The Tokyo Traveler

Parades and parties are on the Halloween calendar in Tokyo!  Summer and O-bon is the season of ghosts in Japan, but Tokyoites have embraced the fall fun of a western-style Halloween with a few events around the city. Participate or just watch the Hello Halloween Pumpkin Parade down Omotesando-dori towards Harajuku.  The festivities in the area run from 11AM to 6PM on October 26th.
Tokyo Disney’s Halloween 2008 got an early start on September 12th and will run through October 31st.  Feel free to visit the park in costume but be sure to check the costume guidelines before heading out.
Adults …read more

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H&M, the trendy budget conscious fashion retailer, is set to open three new stores in Tokyo over the next year and on Saturday, September 13th they will celebrate the grand opening of their first Tokyo Store in the fashionable Ginza district.  They will follow with a store in Harajuku in November and another in trendy Shibuya next fall.
In reporting on the openings, Japan Marketing News describes the various locations and talks about the challenges that H&M faces entering the fickle Japan fashion market.  H&M was established in Sweden in 1947 and has over 1,400 stores in 28 countries.  H&M has …read more

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I recently came across some great images of Tokyo that intrigued me. I did some research and found out that the images were High Dynamic Range Images (HDR) that are created when multiple exposures of an image are combined. This images are fantastic and often resemble a modern painting or a scene from a futuristic movie or cartoon. Here are a few of my favorites:
A Shibuya Side Street
The entrance to a shrine in the Gotanda area of Tokyo
The Imperial Garden in Autumn
Tokyo Big Sight in Odaiba
The image that peaked my curiosity and led me to the other …read more

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So your significant other came home and told that you have an opportunity to move to Japan.  What’s your first thought? I was excited but after the excitement wears off the questions start to swarm through your head like a tornado. Where will we live? What resources are available to me as a foreigner living or visiting Tokyo? These questions may also come up if you are coming to Tokyo on business or even if you have booked a much needed vacation to the land of the rising sun. Where is my hotel? How close …read more

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