A slew of luxury hotels are nearing completion in a number of Japanese cities, with operators delighted at the state of the inbound tourism industry
despite the strength of the yen against other currencies.
Figures released by the Japan National Tourism Organisation show that some 4.2 million foreign tourists visited Japan in the first six months of the calendar year, up a remarkable 35.8 percent from a year earlier and the second-highest figure ever recorded for the period.
To meet the surging demand for top-notch accommodation in Japan’s second city, the first St. …

Roller slide at Kodomo no Kuni park. Notice the on-foot technique used by the family in front.
My daughter and I riding the long roller slide in Kodomo no Kuni (Kids Country) park in Machida, Tokyo Japan. Just wish there wasn’t anyone in front of us so we could get some speed out of it.

Big Slide in Awase Okinawa

Super roller slide Japan

This video is from GaijinGuide and what follow is the rider’s description and playfully painful video of the experience.
The slide comes in at an incredible 82 meters …

A Zen Buddhist hall in Nara is the oldest wooden structure still in use and a century older than famed Horyuji temple previously thought to hold the crown, according to an expert in tree-ring dating.
Research by Takumi Mitsutani, a visiting professor of dendrochronology at the Research Institute for Humanity and Nature in Kyoto, reveals that Japanese cypress wood in the roof of the Zenshitsu (zen room) building of Gangoji temple was logged around 586.
Mitsutani argues that his findings indicate that the structure of the hall was made 100 years before …

The Tokyo metropolitan government has an anime to highlight anime as a major sightseeing attraction and has filled it with great sightseeing spots.
The 11-minute video is subtitled in seven languages, including English and Chinese. It can be found on the capital’s English website under the Tourism, Culture and Sports section.
The subtitles are also available in French, Spanish, German, Italian and Korean. Tokyo spent a cool 49 million yen to create the anime entitled, "Welcome to Tokyo".
See the site: Welcome to Tokyo

The Japanese have long endured crowded cities and scarce living space, with homes so humble a scornful European official once branded them rabbit hutches.But in recent years, Japanese architects have turned necessity into virtue, vying to design unorthodox and visually stunning houses on remarkably narrow pieces of land. In the process, they are also redefining the rules of home design.Few Americans would consider a parking-space-sized lot as an adequate site to build a house. But in Japan, homes are rising on odd parcels of land, some as tiny as 300 …

The Tokyo Sky Tree tower, under construction in central Tokyo and already the tallest building in Japan, topped the 400-meter mark Friday, reaching 408 meters in height in the afternoon, its operator said.
The new communications tower in Sumida Ward is scheduled to be 634 meters high, possibly next spring, after extending its antenna. It will be used mainly for terrestrial digital broadcasting.
Friday’s work was originally scheduled for Thursday but was postponed due to strong winds, according to tower operator Tobu Tower Sky Tree Co.
Read the rest of the story: Tokyo …

It was a cloudy morning when I set out to visit Zuigakuin on Mt Takigo in Hatsukari. I’m now staying in Uenohara which is perched on a mountain. The JR station is located in the valley below on the other side of the Chuo expressway. I walked to the station below. Along the way birds of prey were circling above the mountain tops. There were very few people about. I passed a young girl walking her dog and a father pushing his child in a stroller. The ramps that connect …

A rare flower that has bloomed after a gap of almost 20 years has attracted thousands of visitors to the botanical garden in Tokyo.
Standing at more than 5ft (1.52m) tall, the Amorphophallus titanum is native to Indonesia’s Sumatra island.
At full bloom the plant emits a pungent smell which one visitor described as “like raw garbage that had grown rotten”. It thrives at the edges of rainforests near open grasslands. Though found in many botanic gardens around the world it is still indigenous only to the tropical forests of Sumatra. Due …

What does Tokyo have as a genuine landmark?
Well, there’s 52-year-old Tokyo Tower, but that’s not the draw it once was. Or there’s Tokyo Sky Tree, which, at 603 meters high, is set to be the world’s tallest broadcasting tower when it’s completed soon. But so what?
What Tokyo really needs is a historical monument symbolizing the essence of the Japanese spirit, culture and lifestyle, argues a Tokyo-based citizens’ group whose aim is to rebuild what it considers the ultimate symbol of Tokyo: the main tower of Edo Castle.
"Paris has the Palace …

You can’t beat Japan for variety and quality of native cuisine. Here are some of my favorite types of restaurants, followed by a few recommended Tokyo spots.
Noodle shops
A little more than an hour off my plane from the U.S., I was starving and had some time to kill, as my ride was going to be late to Shinagawa station. It is a very busy, somewhat bewildering train station. I’m a noodle fanatic, so I naturally homed in on a noodle shop.
For a minute or so, I studied the action: People …