Meiji Shrine (明治神宮, Meiji Jingū), Tokyo, Japan

This will be my last article for 2021. Thanks to all who have taken the time to read the travel articles and I appreciate the comments that I have received. This article on the Meiji Shrine is longer than most  of the articles I have written since I have regularly visited and photographed the shrine since I first traveled to Tokyo over 17 years ago. I hope that the pandemic abates so that international travel becomes possible and practical again, but until then I will keep digging into my travel photographs for new articles in 2022. I wish you the best for the holiday season and will see you next year. Stay healthy and happy!

The Meiji Shrine (明治神宮, Meiji Jingū) is a Shinto shrine dedicated to the deified spirits of Emperor Meiji and his consort, Empress Shoken. Emperor Meiji presided over the Meiji era, and instigated the Meiji Restoration, a series of rapid changes that witnessed Japan's transformation from an isolationist, feudal state to an industrialized world power [4]. The Japanese government officially started the construction of Meiji Jingū to commemorate their deified spirits after he (1912) and his wife (1914) passed away. The construction took about five years to complete the entire shrine before it was formally dedicated in 1920. Most of the shrine complex was destroyed during the air raids of the Second World War, but thanks to a number of donations from around Japan, the current buildings were restored in 1958 [5].

Located just beside the busy Japan Rail (JR) Harajuku Station, Meiji Shrine and the adjacent Yoyogi Park make up a large forested area within the densely built-up city of Tokyo, Japan. Meiji Jingū is one of Japan's most popular shrines. In the first days of the New Year, the shrine regularly welcomes more than three million visitors for the year's first prayers (初詣, hatsumōde), more than any other shrine or temple in the country. During the rest of the year, traditional Shinto weddings can often be seen taking place there [2], as well as other rituals, processions, and festivals.

I first traveled to Japan on business in 2004 and visited the Meiji Shrine for the first time in the morning on my last day in Tokyo. Since it was a short train ride from the hotel, the group I was traveling with made a brief visit to the shrine before flying back in the afternoon to the USA. On my many subsequent trips to Tokyo, while I have visited the shrine at other times, I have always maintained the ritual of visiting in the morning on my last day in Tokyo before flying home to this day. So the photographs in the article are from a span of visits to the shrine over 15 years. My last visit was 2019, just before Japan closed to tourists because of COVID-19.

Please continue reading the rest of the article to learn more about the Meiji Shrine and see the photographs from my many visits over the years.

Midtown BBQ Nagoya Restaurant, Nagoya, Japan

Whenever I travel overseas, I want to eat at restaurants that serve food that is local to the area, region, or country. Often this means eating at places where menus are only available in the local language and English is definitely a second language, if spoken at all. In some cases, I would have been able to research ahead of time what the restaurant's specialty is or the signature dishes are, sometimes not. In those cases, I rely on the translator app on my phone, point to a dish that someone else has ordered, or point to a picture of the dish on the menu (this is hard when the menu has no pictures). In Japan, where realistic plastic models of the menu items are displayed outside of restaurants, I have asked one of the staff more than once to come outside, where I point to the model of the dish I want to order. Sometimes I'm surprised at what I ordered, but that's part of the fun of traveling.

I tend to avoid restaurants serving American food unless there is some unique preparation or ingredient in a dish that can only be obtained locally. I originally saw an internet video about Midtown BBQ Nagoya that attracted my attention. The reason I went to visit this restaurant is their use of Japanese Binchōtan charcoal and Japanese Oak to make a 20-hour smoked, 40-pound (18-kg) authentic Japanese A5 Wagyu beef brisket seasoned with a Japanese inspired spice rub.

Please continue reading the rest of the article to see a video on how Midtown BBQ Nagoya makes their Japanese A5 Wagyu beef brisket and to see more photographs of my visit on 26 Oct 2018.

Chūsonji (中尊寺) Temple, Hiraizumi, Japan

Chūsonji (中尊寺) Temple in Hiraizumi, Iwate Prefecture, Japan was established in 850 as a temple of the Tendai sect of Buddhism. The temple came to prominence when the northern branch of the Fujiwara clan moved their base to Hiraizumi. At its peak, the temple consisted of a large network of dozens of buildings. [1]

With the fall of the Fujiwara at the end of the 12th century, Chūsonji suffered likewise so that now only two buildings from that era remain intact. Luckily, among these is the most spectacular, the Konjikidō (金色堂). Similar to Kyoto's famous Kinkakuji (金閣寺, literally "Temple of the Golden Pavilion"), Konjikidō is a building completely covered in gold. It dates back to 1124 and stands inside another concrete building for protection. [1]

The opening photograph is the concrete building constructed to protect the Konjikidō and is the typical photograph that all visitors are allowed to make of the "Konjikidō". Once you enter the protective building, any video or photography is strictly prohibited of the spectacular Konjikidō itself.

Please continue reading the rest of the article to see a video of the golden Konjikidō and see more photographs of Chūsonji when I visited on 25 Nov 2017.

The Railway Museum (鉄道博物館, Tetsudō Hakubutsukan), Saitama, Japan

Japan has a rich railway history that continues to this day. From the futuristic Maglev (Magnetic Levitation) trains and the new dedicated rail line currently under construction from Tokyo to Nagoya, to the current pioneering and continual evolving Shinkansen train and rail network that sets the worldwide standard for high speed rail travel, and finally to the everyday electric and diesel passenger and freight trains that form the backbone of the Japanese rail transportation system, it should be no surprise that a strong culture revolving around trains has developed in Japan. Train spotting, where rail fans (or fanatics) make an effort to photograph and record train lines, rolling stock, and/or train stations, is an active and accepted practice whenever a new train line is opened, new train engines or cars are introduced, or a train station opens or closes.

The Railway Museum (鉄道博物館, Tetsudō Hakubutsukan), run by the non-profit affiliate of the East Japan Railway Company (JR East), one of the regional successor companies formed after the break-up the Japan National Railway (JNR), recounts the history of railways in Japan, exhibits many previously used train cars, teaches train operation using interesting simulators, and explains railway technology as it evolved over the years. The museum's big collection of formerly used train cars includes steam and diesel locomotives, and retired shinkansen, passenger, and freight cars. Many of the historical rail cars can be entered and the undercarriage of some can even be viewed from below. The museum further showcases one of Japan's largest (model train) dioramas. In another section, railway concepts, science, and systems are explained through models and hands-on activities. [1]

Please continue reading the rest of the article to find out more about my visit to The Railway Museum on 02 Nov 2018 and to see more photographs. I went to The Railway Museum after visiting the Omiya Bonsai Art Museum (大宮盆栽美術館), which is nearby. You can read about my visit to the Omiya Bonsai Art Museum by clicking here.

Dote No Iseya (土手の伊勢屋 (どてのいせや)) Restaurant, Tokyo, Japan

Dote No Iseya (土手の伊勢屋 (どてのいせや)) is a restaurant  specializing in tempura over rice bowls, Tempura Donburi (天ぷら丼ぶり) - better known as Tendon (天丼), using conger eel (穴子, anago) since 1889. There are many tendon restaurants in Tokyo that are easier to visit and offer tendon at more affordable prices than this restaurant. This 130+ year restaurant is located in the northeast of Tokyo far from any tourist attractions and is accessible by only one subway line. The restaurant only has 28 seats, does not take reservations, is only open 3.5 hours a day, five days a week for lunch from 11:00 to 14:30, and there is always a long queue to enter, especially on the weekends. Eating at this restaurant requires a conscious effort to make the journey and then patience in the queue to enter, yet is always full, and is patronized by both locals and tourists alike. Why would someone make a special trip to an inconveniently located restaurant with limited hours and a long queue to eat a dish that costs more than other similar easily reached restaurants?

The simple answer is that the food is very good, but in my opinion people come here for the entire experience of dining on well prepared fresh food in a unique environment. The restaurant is listed as one of the best places to eat tendon in Tokyo by Time Out Tokyo [1] and was also featured in a video segment on Japan's public TV station NHK (the video is no longer available online). The size of the tendon served at this restaurant is large, even by American standards, and the quality and freshness of the ingredients, especially the conger eel, form the restaurant's signature tendon dishes. Finally, the restaurant is housed in one of the few surviving original wooden buildings in Tokyo dating from 1927.

Continue reading the rest of the article to find out more about my visit to Dote No Iseya on 10 Nov 2019 and to see more photographs.

Starfield Library (별 마당 도서관), Starfield COEX Mall (스타필드 코엑스몰), Seoul, South Korea

The spectacular Starfield Library in Seoul, South Korea was a sensation from the moment it opened on 31 May 2017 and I visited soon after on 10 Nov 2017. The library is a massive two story, 2,800 square meter (over 30,000 sq. ft.) space full of light and glass, with 70,000 books and 600 domestic and foreign magazines in three towering bookshelves, each standing 13 meters (about 43 ft.) tall.

What makes this library unique is that it is located in Asia's largest underground shopping mall, the Starfield COEX Mall [1], and is credited with increasing traffic to a mall that had been losing shoppers. [2] The Starfield COEX Mall is located in the Gangnam district of Seoul, where you can find a large number of stores and restaurants. Besides the normal shops and restaurants that you would normally find in a mall, the mall is part of a complex consisting of COnvention centers, EXhibition halls, two hotels, two food courts, an aquarium, a large multiscreen cinema venue, and office towers.

The mall is directly connected by underground passages to two Seoul Metro subway stations, making it easy for shoppers to visit. The mall is also directly connected to a large Hyundai Department store (for those who live in the USA, think about Nordstrom's on steroids) and the City Air Terminal, where you can check-in to your international flight and go through Korean Immigration and Customs (Incheon Airport only) before taking a bus to one of Seoul's two international airports: Incheon and Gimpo.

Continue reading the rest of the article to find out more about the Starfield library, the COEX Mall, and to see more photographs.

Nebuta Museum Wa Rasse (ねぶたの家 ワ・ラッセ, Nebuta no ie Wa-Rasse), Aomori, Japan

This article was updated on 19 Sep 2021 to clarify the train trip to Aomori Station and the museum.

It's been a while since my last post. While international tourists are currently prohibited from visiting Japan due to the pandemic, here's a museum located in the northernmost part of Japan's main island that's possible to visit if you are staying in Tokyo. I highly recommend taking the journey once international travel to Japan becomes possible again.

I visited this museum on 26 Nov 2017, which is in the city of Aomori, located in the northernmost Tōhoku region of Japan's main island of Honshu. The museum contains some of the spectacular illuminated floats (nebuta) used in the annual Aomori Nebuta Festival held from 2-7 Aug. If you can't attend the festival, visiting the museum is the next best thing.

Nebuta Museum Wa Rasse (ねぶたの家 ワ・ラッセ, Nebuta no ie Wa-Rasse) is a museum dedicated to the city's famous Nebuta Matsuri. The museum is housed in a unique building covered in red metal slats and stands along Aomori's waterfront district just a short walk north of Aomori Station. The Nebuta Warasse museum attempts to capture the spirit of the festival and gives visitors a taste of its lively atmosphere, history and traditions. [1]

Please continue reading the rest of the article to find out more about the Nebuta Museum Wa Rasse and to see more photographs of my visit.