Hayashi Fumiko was a famous author who lived in Tokyo in the mid-20th century. Her and her husband Ryokubin, a painter, built this beautiful house in the Ochiai area in northwest Shinjuku surrounded by a small but lovely traditional Japanese garden. Their house was actually two buildings due to building restrictions around the war time,…
Tag: traditional
Wagashi Kurogi
Tucked in a corner of prestigious Tokyo University, the Daiwa Ubiquitous Research Building is difficult to miss due to its unique architecture of wooden slabs, but more importantly, the building is home to a unique restaurant, Wagashi Kurogi. Wagashi is the word for Japanese sweets, often associated with tea ceremony, but Wagashi Kurogi goes beyond…
Kyu Asakura House
Uppity Daikanyama is known more to be the home of the modern rich and famous, but 100 years ago, it was also home to Asakura Torajiro, a politician and businessman of Tokyo. The large two-story house sits in the middle of a beautiful Japanese garden, all of which is hidden behind a very modern shopping…
Ginza Itoya
How does a stationery store stay in business for over 100 years even 25 years after email nearly killed the handwritten letter? Ask the folks in charge of Itoya, the venerable stationery shop that recently opened a new flagship store in Ginza called G. Itoya. Innovation is the key, and the eight floors of G….
Asakusa – Matcha Azuki Kakigori
Although you can technically get this traditional summer dessert all over Japan, it seems fitting to eat it in Asakusa, a neighborhood of Tokyo steeped in tradition. A mountain of razor thin sliced ice drizzled with milk and covered with matcha (green tea) powder, finally topped with a scoop of sweet azuki red beans. On…
Asakusa – Getaya
Though the business card says “Since 1912”, talk to the owner and he says Getaya has been in the business of traditional Japanese footwear for 116 years. If you want high quality, Japanese-handcrafted geta (wooden shoes) or zori (vinyl and more formal), Getaya has a huge selection. You can even choose the wooden base you…
Yanaka
Yanaka is a quiet neighborhood in the northeast corner of urban Tokyo, partly because it is the last of the truly shitamachi neighborhoods of old Tokyo and partly because several thousands of its inhabitants are no longer part of the living. Yanaka Cemetery takes a large part of the neighborhood and is the permanent “home”…
Zori
Called flip-flops, slippahs and other names around the world, the zori have been a fixture of footwear in Japan for centuries. Originally made of straw and perhaps rope or fabric, you can now find zori made of modern materials like rubber or vinyl as well as more expensive materials like silk brocade, which are generally paired…
Kokeshi
The humble kokeshi were said to be invented in the Tohoku region of Japan as souvenirs for travelers coming to enjoy the regional hot springs. The simple design of traditional kokeshi is a round “head” attached to a cylinder body, created from cherry or mizuki wood by an artisan using a lathe. If the faces…
Tohoku Week – Kanrantei
When you sit down in Kanrantei and served a frothy matcha and sweet wagashi, you may not realize the building you are in may be better traveled in Japan than you. Kanrantei teahouse was a gift to Data Musumine, the daimyo who founded the city of Sendai, from the legendary Japanese leader Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Kanrantei was built…
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