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May 04, 2024
 

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BACKSTREET STORIES

Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / BACKSTREET STORIES
Aug 11, 2017
Akasaka: Sublime and surreal spots in Tokyo's government district
A diplomat friend and I enjoy lunch at the Akasaka Capital Tokyu Hotel, in the governmental hub of Tokyo. As we part, he tips me off that there's a little-known footpath from the hotel, leading uphill to the Hie Shrine, one of Tokyo's most important Shinto sites. I decide to climb the discreet bamboo-shaded path for a quick visit.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / BACKSTREET STORIES
Jun 30, 2017
A visit to a preschool leads to lessons in noh and nothingness in Higashi-Gotanda
A gentleman I met at an educational conference invites me to tour the backstreets of Higashi-Gotanda, where he has opened a brand new preschool. Exiting A7 of the JR Yamanote Line's eponymous station in the early hours of a cool spring morning, I strike off northeast, along Sakurada-dori, more or less toward the address he provided.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / BACKSTREET STORIES
Jun 2, 2017
A trip to formal gardens yields finds of other kinds in Mejiro
Early summer, before the rains arrive and the squadrons of mosquitoes hatch, is a blissful time to stroll Tokyo's formal gardens.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / BACKSTREET STORIES
May 5, 2017
Pineapple cakes, pirouettes and petals in Aoyama
The one time of year I'm happy to linger in Aoyama Cemetery is when the venerable rows of old cherry trees growing around the gravestones blossom. Before heading there, though, I decide to first get in the mood with a bit of personal spring renewal.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / BACKSTREET STORIES
Mar 25, 2017
More than fare trade: backstreet by taxi
A combination of rain showers and tax prep in March signal Tokyo's segue into spring.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / BACKSTREET STORIES
Feb 25, 2017
East of Meiji Shrine, west of Jingu Stadium
It's a brisk February day, with a neoprene blue and cloudless sky. I alight at Harajuku Station and head northeast, threading narrow alleyways filled with cute guys and kawaii gals browsing boutiques.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / BACKSTREET STORIES
Jan 28, 2017
Good fortune in the Tokyo suburbs
The Tokyu Setagaya Line, a sweet little tramline, makes stops between Sangenjaya and Shimotakaido stations. A mere 5.1 kilometers long and one of only two trams left in Tokyo (the other being the Toden Arakawa Line), the Setagaya Line boasts a sleek fleet in candy colors. I hop onto a cherry red one headed toward Sangenjaya.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / BACKSTREET STORIES
Dec 24, 2016
It's a small world after all in Komagome
On a crisp and cloudless winter morning, the streets outside Komagome Station in Tokyo's Toshima Ward scintillate with shards of sunlight cutting between sharp shadows. I bundle up against the cold, and set off to seek out an artisan that I heard tell of on a backstreet last summer. It's a luxury to have both a destination and plenty of time to wander.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / BACKSTREET STORIES
Nov 26, 2016
Graves and gods of Otsuka
It's a bright fall morning when I return to Gokokuji Temple, an Important Cultural Property in Tokyo's Bunkyo Ward. Exiting Gokokuji Station, it only takes me a few minutes to find the two monks who promised to help me when I visited here earlier: 33-year-old Shinsei Miura and 23-year-old Kenkai Yamada. Today, they are dressed in formal monk's robes and wearing broad smiles.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / BACKSTREET STORIES
Oct 29, 2016
Living on prayer and paper in Otsuka
Hoping to catch the earliest blush of autumnal colors, I seek out the Important Cultural Property of Gokokuji, a prominent temple located in Tokyo's Bunkyo Ward. A satellite map shows it embraced by a forest of trees. I suspect a cemetery might lurk below the leaf canopy, but in late October who would want to say "boo" to that?
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / BACKSTREET STORIES
Aug 27, 2016
Vintage ventures in Tabata Ginza
The midday sky swirls with typhoon clouds as I set off to explore a little shopping area known as Tabata Ginza in Tokyo's Kita Ward. I'm thrilled to be in the charismatic company of a third-generation rakugoka (traditional storyteller) who lives nearby. I met Mikio Katsura, 32, by chance in Tabata last month, and he has kindly agreed to give me an insider's tour of the area.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / BACKSTREET STORIES
Jul 30, 2016
Inky points of interest in Tabata
Under glowering clouds, I decide to explore the area around Tabata Station in Tokyo. Though recently renovated, the station is one of Tokyo's oldest depots, dating from 1896. The station offers nifty spots for watching shinkansen trains bullet by, but I take the north exit to find the Tabata Bunshi Mura Kinenkan (Memorial Museum of Writers and Artists).
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / BACKSTREET STORIES
May 28, 2016
Backstage drama on Ginza's Konparu-dori
A temperate breeze swings through the surrounding willow trees as I pass jewel-encrusted ball gowns in the display windows of Ginza Takaraya, near Shinbashi Station in Tokyo. I'm scouting out Konparu-dori, a street named for the eponymous noh troupe that was gifted land here by the Tokugawa shoganate in the early 1600s. Konparu performers owned the neighborhood until the early years of the 1870s.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / BACKSTREET STORIES
Apr 23, 2016
You don't know what you've got (till it's gone) in Tokyo's nagaya
After hearing rumors that one of my favorite hideaways in Tokyo, the Sanuki Club, is slated for demolition, I stand outside the hotel's front gates with apprehension. Aside from offering some of the cheapest lodgings available in Minato Ward, the property's beer and barbecue terrace — tucked under mature trees and backed by Japanese garden landscaping — as well as its historical wooden buildings, mini bamboo grove, and a stylishly unconventional modern lobby, have long delighted its intellectual and artistic clientele. I'll be crushed if it has closed.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / BACKSTREET STORIES
Feb 27, 2016
Sewing stitches of creativity in the streets of Kuramae
I'm knocking about Taito Ward's Kuramae area one chilly February morning, visiting an artisan friend, when he mentions a brand new chocolate shop has opened nearby. My ears perk up. Any good? "People are lining up," he says. I dash off to check it out, because it sounds like news. Never mind that I'm not a news reporter; that's my excuse, and I'm sticking to it.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / BACKSTREET STORIES
Dec 26, 2015
Catching the last of the season’s leaves at Shiba Daimon
When I exit the Oedo Subway Line's Daimon Station, I find myself inside an ebullient throng of Chinese tourists headed in the direction of the prominent Jodo-shu (Pure Land Sect) Buddhist Zojoji Temple. The temple's oldest structure, the elegant 1622 red-lacquered Sangedatsumon gate, is a National Important Cultural Property. Its beauty, plus the intriguing dichotomy between temple buildings and Tokyo Tower in the background attracts shutterbugs and tourists from around the world.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / BACKSTREET STORIES
Nov 28, 2015
The big-ticket gifts of Kumano-dori
As November grows chilly, I warm up with an urban hike to hunt out seasonal gifts for friends and family. Tokyo is a bastion of creativity and craftsmanship, and shopping the backstreets is like touring a gallery of desires you never knew you had. I exit the Ginza Line's Gaienmae Station, and trot off toward Harajuku.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / BACKSTREET STORIES
Oct 24, 2015
Grave company at Zoshigaya Cemetery
When persimmon leaves and the tips of maples take on color, and chilly air rattles windows, composer Yoshinao Nakada's haunting song "Chiisai Aki Mitsuketa" ("A Bit of Autumn Found") floats through my mind. Having just learned that the song's lyricist, talented poet Hachiro Sato (1903-74), rests in Zoshigaya Reien (cemetery), it seems the perfect season to pay respects, and explore the grounds of one of Tokyo's largest boneyards.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / BACKSTREET STORIES
Sep 26, 2015
Circumnavigating joys in Kaminoge
Decades ago, I strolled around the quiet neighborhood of Kaminoge in Setagaya Ward with professor Shuichi Kato, the scholar who convinced me to come study in Tokyo. I vividly recollect, on my first day in Japan, encountering the fragrance of tiny orange kinmokusei (fragrant olive) blossoms as Kato spoke passionately of Japanese art on our walk to the Gotoh Museum. Even then, I knew I'd recall the day with joy.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / BACKSTREET STORIES
Jul 25, 2015
The 'other' Jizo-dori: culture set in stone
Mention Jizo-dori in Tokyo and everyone will think you mean the street in Sugamo, Toshima Ward, where the silver set combines bargain hunting with visits to the famous stone jizō (bodhisattva statue) there. Walking near Edogawabashi Station on the Yurakucho Line, I pass a less well-known Jizo-dori, in Bunkyo Ward. A sweet-faced carved stone kosodate ojizōsama (bodhisattva who protects children) housed in a shrine at street's entrance draws me in.
Biden calls ally Japan ‘xenophobic’ along with rivals China and Russia
U.S. President Joe Biden speaks in Syracuse, New York, on April 25.
Yen swings stir talk that Japan is in the FX market once again
An electronic screen in Tokyo displays the yen exchange rate against the U.S. dollar and the graph showing its recent swings, on Thursday.
Harajuku strives to reclaim its former glory — and surpass it
Laforet Harajuku, which celebrated its 45th anniversary last year, has been a witness to the district's evolution over the years.
Weak yen fattens tourist wallets in Japan
People visit the Ameya Yokocho market in Tokyo's Ueno district during the Golden Week holiday on Tuesday.
Japan's May 1 intervention may have cost ¥3.66 trillion, BOJ data suggests
An electronic screen displays a graph showing Japanese yen exchange rates surging against the dollar amid signs of intervention by authorities, in Tokyo on Thursday.
Kishida sets sights on energy and climate in South America trip
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will use a policy speech in Sao Paulo to set out his vision for ties between Japan and South America, almost 10 years after former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe advocated for stronger ties between the two in the same city.
Yellow sand allergy: A health issue made worse by climate change
A screenshot of the Meteorological Agency's satellite image of clouds and yellow sand (in pink) on Sunday.
Climate change, chalky grains and the risks for Japan’s rice farmers
A farmer plants seedlings in Satsumasendai, Kagoshima Prefecture. Japan’s self sufficiency rate for rice is nearly 100%, compared with 38% for food overall, on a calorie basis.
Japan wants you to spend more with ‘luxury tourism’
Performers play a traditional drum unique to Wajima, Ishikawa Prefecture, in the prefectural capital of Kanazawa on March 16 to mark the extension of the Hokuriku Shinkansen line to Tsuruga Station in Fukui Prefecture.
Theaster Gates’ ambitious ‘Afro-Mingei’ brings Black Chicago to Tokyo
Theaster Gates' “A Heavenly Chord” lines up church pews before seven speakers and a Hammond B3 organ, a type of electric organ prevalent in Black American churches.

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