Today was 30°C with 90% humidity, hot and sticky, like being back in Ontario.

I wanted to see a rakugo performance while I was in Tokyo. Rakugo is a form of comedy/story telling where a single performer kneels on a cushion on the stage and tells a story. The only props used are a folding fan and a small towel. Continue reading →

I like opera, classical music and theater arts and thought that I would try to see live versions of their Japanese counterparts while I was in Japan. Although I have seen performances on video a recording cannot compare to the impact of a live performance in a good venue. One of the traditional Japanese arts that I particularly wanted to see was kabuki. Continue reading →

I set out this morning for the Ghibli Museum which is a fair distance away with a stop en route at Nakano to see the Nakano Sun Mall, Continue reading →

Note: I have many pictures to add to this post but not enough time to process them all right now. Please check back later.

The plan for today was to see the Tokyo Edo Museum, The Kukugikan Sumo Area and the Kyu-Yasuda Teien Park. Continue reading →

NOTE: This post got too long so I wrote a separate entry just for Kabuki.

It rained heavily overnight and today is overcast and very muggy although not too hot. There was a large volume of transport truck traffic on the street outside my window throughout the night which combined with the rain was very loud. The weather forecast that I had looked at put the humidity at 100%. I had to shut my window and turn on the A/C to get some sleep so I wasn’t up as early as yesterday.

Today’s main event is going to see Kabuki a traditional Japanese art which combines theatre and dance.  Continue reading →

Today was bright and sunny so I decided to go to Akihabara to take a walk around. I walked down to Minani-Senju Station and took the Hibiya line to Akihabara Station. Continue reading →

After breakfast and a call to JCR to try and sort out some phone problems I walked down to a Lawson’s convenience store to try a buy a couple of tickets from the Loppi machine. Continue reading →

Phone problems -Skip this if tech stuff bores you

I got up fairly early (for me) at about 6 AM. Nothing much is going on at that time so I tried to get the feature that allows my iPhone to act as an Internet connection for my laptop (tethering) to work. Continue reading →

I thought that the sidewalks were quite wide on the major streets until I realized that they were shared with cyclists who weave their way through the pedestrian traffic. Continue reading →

Breakfast from 7/11

I walked down to the 7/11 and bought breakfast, a bento and coffee in a can. Both were surprisingly decent although the spaghetti in tomato sauce hiding under the chicken was a surprise. The lack of street names on smaller streets makes navigation challenging. I am using the phone GPS a lot and finding most places by dead reckoning which works pretty well. A compass helps too. Without the little you-are-here dot on the map I would be in trouble.