Destination: Japan
Japan’s Mount Fuji: Icon, Garbage Dump
by Jim Benning | 06.13.07 | 2:07 PM ET
At least we have Hokusai’s 36 Views of Mount Fuji, including the one pictured here, to remember what the iconic Japanese mountain used to look like. According to an AP report, the forests at the base of Mount Fuji are strewn with rubbish these days. “We’ve found everything from household trash to broken TV sets and other appliances,” observed one environmentalist. “Sometimes we find hazardous materials like leaky old car batteries.”
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Yahoo! BuzzTokyo: ‘Where Yesterday’s Tomorrow is Constantly Being Replaced’
by Michael Yessis | 06.06.07 | 10:48 AM ET
Photo of the Nakagin Capsule Tower by dodeckahedron via Flickr, (Creative Commons).
What will the future look like? See: Tokyo. It’s “the world’s most fascinating, fast-changing, future-friendly city,” writes Momus in a “Culture Review” for Wired. Japan’s capital, Momus believes, has become a laboratory for multiple potential futures as seen through the inventiveness and near-constant churn of architecture.
The Case of the Disappearing $1 Million Hotel Bathtub
by Jim Benning | 05.30.07 | 10:09 AM ET
We like travel-related mysteries, and this is a good one. An 18-carat-gold bathtub that weighs nearly 175 pounds has vanished from an oceanfront Japanese hotel, baffling police. The tub resided in the shared men’s bathroom on the 10th floor of the Kominato Hotel Mikazuki, east of Tokyo. Guests were allowed to use it for free each afternoon, but it was reported missing Wednesday. “We really don’t know how this happened at this stage,” a police official told Reuters. “But what we can assume now is that more than one person was involved in this incident.” Our advice: Even though it’s not exactly their area of expertise, call in the sushi police.
Inside Great Sushi and the World’s Biggest Fish Market
by Jim Benning | 05.24.07 | 10:48 AM ET
As we’ve noted a number of times lately, Japanese cuisine is getting lots of press these days, from stories about the sudden popularity of 500-year-old kaiseki among hip Western chefs to Tokyo’s thriving restaurant scene. But among the, uh, meatiest pieces I’ve read recently is Nick Tosches’s story in the June issue of Vanity Fair about the world’s greatest fish market, officially called the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Central Wholesale Market, but often referred to simply by its place name, Tsukiji. It’s huge, spanning nearly 40 football fields. Roughly 60,000 people work there. But the most stunning statistic is this: An estimated 2,000 tons or more of fish move through the market daily—by comparison, Tosches notes, at the world’s second largest market, Fulton Fish Market in New York City, 115 tons pass through in an entire year.
Confessions of a ‘Shameless Hoarder of Unmarketable Collectibles’
by Michael Yessis | 05.22.07 | 10:33 AM ET
Those “unmarketable collectibles” are otherwise known as travel souvenirs, such as toothpaste from halfway around the world or the receipt for the “donation” to Maoist rebels or, in my case, the “Three Minutes Happiness” bath soak from Japan (pictured) that has graced my bathroom for years. They have a value that could never be recognized by a bidder on eBay.
Eating Japanese: The World’s ‘My Boom’ Food
by Michael Yessis | 05.21.07 | 10:03 AM ET
Japanese cuisine is having a moment. As we’ve noted, Western chefs are beginning to embrace kaiseki, a 500-year-old Japanese eating tradition. The Los Angeles Times recently highlighted it, and the writers of that story also hit Tokyo’s restaurant scene with Spago chef Lee Hefter. In Sunday’s New York Times T Style Magazine: Travel, Adam Sachs takes his own “professional eating” tour through Tokyo, offering up a quick history of Japanese food and his take on a dining scene that, for depth and variety, “has no equal.”
The World Hum Travel Zeitgeist: From Chocolate to Kaiseki
by Michael Yessis | 05.18.07 | 5:09 PM ET
Or, in other words, travelers’ interests this week range from Hershey, Pennsylvania to the streets of Japan. Here’s the Zeitgeist.
Most Popular Travel Story
Netscape (this week)
Magnificient Trees of the World
* The Lone Cypress in Pebble Beach, California (pictured) makes the list.
Most Viewed Travel Story
Los Angeles Times (current)
A Tour of Japanese Cuisine With Spago Chef Lee Hefter
* From the same writers: A look at kaiseki
Most Read Weblog Post
World Hum (this week)
Japan’s Latest Budget Accommodation: Internet Cafes
* The nation that brought us the capsule hotel has done it again.
Most E-Mailed Travel Story
USA Today (current)
Hershey Honors its Past, Looks to the Future
Most Viewed Travel Story
Telegraph (current)
Amsterdam: Telegraph Travel Guides
Most Popular Page Tagged Travel
Del.icio.us (recent)
Farecast
Most Read Feature Story
World Hum (this week)
Mark Ellingham: Rough Guides and the Ethics of Travel
“Hot This Week” Destination
Yahoo! (this week)
Playa del Carmen
The Hot New Trend in Japanese Cuisine: 500-Year-Old Kaiseki
by Jim Benning | 05.17.07 | 2:20 PM ET
We’re talking seriously old school—and expensive. Kaiseki, the Japanese cuisine that began in Kyoto more than 500 years ago, is suddenly all the rage these days, according to the L.A. Times. With its extreme focus on presentation and seasonal ingredients, it’s captivating trend-setting Western chefs from Spain to the U.S. (Okay guys, you’re a little late, no?) “The dining experience is intimate, more like going to someone’s home than to a restaurant,” the paper reports. “Most traditionally, the meal is served in your own room at a ryokan—as most in Kyoto still do—while you are wearing a kimono and reclining on a tatami mat. It feels much that way in a kaiseki restaurant like Kikunoi, where you dine in a private room, often with a view of a serene garden, sculptured to be viewed from tatami level.”
Japan’s Latest Budget Accommodation: Internet Cafes
by Jim Benning | 05.15.07 | 3:14 PM ET
Photo by Jael via Flickr, (Creative Commons).
Seriously. The nation that brought us the capsule hotel has done it again. The country’s working poor—and salarymen who don’t want to spring for a capsule after a night of drinking—are spending nights in Internet cafes, according to a Reuters story. For $12 to $20, they get a reclining chair in front of a computer, soft drinks, comics and, of course, Internet access. No word on how many low-budget travelers (also known as the backpack lunatic fringe) are spending nights in Internet cafes, but Wikitravel suggest Japanese cafes are an option, noting that some even provide a mat to sleep on and a shower.
Why Did David Sedaris Just Spend Three Months in Tokyo?
by Jim Benning | 03.29.07 | 1:20 PM ET
Largely because the author and NPR contributor wanted to quit smoking. “You can’t walk on the street and smoke there,” he told Newsday. “You have to stand by a special ashtray.” Sedaris also responded to charges that he sometimes fabricates stories.
U.S. Sees Drop in Travelers from Germany, Japan, France and United Kingdom
by Michael Yessis | 03.27.07 | 6:30 AM ET
Commerce Department figures reveal a five-percent drop from those four countries in 2006, which has alarmed an already concerned U.S. tourism industry. Germany, Japan, France and the United Kingdom “typically supply almost half of all the foreign tourists visiting the USA,” writes USA Today’s Barbara De Lollis, and it’s the first decline in any of those core countries since 2003. Some say it’s because the U.S. has become one of the least friendly countries for travelers.
Japan Unveils Plan for ‘Sushi Police’
by Michael Yessis | 03.19.07 | 7:26 AM ET
Japan’s agricultural ministry will fight the “gastronomic indignities” of bad sushi, but to the relief of some, surprise raids won’t be part of the plan. Instead, restaurants around the world will be able to request an authenticity test of their menu. “The test would centre on food staples, such as miso soybean paste and rice, cooking techniques and seasoning,” according to a Reuters report. Restaurants that pass the test will get official government recommendation. Japan, as we’ve noted, takes the creeping bastardization of its cuisine seriously.
Related on World Hum:
* Hide the California Rolls! Here Comes Japan’s ‘Sushi Police’
* Update: Japan’s ‘Sushi Police’
Photo by rubyran, via Flickr (Creative Commons)
Japan’s Big Fat Sumo Controversy
by Jim Benning | 03.15.07 | 3:48 PM ET
Is Japan’s beloved sport of sumo wrestling scripted and fake? A weekly Japanese magazine recently published allegations that the sport’s champion wrestler from Mongolia, Asashoryu, has won so many tournaments lately because he has bribed other wrestlers, according to a story in today’s Los Angeles Times. While plenty of fans apparently don’t buy the allegations, the charges have rocked the sumo world and raised eyebrows at a big tournament now underway in Osaka. Reports the Times, “Many are on the lookout for signs of choreography.” Say it ain’t so.
The Highs and Lows of Traveling on iTunes
by Jim Benning | 02.13.07 | 6:35 PM ET
Update: Japan’s ‘Sushi Police’
by Michael Yessis | 01.30.07 | 8:46 AM ET
I supported the idea of a seal of approval for “pure Japanese” food when I heard about it last year. Now, as the Japanese government moves closer to taking action on the idea, Mariko Sanchanta has another take. “Japanese food has spread in popularity abroad in great part thanks to restaurants owned by enterprising individuals—many of whom are Chinese and Korean in the US—who saw a business opportunity and successfully exploited it,” Sanchanta writes in the Financial Times. “Sure, kimchi and sashimi probably don’t mix. But instead of separating the authentic from the inauthentic, the government should hand out thank you notes to everyone who tries to promote Japanese food—especially the genius who invented the California roll.”