Category Archives: Adventure!

Saitama’s Anime Tourism Campaign

Posted on May 22, 2012 by

There seems to be an interesting trend in tourism campaigns recently. First there was Disney’s gorgeous anime-style commercial for Tokyo Disney Resort which covered the life of a woman in 30 seconds and managed to pack in so much emotion … Continue reading →

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10,000 Free Flights to Japan!?

Posted on October 11, 2011 by

Unsurprisingly, foreign tourism in Japan has plummeted in the past seven months, following the catastrophic events that ravaged the Tohoku region last March. Numbers were down more than 50% in the months directly following the disasters, as much as 80% … Continue reading →

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Meet the Mascot — Blue’bear’ries!

Posted on September 14, 2011 by

Our lovely home of Gunma Prefecture is quite famous for fruit picking, but did you know that you can pick fruit in Tokyo as well? In the Nerima ward of Tokyo, a bit west of Ikebukuro and a bit north … Continue reading →

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Costco — The Moment Japan Got Fat

Posted on September 5, 2011 by

It’s coming, they said. Next month. Maybe next Spring. Definitely by Summer. Definitely by July. Or August. Finally, after months of rumors and whispers, the day arrived–

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Tanbara Lavender Park!

Posted on July 19, 2011 by

As I mentioned yesterday, this past weekend was a lovely long one, and all of Japan had Monday off. While our fair prefecture has no ocean for us to visit on Marine Day, I decided to stay a bit closer … Continue reading →

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California Dreamin’

Posted on July 1, 2011 by

We’ve landed! We’re safe and sound in LA and everything went smoothly. The girl at the ANA counter did get a look of polite Japanese terror when we rolled up the enormous Daruma boxes. It probably didn’t help that I … Continue reading →

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The Big Announcement!

Posted on June 14, 2011 by

If you’re my friend on Facebook, then you may have seen a recent post mentioning that my time-off request for [REDACTED] unfortunately conflicted with [TOP SECRET] and it ended up going all the way to the Prefectural Board of Education. … Continue reading →

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The Rare Parisian Ganguro

Posted on May 11, 2011 by

This gyaru was spotted far from her natural habitat. Could it be the rare Parisian Ganguro? Brilliant! It’s no secret that Ganguro and Yamamba are some of my absolute favorites of Japanese fashion subcultures. We were in Paris last summer … Continue reading →

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Ueno is Panda Crazy!

Posted on April 3, 2011 by

When we went to Tokyo last weekend, the trains were still a bit disrupted, so instead of landing in Shinjuku or Ikebukuro as usual, our final stop was Ueno. This was a happy occasion, because we haven’t gotten much chance … Continue reading →

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Alice’s Adventures in Harajuku: Walk, Walk, Fashion Baby

Posted on March 30, 2011 by

So as I mentioned, we spent this past weekend in Tokyo. Even though Tokyo Anime Fair was canceled, some of our friends still made the trip, and there was a lot going on. There was epic Karaoke, wandering around Akihabara … Continue reading →

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