a cute lady and looked like an elegant Japanese girl standing in traditional Japanese style.

I accompanied two smart boys to the Japanese Sword Museum, where we can appreciate genuine swords including several national treasures. After visiting it, they took pictures of hydrangeas along the road. The elder brother wanted to study in Japan when he became a university student and promised me that he would contact me at that time.

A family from England visited Pokemon Center MEGA TOKTO after visiting Tsukiji fish market and making Sushi in my home. There is a big shopping complex called Sunshine City within 3 minutes from my house. There is not only Pokemon Center but also J-WORLD and NAMJATOWN, both of which are Manga and Anime theme parks. Actually, the street called Otome Road near my condo is popular as a Cosplay street.

Ikebana Flower Arrangement

Today, I taught 30 international students Ikebana flower arrangement with my guide friends. All of them really enjoyed Ikebana and I was so happy.

At the beginning of the Ikebana class we gave a presentation teaching the basic methods and theories. Then, the 20 students were divided into five groups and they arranged flowers in a vase in cooperation. They chose two branches and a lily and stood them on a holder with pins called Kenzan. They imagined a triangle on the Kenzan and stood each of them on each corner. They cut other flowers shorter than the first ones and put them beautifully inside the triangle. We usually display the Ikebana in an alcove in a Japanese room, so we can appreciate it from the front. The students stood in front of the vase and put each flower beautifully making a space between the stems. They arranged them quite well.

An E-mail from My Guest

Dear “Masa”:

We are back home in Nevada and we wanted to thank you for your wonderful contribution to our visit to Japan.

We greatly enjoyed meeting you and having you spend so much time with us, and, of course, we will never forget the marvelous experience of your teaching us to make sushi!

Our most sincere thanks to you.

With warmest regards,

M and P

 

 

Dear M and P,

Thank you very much for sending me your wonderful e-mail. I hope you enjoyed walking from the Ginza-Ichome station on the Yurakucho-subway-line along Ginza Street to your hotel after making sushi in my house.

You are such a sophisticated and fashionable couple. Actually, I showed your picture, which I took at that time, to my daughter-in-law and she said, "He looks like a movie star."

I think you enjoyed the colored leaves in the mountainous areas in Japan but now it is the full season of colored leaves in Tokyo. I will attach a picture that I took from my house. I recommend you visit Japan again in April, when the cherry blossoms are so beautiful. If you visit Japan again, please let me know.

Sincerely,
Masa

The Big Typhoon

I guided two couples from Texas around Tsukiji Market and taught them how to make Sushi in my house on the fourth. They were supposed to go back to their country on the sixth. They were worried about the big typhoon which was said to be hitting Japan that day. Actually, the typhoon stopped many flights and even Narita Express trains. I was safe in my house but I was so worried about them. According to their tour agent, their flight was canceled so they had to stay in Tokyo for one more night. After the typhoon had moved to the area north of Tokyo, it became so fine. I hope they could enjoy an extra holiday afternoon under the beautiful blue sky.

Eating Dinner with my Guests

I also invite tourists to my house to share dinner or lunch with us. I usually prepare Chirashi-Zushi, a common homemade sushi, miso-soup, boiled traditional vegetables with Konnyaku (English name is devil's tongue), Kamaboko (steamed fish paste), Natto (fermented soy-beans) and Umeboshi (salty plum pickles). All of them are very popular, but travelers can't usually eat them at restaurants. I'm a licensed tour-guide, so I can also offer advice on reasonable ways to travel in Japan and good sightseeing spots. Actually, recently I told my guests about a very reasonable bus system to Narita Airport, from Tokyo or Ginza. They saved two thousand yen per person.

Sushi Making from Many Countries

A lot of tourists from America, England, Italy and Australia have enjoyed making sushi in my house. Look at their smiles. It must be an unforgettable memory in Japan.   
Just before we start to eat, Japanese people say, "Itadakimasu." It means, "I'm going to eat thanks to everything including the rice, fish, vegetables, people who have produced all the ingredients such as farmers and fishermen, shop owners, and people who prepared the meal." Then at the end of the meal, we say, "Gochisosamadeshita," meaning "it was a good meal, thanks to everything."

My Tour with a Family from Singapore

A family from Singapore was satisfied with their tour with me. We kept to the schedule perfectly and the driver took them back to their hotel in Tokyo on time. This picture was taken at Odawara Castle. My guest became a Samurai Princess wearing a Kimono. Her two-year-old daughter didn't want to be put on a Kimono because that day was too hot. I hope this will be a good memory for them. 

Tourists from Myanmar and the Philippines

April is a tourist season in Japan. A lot of foreign tourists visited Japan to enjoy beautiful cherry blossoms and spring scenery. I guided tourists from several Asian countries to many spots in Tokyo, Mt.Fuji and Hakone. Luckily, all of my tour days were fine, and they were able to see the beautiful Mt.Fuji covered with snow. Probably all of them were satisfied with it.

Keiso-Soken

I was assigned again to take three guests to the Sumo Arena to watch the special morning training event. The event is held once a year at the end of April before the May tournament. All of the high ranked wrestlers attend the event, so we can see several kinds of training sessions and bouts there. We can get a good seat on a first-come-first-served basis.

Today's hero is Kakuryu because he was promoted to Yokozuna recently after the committee recommended that he would be Yokozuna. He has to show strength, power and techniques to the members. Stronger wrestlers can appoint their opponents, so today Kakuryu can choose his opponent and beat him again and again. When they do Butsukarigeiko, pushing a wrestler out of the ring, a stronger wrestler is usually pushed by a low ranking wrestler. The sumo referee announces the names of both wrestlers.

For the ring entrance ceremony, the wrestlers wear a colorful apron, which shows their status, because only high ranked wrestlers can wear one. Sponsors give one to the wrestler when he is promoted. The design on the apron shows the sponsors related logos, so it is also used as an advertisement.

In the Sumo Museum, they display Yokozuna related things during the Samurai period such as woodblock prints of their portraits.

Kimono Dressing Class

They both looked so beautiful in their kimonos and they were so excited.

Origami

On the other hand, R was a person of Origami. She did quite well at first but she gradually became confused when we tried to fold a paper crane. Actually, we were tired and hungry in the last class of Origami. Anyway, I'm glad that they enjoyed it a lot. Probably they will visit my house again with Jade and other friends. Thanks to Jennie, I have taken the first step forward. 

Calligraphy Class

 

Two ladies from the U.S. and Canada visited my house yesterday. Another laday  couldn't come because of the stop of a train due to the heavy snow. I prepared three classes, Calligraphy, Kimono dressing and Origami. They tried it in real earnest. Please, look at their great effort and works.K was quite good at the calligraphy. R is left-handed so it seemed to be difficult for her.

An Australian Family

An Australian family enjoyed a Japanese cultural experience. After they learned calligraphy in the morning, they enjoyed the tea ceremony in their kimonos. The mother, who was a little bit shy, was excited at her and her daughter's beautiful kimono style. They looked so nice in their Furisode-kimonos and when they said "cheese" at the Shinto shrine!

All of us were fascinated with the tea master's elegant carriage and excellent explanation of the tea ceremony. The girl answered,"Kekko desu" in Japanese with a smile after she had drunk the tea.

It was heart-warming sight that the father took a photo of his wife and daughter from behind. They looked so happy and admired the beauty of ladies.

Working as the tea ceremony assistant was a little bit hard even though we started to put a kimono on each guest at 1p.m. and the tea ceremony ended at 3 p.m. I had to start putting a kimono on myself at home at 10 and leave my house for the facility at 11. After 30 minutes, I arrived at the facility and prepared many things about kimono dressing such as several strings and pillow-like items for making the shape of the Obi-sashes, Tabi-socks and Zori-footware. Putting on Kimonos needs a lot of strength and stamina because we tie many strings tightly. Walking in a kimono is quite hard work. Moreover, during the tea ceremony, I have to move sitting on the floor with my hands. I was surprised that the girl also moved in the same style. She was watching me carefully and copied me very well. 

A Smart Girl from France

A smart girl from France, who is studying six languages and is good at cooking, made three types of sushi in my kitchen with her aunt. She loves Japan and knew many things about Japan especially the cooking words. She studied all of them through the Internet by herself. I was very surprised when she shouted 'Tamagoyaki' as soon as I took a Japanese omelet out of my fridge. I hope she will be a good go-between for France and Japan in the future.

Sushi Making is Popular

Sushi might be an internationally popular food now. Foreign tourists are interested in not only eating sushi but also making sushi. After coming back to Japan from my travels in Europe, I have worked as a sushi instructor three times every ...other day. Actually, making a sushi roll and a rice ball is quite difficult for ordinary people. Japanese sushi chefs are said to spend 10 years to master them. We teach them traditional way as the chefs do and the easy way, using a kit, and give the kit as a souvenir. I hope my guests will make sushi in their home countries using the kit.

A Family from Iowa

They were well-educated children from Iowa. The two boys and their father were sitting on the floor without moving and watching the wrestlers carefully for two hours. I was surprised they understood everything, for example, who the stable m...aster was, what the coach advised the wrestlers, who was the strongest, and so on. After visiting the sumo stable, we visited the former Yasuda Garden, the Sumo Museum, and Eko-in Temple and we ate Chanko-nabe, the Sumo-wrestlers' staple food, at a restaurant together. I couldn't help hoping that their one-week trip to Tokyo would be wonderful when I said goodbye to them at Akihabara Station.

Four Boys from Chicago

Four boys from Chicago were very excited and well-behaved while they were watching the morning Sumo training. When the wrestlers started their final exercise, the coach suddenly called to the boys, "Hey, why don't you come here?" The surpri...sed boys entered the ring one after another and rushed against the wrestlers. Their parents cheered them on and they were busy taking a lot of pictures. Everybody looked so happy and enjoyed the brief contact together.

A Family from Californis

A family with very cute girls and their friend from California enjoyed making sushi in my house. The three-year-old and four-year-old girls also tried to make sushi without wasabi by themselves. They were so impressed how delicious the real wasabi was and I was so glad that all of my guests looked so satisfied.