Tora-san welcomes us to Shibamata

I want to tell you about an area of Tokyo I discovered on my last trip to Japan.

It may not be of interest to you on a first visit to this massive city. But if you’re a repeat visitor, you’ll want to check it out.

Tokyo Bay at night

I want to share a few Tokyo discoveries with you as I catch up on the year’s travels by posting long overdue blogs.

It’s a city I know well. I lived there from 2000 to 2002, and I go back nearly every year for a visit.

Hidaka Hibuse festival in Mizusawa

Local festivals are big in Japan. It’s one of the great things about Japanese summer.

There’s the food, of course. My favourite festival foods include yakisoba (fried noodles), yakitori (grilled chicken on skewers), okonomiyaki (savoury pancakes), and of course gallons of draft beer.

The famous night view from Mount Hakodate…

I had a chance to visit Hokkaido this summer, the northernmost of Japan’s four main islands.

After hours on Nagasaki’s small bar streets…

We arrived in Nagasaki just as the late afternoon light began to slide down the mountain sides, reflecting off the long narrow harbour and casting the first shadows into the crevices of the steep hillsides clustered with dwellings.

These beautiful flowers which bloom so briefly reflect the fragile impermanence of all our lives…

The city of Hakata — on the island of Kyushu — has been completely overrun by mainland Chinese.

We’d stopped there for a night on our way between Hiroshima and Nagasaki. And we’d just walked over to the new Canal City shopping complex in search of something to eat.

A visit to an onsen (“hot spring”) is an essential part of any trip Japan…

A ride was waiting for us at the station when we returned to the mainland from Miyajima.

The floating torii of Itsukushima-jinja…

We continued our post-Hiroshima adventures down the coast about half an hour by train from the city, where we explored one of the official National Treasures of Japan.