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Same as this time last year, my husband and I decided to go to Samukawa shrine to get ourselves expelled evil. Well, actually this is what we are supposed to do at the beginning of the year, meaning the first week of January. But we usually go to some small local shrines then and somehow it was this time last year when we started to visit Samukawa shrine, 1 year from then will become this time this year. Actually I don’t like crowds. That’s another reason I want to avoid visiting any famous shrines around New Year’s Day.

This time they opened a nice Japanese garden to those who had “Yakuyoke” (ceremony to ward off evil). I’ll show you some pics.

We were asked to wash hands and mouth for lustration before we observe a sacred pond that is considered the origin of this shrine and has been preserved since ancient times. This place was closed last year. At the sacred pond, I was not allowed to take pictures because it’s considered “God zone”. Then I was not supposed to take pictures inside of the shrine? Well it was too late, I’ve already taken some. :p

To enter the gate, there is a beautiful Japanese garden.

There is a Japanese tea salon where we can have a set of green tea and something sweet such as manju for 500 yen. I definitely like coffee and cake more than green tea and manju but it looked nice to have this sill view to forget about busy life. Before I decided to go into the salon, it started to rain. It was cold for this season on the day.

My omikuji was not something very fortunate. (The strap of the camera is inside the photo…*_* How come~?)

The protection cards are placed properly inside our house. It’s called Happouyoke (八方除け) and the cards are placed at 8 different directions so that evil spirits or matters should not come inside the house. What did I do with the ones from last year? I returned them to the shrine at the proper place so they can burn old protections that are considered “expired” (lol) all together. This may sound crazy to some people, and I know I act like a grandma but this makes me feel better. This is my very Japanese part of custom. ^ ^;

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As per a request from Cath, one of my blog readers, followings are collection of Japanese interior magazines. I may have missed some but I tried to list as many interior magazines as possible. You may find them familiar when you go to Kinokuniya, a Japanese book store also available abroad. Most of them are for non-professional people so they can read for fun. But some of them are for the professionals to learn details of their work such as how to install something, where to contact for the new product information, showroom information and etc.

Also some of them are magazines that do not always focus on interior. As you can see, interior samples from European houses are pretty much adored by the Japanese. We are trying to learn modern interior from Europe, because in Japan housing (interior and exterior) is way behind when compared with foods and clothes. We have developed our foods, apparel, and house to be mixed with western style but also to be compatible with Japanese culture. That’s why we eat western cuisine with steamed rice as known as “Youshoku (洋食)”. That’s why we wear western clothes usually but we do not forget to wear Kimono at a special occasion. It’s just the same, we don’t give up taking off shoes at the entrance of house even if all the other parts of our houses are western alike. We also do have tatami rooms.

As spoken at this old post, we have to live in a very small house in Japan especially when we are located at the city area. For example, my husband, Pi-chan (our dog) and I live in an apartment house of the area about 75 square meters. But this area is usually for a family with 1 or 2 kids in the city area of Japan. (Many other families with 1 or 2 kids live in the same apartment.) We happened to have no kids after all, and I now wonder how we could’ve shared such a limited space for 1 or 2 more people. Getting back to the subject, I wanted to say that how to make use of storage space is the No.1 concern for the most of Japanese people. Thus, when it comes to interior book or magazine, storage planning will become the hottest issue to be concerned to us. Noriko Kondo is the professional storage planner in Japan. She’s so famous she writes many books and she appears on TV several times. In other words, we may have no room to think of nice, relaxing interior as long as our space for living is very limited as “rabbit hutch”.

I personally like to browse Shoutenkenchiku to see nice interior design works at commercial facilities such as stores, restaurants, or izakaya, bar, beauty salon, and etc. But I like to see house interior, too. I liked to read I’m home and LIVES well. I think I’ll enjoy browsing foreign interior styles regardless of Europe or Asia or anywhere whenever I have a chance to visit local’s house overseas. Tokyo Interior Shops and Tokyo Interior Showroom Guide are sort of a yellow page to interior shops and showrooms sorted by category.

If you find something interesting, remember you can also shop from Amazon.co.jp, as they ship worldwide. Or you can shop anything from Japan and get them delivered to your home as I’ve already introduced in this post.

I regret I spent winter without visiting Onsen (hot spring) at all. I know that’s because my money was spent for the trip to Malaysia and Singapore in March. It’s getting too warm for me to feel like having a hot spring now. Yet, when it rains or the temperature goes down, I cannot stop thinking of Onsen. I love Onsen and bathing just so much. I think I am happy to be born as Japanese only for that. Hence, when I travel to other countries, Japanese styled bath is what I miss most. I don’t miss Japanese foods so much, except for our steamed rice. :p

Anyhow, I’ve found some people always ask me if there is Onsen for private use in Japan. I know what you mean. When I travel with my hubby, I want to have a private bath for two of us only, rather than “Taishu yokujo (大衆浴場)” or a public bath separated by sex. Public bath sometimes have several different styles of bath, which is fun, but I also have to wonder why I have to separate myself from my partner who I want to stay with. That’s why whenever I stay at Onsen hotel with my hubby, I’ll look for a private bath (“kashikiri rotenburo (貸し切り露天風呂)” in Japanese) as much as possible.

But when the private bath is located in the room, it’s going to be a bit expensive. I’d choose the one for share with other couples on reservation basis. Japanese people do not care about sharing a bath water with others, because it’s circulating all the time (draining water away and adding water at the same time). But for foreign tourists like you may feel uncomfortable. Then you can pay more and have a really private bath in your room just like the below video, where you don’t have to worry about reservations and other people any more.

If you read Japanese, here is a private Onsen page from Jalan. The circular chart shows most of Japanese young men and women want to have private Onsen with partner. This result should be totally different between Japanese old couples. You can select the prefecture and results pop up.

Disclaimer: The photocopy of the page is from Jalan.net.

Anyhow…I think they should have English pages by now. To me it seems many Japanese companies and services are looking “inside Japan” only and they do not try to look outside nevertheless we are losing population. In case you need to hire me for translation and arrangement (to help you find out the Onsen hotel, for example) for your trip, please contact me from contact form. I’m not a travel expert or anything but I am a flexible Japanese living in Japan, open for on-demand business and easy to reach from you.

Ah~, I want to go to Onsen!

I had a request from one of my blog readers that she wants to know pet friendly accommodations in Japan.

Pet industry is huge in Japan. It’s said the number of household dogs and cats are exceeding the population of kids under 15 years old. (Japan is going to suffer from super-aging society. ) Many Japanese people like to live with pets and some people choose dog or cat as a partner or companion or something instead of kid. (Here’s my related post “How it’s like to keep pets in Japan“.) Reflecting this trend, pet business is very popular and pet owners like to make use of the services.

-pet hotel
-pet hospital
-pet funeral service
-pet grooming service
-pet esthetic salon
-dog rental service
-cat cafe and rabbit cafe
-pet goods and dress
and more and more…

When pet means something more than just a pet, it’s quite natural we want to have a pet as a company to travel with.
There are accommodations that are ready to accommodate dogs, supply meals for dogs, as well as prepare all the necessary goods to keep dogs at the site. But of course, not all the hotels accept our stay with pets. Let me give you useful links that list accommodations that accept our stay with pets.

-Jalan *my favorite!
-Stay with Dog
-Pet Yado
-Rakuten Travel *I love Rakuten!
-Pet Yoogle
-Wan Nyan Navi
-Inuyado
-Pet C Net
and more and more…but unfortunately these are all in Japanese.
*In case you want me to help arrangement/search specific hotels from your requirements, please email me to discuss details so I can work for you. (This is considered as a part of translation work, so it’s just like you hire me as your secretary. )

My husband and I once traveled with our dog Pi-chan and stayed one of the small hotels that accepts dog. I remember I felt relieved to see she had no problems at an unfamiliar place.

For foreign tourists to take pets with them when they visit Japan, there should be Japanese animal quarantine they should observe. It’s still difficult to travel abroad with pets even though domestic travel is getting popular.

Some related links
-international travel with your dog
-pet friendly travel
-pet immigration rules Japan

DOG TEN COMMANDMENTS
This makes me cry…As a dog owner, I am inclined to focus on dog. It’s so sad when I think of the fact that Pi-chan can live only 10 years or so. She is my best friend and I love her so much…too much maybe…

With English sub

Hi hi my friends! I’m back home safe and sound! I’m so happy to have been able to see my friends from this blog in person in Malaysia and Singapore! I’d appreciate so much for the time and help from the local friends while my stay in those places.

Back in Tokyo, what do you think I enjoy most and I miss most?
I enjoy the climate, the weather here. It’s spring with cherry blossoms starting to bloom! It’s not too cold, not too hot.
Actually I had a little bit of cold in Singapore after too much sweat and wet a bit in a heavy rain, and then into too strong air-coned shopping mall. Wow…how nice it is to be able to stay without air-con here.

I miss foods. Now I know why people say how foods over there are so good. To be honest, I never expected foods that much. What I saw in my guidebook never looked tempting to me. Especially “chicken rice” with white chicken (not grilled brown color) picture never made me feel like trying it. I cannot eat very spicy foods, which also made me scared of the local foods. Once I went to Thai restaurant in my place (Japan), I barely could eat anything after all. Some warnings from my guidebook also made me scared about the local foods. I mean warnings such as…possibility of getting diarrhea, dysentery, type A hepatitis, or cholera from foods or plates or tap water used to wash the plates especially from food stalls.

But the truth was different. The foods were terrific!! I wonder what my prejudice and all these negative images were! I have liked western foods so much so far, but I know I will get bored if I keep eating them. But when it comes to Malaysian/Singaporean foods, I was eating them at every meal from breakfast. I never felt like eating something else. I never missed Japanese or western foods, either.

What do you call this drink? A plum was inside. It was good!

Well…it was such a wonderful trip to both cities: Kuala Lumpur and Singapore. I should’ve stayed in Singapore more because I had only a few hours per friend and I feel so sorry for that. It was however the moment that I felt all my efforts to this blog were paid off when I could finally meet my local friends. They are the friends from this blog who I will never be able to know if I didn’t start this blog. I hope I can get connected with world-wide friends thru this blog and I’d love to see them again in Tokyo if they are to visit here!