He’s learning stuff faster than we realize – and now he’s ready to show us a thing or two!

Join Naoki as he shows you how to:

• keep cool this summer
• speed read
• have fun at Ikea
• phone home
• keep fit at the gym

genfab.com – fun and educational! Who knew?

Bit off topic compared to the recent “family edition” of genfab, but perhaps a welcome change for some of you…

This past Sunday I took in just my second haikyo exploration (the first being here) with Mike and Mike. I quite like the idea of haikyo (urban exploration) – but finding the time to take part is certainly rare now with our young family. With Mike1′s time winding down in Japan – I had to make the time, otherwise it may have been my last chance too!

Mike2 has become a bit of a local authority on Japanese urban exploration. He’s visited dozens of these sites, all of which can vary immensely in age, decay, size and of course the nature of the property left behind. The one he organized for us on Sunday was certainly unique to say the least.

We visited a site north west of Tokyo in Saitama prefecture where you’ll find the “Gan Kutsu Cliff Face Hotel”. I (like probably nearly everyone in Tokyo) had never heard of it – so I had no idea what to expect. I thought “Cool, a hotel – with like rooms, a restaurant maybe a pool and whatnot…” Wrong. The emphasis here should be on the “cliff face”. The hotel was one man’s dream of carving out a hotel within the side of a rocky cliff. Yes, it was ambitious to say the least. The project was simply too much for one man to handle and has been left in its unfinished state for 70 odd years. The site is completely fenced off – barbed wire and all – with the cave entrances sealed with metal bars… that is unless you know where to look!

Here’s a short video I pieced together of our afternoon at the Gan Kutsu:

For some great pictures and a bit more background, have a gander at Mike and Mike‘s sites.

A couple weekends ago we packed our suitcases and took a short exotic getaway to…

… New York?

… Paris?

… the Moon?

Read the rest of this entry »

Anyone who knows Shinjuku would agree that it’s not a good place for picnic… unless of course you’re talking about Shinjuku Gyoen Park. Now that’s quite a little oasis in the middle of Tokyo’s concrete jungle.

Amazingly, before today I had never been to Gyoen Park before. That’s nearly the equivalent of living in New York City for 4 years and having never visited Central Park before… a disgrace, I know!

In any case, I was pleasantly surprised. For the low low price of 200 yen per person, one can escape the ever growing forest of Shinjuku’s skyscrapers for a real bit of forest … grass and all!

“Oooo – grass!”, I hear you say. It may not sound like anything special – but city parks in Tokyo are generally brown and grey. I suppose the intent is to have them be as “low maintenance” as possible. So, 200 yen for this bit of “normalcy” – good deal.

We brought some grub with us, and picked up more on the way – and had a nice time just hanging out in the park on this hot spring day.

We’re overdue for a video, so feel free to join us …

… see you again soon, Gyoen!

Here at Tokyo Megacity everything is of MEGA proportions! Take our central courtyard’s flower beds for example: it’s not just any old garden, it’s Megarden!

Oh, I know what you’re picturing: futuristic robotic flowers that transform into flying cars and shoot laser beams … crazy Japanese anime style!

Right? Right??

Well, not so. It turns out Megarden isn’t so mega after all. It is in fact just any old garden… but the flowers still are nice, even if they don’t shoot laser beams.

Enjoy a brief tour with your host: the Naokster…

Tokyo Megarden!