“Try to imagine Venice or Florence transported to the tropics and left for 50 years without a single coat of paint, a tightened screw, a roof tile replaced.”　Havana Run, Les Standiford The fishermen along the Malecon didn’t seem to be having much luck. “Turismo,” they said, neither resenting the word nor endorsing it, was ruining…

“The whole countryside was full of snakes sunning themselves along the roads and swimming in the ditches and newly flooded rice-fields… Out in Sesshu’s old garden behind the temple, the pond was starred with tiny twinkling water-lilies.”     Japanese Scrapbook, Glenn Shaw As notorious for their eulogies of places as they are for dampening the…

The farmer who has dropped by the local soba store, a rickety old building that also doubles as a general store and post office, is an expansive character, speaking fondly and at Homeric length about the area in which he lives.  “In our town we have three treasures,” he says, taking a late morning sip…

“Banksy Exhibition ~GENIUS OR VANDAL?” is an exhibition that has already been staged all over the world in places such as Moscow, Madrid, Lisbon and Hong Kong since 2018, gathering over 1 million people to see it. “Banksy Exhibition, Genius or Vandal?” will be held from March 15th (Sunday) to September 27th (Sunday) at Asobuild,…

Currently, it is estimated that there are 900 million Vegetarians (including Vegans) and about 1.8 billion Muslims (Halal) and Jews (Kosher) around the world. A lack of understanding of these people’s dietary restrictions and the delay in handling those restrictions have led to a significant loss of opportunities for consumption and reduced satisfaction with visits to Japan. In…

Tokyo is one of the most crowded cities in the world and also one of the shortest on available land area. So how might this megalopolis develop in the future? The Discovery Channel recently aired a solution, originally conceived by the innovative Shimizu Corporation, which looks to ancient Egypt for an answer that, should it…

On the 19th of December, LUMINE EST Shinjuku’s renewed restaurant floor on the 8th floor opened and introduced The PARK SHINJUKU. The PARK SHINJUKU is a free and open space based on the concept of a “transitioning park” where you can spend time with friends at a park enjoying food together. In this fun and…

Celebrate the end of the year and the Winter/Christmas season with a spectacular display of fireworks lighting up Odaiba and the night sky. This fireworks display will be running on the 7th, 14th, 21st and 28th of December. The show will begin at 7pm and lasts 5 minutes. The show on the 21st will also feature…

■ A total of 69 stores aimed at Urban Connoisseurs  It’s said that once every 100 years, Shibuya station undergoes major reconstruction. Under the concept of a “Shibuya for adults” the new Tokyu Plaza Shibuya opens in the west exit of the station on the 5th of December 2019. The keywords for the stores gathered…

Buffeted by the whims of larger, more powerful nations and isolated from the international community, Laos, at least until a few years ago, remained more rumor than reality, its capital, Vientiane, an anomaly on the world map. With the completion in 1994 of the Australian-funded Mitprahab, or Friendship Bridge, connecting Vientiane with neighboring Thailand, and…