An integral part of Japanese culture, Hanami is a long-held local tradition in Japan. Hanami means picnicking under the cherry blossom tree.…
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Takayama, with its people and blossoming Sakura, greets me Ohayōgozaimasu. It's one of my favourite cities in Japan, after Kyoto and Tokyo.…
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It's not easy to find a restaurant that's open past hour in Kanazawa. But when we did, it was so good that we remember it fondly.…
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Years ago, I religiously translate-read a Japanese blog called I Live in Japan 7 by a girl who went by Y. The blog portrayed Japan, in simple ways, through her (sometimes) complex thoughts. Her writings were ageless (she herself seemed ageless), and I admired her tenancy to write In English. One day Y…
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We are inside a bullet train, called the Thunderbird, that’s taking us from Osaka to Kanazawa. And the train is spacious enough for me to write.…
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Well, I am writing this from our ryokan in Kyoto. It is my second time in the city that I claimed to be my favourite place in the world. And as hard as it’s for me to admit, I didn’t enjoy Kyoto as much as I had the first time around.…
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As you might have known, Osaka is dubbed the kitchen of Japan and today, eating as much as we did, I must agree. We started the day with breakfast in the hotel, then coffee at the Honolulu Coffee by the river in Dotonbori. We then had grilled crab legs and a bowl of ramen…
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After more than a day of travelling, we finally arrived in Japan. So far, I have had a beef bowl in Yoshinoya and checked in to the hotel.…
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I am on a plane to Japan. They served authentic Japanese cuisine: bento rice and soba noodle. Both meals were Oishi! If the food on the SQ flight back from here tastes like today, I am looking forward to another gastronomical experience in the air in ten days. Oh, next ten days feel so…
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If there is one shrine you shouldn't miss in Japan, it's the Fushimi Inari Shrine. The shrine is dedicated to Inari kami, the god of rice.…
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