Tokyo Blog News!

This is the metropolitan government’s ambitious attempt to present the history, art, disasters, science, culture, and architecture of Tokyo from its humble beginnings in 1590. The museum’s great visual displays create a vivid portrayal of Tokyo through the centuries.

After purchasing your tickets and taking the escalator to the sixth floor, you’ll enter the museum by walking over a replica of Nihombashi Bridge, the starting point for all roads leading out of old Edo. Exhibits covering the Edo Period portray the lives of the shoguns, merchants, craftsmen, and townspeople. The explanations are mostly in Japanese only, but there’s plenty to look at, including a replica of an old Kabuki theater, a model of a daimyo’s (feudal lord’s) mansion, portable floats used during festivals, maps and photographs of old Edo, and a row-house tenement.

Come here to pay respects to the man who made Edo the seat of his government and thus elevated the small village to the most important city in the country. The only shrine in Tokyo that’s been designated a National Treasure, Toshogu Shrine was erected in 1651 and is dedicated to Tokugawa Ieyasu, founder of the Tokugawa shogunate. Like Toshogu Shrine in Nikko, it was built by Ieyasu’s grandson, Iemitsu, and boasts some of the same richly carved, ornate design favored by the Tokugawas.

Remarkably, it survived the civil war of 1868, the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923, and even World War II. The pathway to the shrine is lined with massive stone lanterns. Inside the shrine, you’ll see some exquisite art, including murals by a famous Edo artist, Kano Tan-yu, and samurai armor worn by Ieyasu. On a more somber note, a display on the grounds appeals for world peace, with graphic photos of Hiroshima following its destruction by the atomic bomb and of victims dead and alive.

The greatest Sumo wrestlers in Japan, and therefore the world, meet at the Kokugikan Sumo Hall for the May Basho, one of the year’s six Grand Tournaments.

Sumo is one of Japan’s most popular sports and is steeped in legend, history and ceremony. To the outsider it can seem like a mere battle of strength and power but, it should be remembered, this is a sport with over 70 different throws, trips, forms and tricks. Only when these are mastered will the wrestler stand a chance of becoming a Yokuzuna (a grand champion)

As a spectacle Sumo is amazing. The men are giants and when they collide the forces at work are beyond comprehension. In front of packed house they attempt to eject each other from the 4.5 metre circle or throw each other to the hard clay floor. The backdrop to the action provides constant reminders of the history and reverence of the occasion, from the Gyoji’s fan - a sign of authority - to the symbolic salt scattering before each contest.

We are going to see The Imperial family. The 2th of January is the day when they apper on balcony to greet visitors.

Eric Clapton is the greatest guitarist alive and has influenced many guitarists playing today.

Clapton has a large following throughout the world and is playing the far east leg of his tour until January.

He has his performance on 8th od December in Tokyo. His touring band consisted of Doyle Bramhall II, Derek Trucks, Willie Weeks , Steve Jordan, Chris Stainton, Michelle John, Sharon White, Simon Clarke, Roddy Lorimer, Tim Sanders.

Seven hundred dealers bring the streets of Setagaya to life at one of Japan’s biggest antique flea markets:) It runs between 15 and 16 of December every year. A rumble through the jumble at this boro ichi market could reward the discerning shopper with an antique kimono, hidden among a colourful selection of arts, crafts and bric-a-brac. The excitement of thousands of feverish bargain-hunters is hard to beat, and the food stalls are legendary too. Many moons ago a rakuichi market for unlicensed merchants was established to add prosperity to this castle town:) Four centuries on and the market is older than the antiques it sells!