Fuji-Q Highland is an amusement park in Fujiyoshida, Yamanashi, Japan.

The theme park is near the base of Mount Fuji. It has a number of roller coasters, as well as The Haunted Hospital, the world’s second largest haunted attraction, and Thomas Land, a children’s area with a Thomas the Tank Engine theme.

In 2006, on the 9th Season of The Amazing Race, the final 3 teams came here and rode Tondemina, Dodonpa and Fujiyama looking for a clue to their next destination.

Fuji-Q’s most famous roller coasters are the following:

• Fujiyama, 79 metres tall, 130 km/h, opened in 1996 and was once the world’s tallest roller coaster. As of 2007 it is the world’s 8th tallest, 5th longest, and 10th fastest roller coaster.

• Dodonpa, 52 metres tall, 172 km/h, opened in 2001 and was once the world’s fastest roller coaster. As of 2007 it is the 3rd fastest in the world but still has the highest acceleration at launch time.

• Eejanaika, 76 metres tall, 126 km/h, opened in 2006 and is only the second “4th Dimension roller coaster” ever built (the first being X² at Six Flags Magic Mountain in California). As a “4th dimension” roller coaster its seats can rotate 360 degrees forward or backward in a controlled spin, thus allowing Eejanaika to invert 14 different times, even though the actual track inverts only three times. It surpasses the first built “4th dimension” roller coaster, X², in both height and speed.

• Takabisha, opened on 16 July 2011, contains a 121° freefall, as well as seven major twists over 1000 metres of track, and a drop of 43 metres

Source: Wikipedia

Akihabara , also known as Akihabara Electric Town, is an area of Tokyo. It is located less than five minutes by rail from Tokyo Station. Its name is frequently shortened to Akiba in Japan.

Akihabara is a major shopping area for electronic, computer, anime, and otaku goods, including new and used items. New items are mostly to be found on the main street, Chūōdōri, with many kinds of used items found in the back streets of Soto Kanda 3-chōme. New parts for PC-building are readily available from a variety of stores. Tools, electrical parts, wires, microsized cameras and similar items are found in the cramped passageways of Soto Kanda 1-chōme (near the station). Foreign tourists tend to visit the big name shops like Laox or other speciality shops near the station, though there is more variety and lower prices at locales a little further away. Akihabara gained some fame through being home to one of the first stores devoted to personal robots and robotics.

Here is a small video in a game center where young japanese guy ( mostly ) used to spend some times.. Thanks to Aurelien for the video

Really cool vending machine right?
An entire tactile screen where you can get information about the drink you want, like nutritional information etc..

Do you have that kind of machine in your neck of the woods?

Soka Renaissance Vanguard 創価ルネサンスバンガード is a marching band (drum & brass corps) belonging to the Soka Gakkai Music Corps. The band consists of about 140 male university students and businessmen living in the Tokyo metropolitan area. In addition, we also have a Soka Renaissance Vanguard Jr. Corps, consisting of male elementary, junior and senior high school students.

http://www.soka-vanguard.org/

The Rice Bowl is an annual American Football national championship game held in Japan every January 3rd that pits the Japanese college champion and the champion of the corporate X-League. The game can draw over 60,000 spectators.

This year the match was Obic Seagulls (X-league champ) VS Kwansei gakuin university Fighters (college champ), and the seagulls won 38 – 28 after a really good start from the fighters the seagulls came back in the game and took the victory in the last Quarter ^_^

Mount Takao is a mountain near Tokyo.

Standing 599 metres tall and located within an hour of downtown Tokyo, it is a popular hiking spot, with eight hiking courses and more than 2.5 million annual visitors. The Tama Forest Science Garden is also located at the mountain’s base.

Mount Takao is closely associated with tengu, minor kami from Japanese folklore, and the daitengu Naigubu. A Buddhist temple, Takaosan Yakuōin Yūkiji, is located on the mountain.

Visitors to Mount Takao can choose to start climbing from the base, or take a funicular or ropeway ride halfway up the mountain. The Takao Mountain Railroad operates both of these services. The system nominally has four stations—two each for the funicular and the ropeway. However, the distance between the pairs of stations is only a few dozen meters (at the base of the mountain) and approximately 150 meters (at the top of the services, which are themselves about a 30 minute scenic uphill walk from the top of Mount Takao itself), so they can essentially both be thought of as coming from and going to the same place.

Some visitors to Mount Takao bypass the Takao Mountain Railroad services entirely. Trail 1 from the base of the mountain is a somewhat arduous climb, but it is paved and leads past the top stations of both the ropeway and the funicular on the way to the summit. Trail 6 and the “Inariyama Trail” are unpaved trails that start from the base of the mountain and go all the way to the summit, but they do not pass the ropeway and funicular top stations. Some visitors to Takao ride up the mountain and then walk back down.

One end of the Tōkai Nature Trail is at Mount Takao, at the Takaosan-guchi Station. The other end is at Minoh, near Osaka.

source: wikipedia

The Ueno Zoo  is Japan’s oldest zoo, opening on March 20, 1882. It is a five-minute walk from the Park Exit of Ueno Station, with convenient access from Tokyo’s public-transportation network. The Ueno Zoo Monorail, the first monorail in the country, connects the eastern and western parts of the grounds. In the part 1 is the East side of the zoo.. When the part 2 is the West side of the zoo.

The zoo is in Ueno Park, a large urban park that is home to museums, a small amusement park, and other attractions. The zoo is closed Tuesdays (Monday if Friday is a holiday). It s definitely a place to go to have fun with friends, or with kids!

The Ueno Zoo  is a 14.3-hectare (35-acre) zoo, managed by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, and located in Taitō, Tokyo, Japan. It is Japan’s oldest zoo, opening on March 20, 1882. It is a five-minute walk from the Park Exit of Ueno Station, with convenient access from Tokyo’s public-transportation network. The Ueno Zoo Monorail, the first monorail in the country, connects the eastern and western parts of the grounds. In the part 1 we will stay in the East side of the zoo.. When the part 2 is the West side of the zoo.

The zoo is in Ueno Park, a large urban park that is home to museums, a small amusement park, and other attractions. The zoo is closed Tuesdays (Monday if Friday is a holiday). It s definitely a place to go to have fun with friends, or with kids!

This video is part of the October 2011 J-Festa

Sensō-ji is an ancient Buddhist temple located in Asakusa. It is Tokyo’s oldest temple, and one of its most significant. Formerly associated with the Tendai sect, it became independent after World War II.

The temple is dedicated to the bodhisattva Kannon, also known as Guan Yin or the Goddess of Mercy. According to legend, a statue of the Kannon was found in the Sumida River in 628 by two fishermen, the brothers Hinokuma Hamanari and Hinokuma Takenari. The chief of their village, Hajino Nakamoto, recognized the sanctity of the statue and enshrined it by remodeling his own house into a small temple in Asakusa, so that the villagers could worship the Kannon.

The first temple was built on the site in 645, which makes it the oldest temple in Tokyo. In the early years of the Tokugawa shogunate, Tokugawa Ieyasu designated Sensō-ji as tutelary temple of the Tokugawa clan.

During World War II, the temple was bombed and for the most part destroyed. It was rebuilt later and is a symbol of rebirth and peace to the Japanese people. In the courtyard there is a tree that was hit by a bomb in the air raids, it had regrown in the husk of the old tree and is a similar symbol to the temple itself.

Bon Odori (盆踊り), meaning simply Bon dance is a style of dancing performed during Obon. Originally a Nenbutsu folk dance to welcome the spirits of the dead, the style of celebration varies in many aspects from region to region. Each region has a local dance, as well as different music. The music can be songs specifically pertinent to the spiritual message of Obon, or local min’yo folk songs. Consequently, the Bon dance will look and sound different from region to region. Hokkaidō is known for a folk-song known as “Soran Bushi.” The song “Tokyo Ondo” takes its namesake from the capital of Japan. “Gujo Odori” in Gujō, Gifu prefecture is famous for all night dancing. “Goshu Ondo” is a folk song from Shiga prefecture. Residents of the Kansai area will recognize the famous “Kawachi ondo.” Tokushima in Shikoku is very famous for its “Awa Odori,” or “fool’s dance,” and in the far south, one can hear the “Ohara Bushi” of Kagoshima.

The way in which the dance is performed is also different in each region, though the typical Bon dance involves people lining up in a circle around a high wooden scaffold made especially for the festival called a ‘yagura’. The yagura is usually also the bandstand for the musicians and singers of the Obon music. Some dances proceed clockwise, and some dances proceed counter-clockwise around the yagura. Some dances reverse during the dance, though most do not. At times, people face the yagura and move towards and away from it. Still some dances, such as the Kagoshima Ohara dance, and the Tokushima Awa Odori, simply proceed in a straight line through the streets of the town.

The dance of a region can depict the area’s history and specialization. For example, the movements of the dance of the Tankō Bushi (the “coal mining song”) of old Miike Mine in Kyūshū show the movements of miners, i.e. digging, cart pushing, lantern hanging, etc. All dancers perform the same dance sequence in unison.

There are other ways in which a regional Bon dance can vary. Some dances involve the use of different kinds of fans, others involve the use of small towels called tenugui which may have colorful designs. Some require the use of small wooden clappers, or “kachi-kachi” during the dance. The “Hanagasa Odori” of Yamagata is performed with a straw hat that has been decorated with flowers.

The music that is played during the Bon dance is not limited to Obon music and min’yo; some modern enka hits and kids’ tunes written to the beat of the “ondo” are also used to dance to during Obon season. The “Pokémon Ondo” was used as one of the ending theme songs for the anime series in Japan.

The Bon dance tradition is said to have started in the later years of the Muromachi period as a public entertainment. In the course of time, the original religious meaning has faded, and the dance has become associated with summer.

To celebrate O-Bon in Okinawa, the eisa drum dance is performed instead.

text by wikipedia