Let’s Visit Asia

Japanese cuisine is more than just sushi and sashimi. If you’re headed to Tokyo anytime soon and fancy a degustation of local flavors, check out this ABC article for some ideas on what to expect.

Once the menu is presented, the strange and often thrilling journey outside the comfort zone begins. Though Japanese cuisine is based on the familiar — rice, noodles, soups, tofu, fish, livestock — it also appears to embrace most of the other creatures that inhabit the region, with the exception of Hello Kitty. About 450 types of seafood are sold at the city’s Tsukiji fish market, the …read more

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Passengers flying Japanese Airlines on First Class and Executive Class Seasons (Business Class) will now be receiving the JAL Guide Tokyo, the first English-language city guide produced by the airline in nearly 20 years.
This 80-page guide contains regularly updated information on shopping and dining in Tokyo, plus sightseeing recommendations, a Tokyo subway map, as well as useful area and walking maps. The guide also has sections on Tokyo cuisine, sake and shochu – Japan’s national drinks – and tips on manners and etiquette when eating out.
The JAL Guide Tokyo will be available in first and business classes on all Americas …read more

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Spring is in the air and it again time for cherry blossoms viewing in Japan.
Every year the Japanese Meteorological Agency and the public track the sakura zensen (cherry-blossom front) as it moves northward up the archipelago with the approach of warmer weather via nightly forecasts following the weather segment of news programs. The blossoming begins in Okinawa in January and typically reaches Kyoto and Tokyo at the end of March or the beginning of April. It proceeds into areas at the higher altitudes and northward, arriving in Hokkaidō a few weeks later.
Join the locals as they hold “hanami” at the …read more

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It’s been less than half a year after the inaugural A380 flight and Singapore Airlines is ready to fly the humongous aircraft to two other international destinations: London and Tokyo.
The first A380 flight to London will leave Singapore on Tuesday, 18 March 2008, and from then on, there will be daily flights between Singapore and London. A schedule of the flight times can be found here.
As for Tokyo, flights to this destination will start on May 20, 2008. You can find the schedule of A380 flights to Tokyo from Singapore here.
Where to next ? New York? Frankfurt? Being based in …read more

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If you can’t travel all the way to Europe, you can get experience a German-style Christmas market at Roppongi Hills.

From traditional German Christmas pyramids, to Käthe Wohlfahrt gifts and trinkets, to Christmas fare such as stollen, gluehwein (mulled wine) and bratwurst — German tradition, right in the heart of Tokyo.

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Japan seems to be tightening security measures at the airports and has started fingerprinting and photographing foreigners as they arrive.
Nearly all foreigners age 16 or over, including longtime residents, will be scanned. The only exceptions are diplomats, government guests and permanent residents such as Koreans who have lived in Japan for generations.
The fingerprints and photos will be checked for matches on terrorist watch lists and files on foreigners with criminal records in Japan. People matching the data will be denied entry and deported.
There have been complaints saying it’s like an invasion of privacy and that the Japanese government should not …read more

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Where will you be when 2007 rolls to 2008?
If you’re spending the New Year’s eve in Tokyo, celebrate it away from the city hustle and bustle, in the luxury of your hotel room, at the Mandarin Oriental.

Check in on Dec 31 and check out on Jan 2, and enjoy the turning of the calendar year with this New Year Package:

Accommodation in a preferred room type for 2 nights
Sommelier’s selection of a bottle of premium Champagne with engraved hotel’s logo and date, and served in-room with a seasonal fruit platter.
A box of Osechi Ryouri (Traditional New Year’s food) with otoso, …read more

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When the temperatures start to drop on the northern hemisphere, most foreign visitors to Asia will be heading out to the beaches, to bask in the sun and enjoy the tropical climate. But for regional tourists who perhaps want a reprieve from the sweltering year-round heat, you don’t have to fly so far to another continent just to see the colors of autumn and catch snow flakes.
The autumn months are considered to be the best times to visit Japan, for example. Between September and November, there are a lot of fall festivals all throughout Japan. If you’re after viewing the …read more

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It’s definitely not the bargain-hunter’s paradise being one of the most expensive places in the world, but when it comes to gadgetry and cult fashion, Tokyo is the place to go.
The pavements are thronged with people, all of them extremely well behaved: they won’t even think of crossing the road until the traffic lights say they can. The roads are crammed with slow-moving, strangely unfamiliar cars, so retro you’d think they were ancient but for the fact that they gleam. Electronic advertising hoardings sing quaint tum-ti-tum tunes for even the most sober and serious of sales messages. Welcome to Tokyo. …read more

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Another submission at Gridskipper’s $100 a Day challenge was Patrick McCoy’s $100 in Tokyo (the other on Asia was $100 A Day in Hong Kong). Japan is quite an expensive country, so it’s rather a feat to have been able to squeeze in so much in a hundred-dollar budget. Among Patrick’s destination suggestions:

fish auctions at the Tsukiji Market
a bit of downtime at the Meiji Shrine
a peek at the Yoyogi National Gymnasium
Omotesando dori (window shopping is free )
a coffee at the Kurage
dinner at Ootoya
some drinks and clubbing at Buri and Unit

More details about these and how to fit …read more

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