Kappa-Mania

My favorite Kappa

Given that we used to live next to Kappabashihondori, a shopping street mainly for knives that is perpendicular to Kappabashidori, which is famous for its shops of restaurant supplies, we’ve seen our fair share of Kappa water sprites. While it is unclear whether the Kappa of the street name has anything to do with the water sprite, it has become the mascot of the local shops. Today I’ll share some of the best with you.
My favorite Kappa (shown on the left) used to stand in front of a shop selling traditional Japanese textiles (we got our zabuton from there), and he amused me everyday on my way to work. But then, the owners of the shop sold the place, which was slated to be torn down.

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Best of: Travel in Japan

As the regular reader of this blog knows, we made a point of trying to see as much of Japan as we could during our 3-year stay. Even though there are so many places worth visiting that we didn’t make it to, here’s my best-of list of the trips we did. Of course, this list is highly subjective, but maybe it can give people looking for someplace to go some ideas.

1. Best place ever: Kyoto.
   You cannot ever spend too much time in Kyoto. The temples and gardens to see are countless. Even revisiting the same places again during different seasons is beautiful. If you get to spend some time in Japan, go to Kyoto. If you get to spend some more time, go again. Whatever you do, it’s probably going to be great. Kyoto is probably my favorite place in the world.

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Sky Tree (Picture Book)

The Sky Tree seen from the Asakusa View Hotel

I have written about the Tokyo Sky Tree being constructed here and here. By now, the Sky Tree has assumed its finished shape. Its interior is not yet ready, the official opening date being spring 2012, but its towering silhouette is already there to stay. With its imposing height of 634m it dominates the skyline from far. Whether you’re on the train to Tokyo from Narita airport, or in the bay on Odaiba, the Sky Tree can’t be missed. Flat Kanto has no obstacles to oppose it. Its sleek shape makes it look a bit like a ginormous toy which was left out. Especially when seen from far, it looks almost fake.

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Three Years of Chipango

When I started this blog (actually more than three years ago, since I started blogging when we were planning our move to Japan), it was intended merely as a way to keep in touch with friends and family back in Europe, who may have been interested in hearing about life in Japan. But by now, Chipango is read by a much wider community of readers than I expected: not only by people who know either me or my husband, but also by Japanophiles from all over the world. Some of my posts have even been translated to Hungarian and have appeared on Szaku. The greatest surprise for me was that Chipango also has a community of Japanese readers! They already know everything about Japan, so why would they read what I have to say? I think the reason is that Japanese people are interested in a foreign point of view on their country.
Since the start, Chipango has had more than 79 000 views and has a monthly average of over 2000 views. Wow! A big thank you to all my readers!

Now that we have left Japan, unfortunately, Chipango won’t be able to go on as it used to. I have a couple more topics up my sleeve that I will write about, but once this is done, Chipango will have to wait for our next trip to Japan (which we are already planning) for new material. Hope you’ll all check back once in a while!

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