Sky Tree is Open Now!

Finally, the Tokyo Sky Tree is open to the public! Until July 11, however, tickets are only available through a lottery. For us, it means in any case that it will have to wait until our next visit. We’ve watched the Sky Tree grow from its humble beginnings to impressive heights and into its final form right in front of our door step. While its outside aspect has not changed in the meantime, it does display a number of lighting patterns at special occasions. Here are two of them, seen during the cherry blossom festival at the Sumida river.

Even though the ticket price of 3000 Y is not exactly cheap, we’re sure to go up, for the view of Tokyo and to finally see it from top!

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Spring in Kyoto – Shades of Green

Looking towards Higashiyama

In early May, one of the natural beauties of Japan is the lush spring foliage, exploding in shades of green. While the new leaves of the deciduous trees appear in bright hues of emerald, the new growth of some of the evergreens is extremely light compared to the dark green of the older leaves, giving the trees a two-colored appearance. Everyone loves the cherry blossoms and the autumn leaves, but there is a lot of attraction in other seasons as well. Now it’s a great time of year to appreciate the beauty and variety of just one color: green.

The Japanese maple – also in spring a superstar

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Exploring Arashiyama

During more than one month back in Japan, we couldn’t very well miss out on Kyoto, could we? After all, you cannot spend too much time in Kyoto. Apart from revisiting the places we’ve grown fond of over time, we also explored something new. In the hills in the north-east of town lies Arashiyama (嵐山), named after one of the mountains. The region also goes by the name of Sagano. The nobles have enjoyed this getaway for its natural beauty for centuries already, and it is still a mayor touristic attraction (how much can be measured by the sheer density of souvenir shops that line the streets). Maybe its most important sight is the Zen temple of Tenryuji (天竜寺), designated UNESCO World Heritage.

Togetsukyo in Arashiyama

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A Different Face of Tokyo: Yanaka

Yanaka (谷中) is located roughly between Nippori and Ueno, in Tokyo’s old downtown district of Taito. It is a place unlike any other I know in Tokyo, a place where time seems to have stood still since the days of “old Japan”. We had fallen upon this place by pure chance a year ago, but unfortunately my camera had run out of battery just then. So we returned there this year, camera in hand.

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The Garden of Denbou-In – Asakusa’s Secret

For years I have been peeping through the fence to get a look at the garden of Denbou-In, adjacent to the big temple complex of Sensou-ji in Asakusa. Now, finally, I’ve been able to enter. This spring, until May 7, the garden is extraordinarily open to the public. Unfortunately, I’ve missed the bloom of its amazing Shidarezakura trees (weeping cherry trees), but the garden is beautiful in every season.

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