If one Buddhist temple in Tokyo is worth a visit it is Senso-ji in Asakusa. If that ‘worth a visit’ mantra is extended to include a prominent shrine, then Meiji Jingu near Omotesando and Harajuku has no equals.

Perhaps the nation’s best example of all things Shinto, Meiji Jingu has more than its share of wide, gravel filled tree lined approaches, a sense of sublime serenity that keeps out the hustle and bustle of the outside world, and even provides the odd glimpse of white robed priests shuffling about the cloisters or leading the faithful in chanting sutras.

All this – bizarrely it may seem, just across the street from the ultra-modern, teen filled Takeshita-dori in Harajuku and the high class Omotesando shopping district in which a pair of shoes can set you back a week’s wages!

And oddly enough, it was not initially built to house the body of the Meiji Emperor (1852-1912) himself, but rather to house his spirit – along with that of his wife, Haruko (1850-1914) – in death named Empress Shoken*.

One of the most magnificent worship related structures in Tokyo in the early 20th Century, the shrine was destroyed in US air raids in the closing days of the Second World War.

Rebuilding started soon after in an area almost completely flattened but, ironically perhaps, home then to the upper echelons of the occupying US military brass.

When reconstruction work was finished in 1958 – the same year Tokyo Tower opened – many could not, initially differentiate between the original and the ‘replacement’ approach to the shrine; a graveled path around 10 metres wide, lined with trees and passing beneath huge torii gates made of enormous Taiwanese cypress trees.

The shrine itself, arguably the most splendid in the capital, if not the nation in terms of scale, was built using homegrown cypress and in the half century since has seen many hundreds of millions of Japanese visit; some daily, many annually, and many more from up and down the country as part of a trip to the big smoke.

and now

In modern times, post 1958 reconstruction, however, the true religious or dedicatory role of Meiji Jingu has lost some if its sheen and deeper meaning for most visitors.

Today, on and soon after January 1st each year, several million individuals make the trek up the gravel paths at snail’s pace; their shuffle only made bearable in the cold of winter by the body heat generated by thousands and thousands of other fellow pilgrims making the journey to offer a brief prayer, primarily for personal well being at the start of another calendar year.

Several days after the New Year crowds that make the area almost unbearable have dispersed, sumo comes to the shrine – or at least in the shape of ceremonial renditions of the yokozuna dohyo-iri ring entering ceremony, by the active grand champions in the de-facto national sport.

Crowds gather around 12 o’clock on around the 5th of January each year to see the sport’s tops dogs perform the brief but semi-spiritual event held in the presence of all the top sumo wrestlers of years past.

In addition to sumo, throughout the year, weddings are also a staple of the shrine creating much of its income, and providing a beautiful backdrop to any casual visit by tourists and locals alike.

Coupled to annual festivities held throughout the year, the presence of a special park – Meiji Jingu Gyoen (fee) with one of the best iris gardens in the capital, and a treasure museum (fee) related to the lives of the Emperor and Empress after which the shrine is named, and an afternoon – at the very least two or three hours spent in this quiet corner of Tokyo is the perfect way to both recharge the batteries, and learn a little about the single most important Imperial reign in modern Japanese history - the reign of Mutsuhito – the Meiji Emperor.

Link: http://www.meijijingu.or.jp/english/

* - as was common in the 19th and early 20th centuries, the Empress – married wife of the Emperor – was not herself the mother of the next generation of princes and princesses. This was a ‘job’ left to official concubines. In this case, Haruko herself gave birth to no children, but rather adopted her husband’s children with two official concubines, five and seventeen years her junior.

In more ways than one, Omotesando Hills represents the future of the main Omotesando drag.

After opening a couple of years ago, the six floors of one of the most up-market, if not largest shopping options in the city was inundated as thousands visited daily and lines formed outside the main entrance.

Today, just around the corner from that much publicized opening, ‘Hills’ has reached the point it was perhaps aiming for in the first place; the mad rush of shoppers and sightseers long past, serious shoppers who know what they like, and have the money to spend forming the backbone of the custom now.

Construction wise, Hills is a phenomena, what with its angled, continuous floor running around the inside perimeter of a large hollow area. Not because if its size or even space for that matter – but for its ambience – an oft-ignored commodity in Japanese department stores.

A total of 77 shops line the walls of the walk-around slopes, interspersed with five galleries and at least two multi-purpose communal spaces.

None of these facilities ever appears as ‘in-yer-face’ as similar outlets seen in department stores elsewhere around the city. Instead, as with everything else in Hills, the shops here are a part of the larger experience, and it is always the experience that comes first.

For the peckish, around fifteen classy cafes and finger lickin’ restaurants, covering a range of tastes exist to cater to your every culinary need, and as with all up-market locales, the game here is as much about being seen as it is about eating in said restaurants positioned twixt the niche type stores lining the upper slopes.

Sadly, as simple yet modern as Hills is, it lacks in the opportunity to have its existence promoted by those visiting and taking photos inside, for at each turning point of the ascending and descending slopes, signs ask that photos not be taken from what is, without doubt, the ideal ‘capture all in a single shot’ vantage point.

It is only when the realization sinks in that the architects and / or designers have themselves foreseen the possibility of cameras tumbling several tens of metres to the basement below (open plan remember) and likely causing bodily injury, that extremely strong lights targeting each and every ‘between floors’ turning point are noticed.

At first cursed, these lights later appear to be a darned good idea – for it is a long way down, and a bunch of tourists snapping away, fingers raised in a peace sign really would remove from the ‘experience’.

The large central stairwell that creates the centerpiece of the whole structure, dim lighting and non-intrusive music add to the complete shopping trip for those with a few yen to spend and seeking to shop in serenity – no bright lights, shrieking teenage sales clerks and/or fluorescent “SALE – EVERYTHING MUST GO” signs here.

Head to Harajuku’s Takeshita Street for the kiddy area.

Omotesando Hills is about class, delivers class, and, you get the feeling, expects visitors to be just that little more ‘up-market’ than the youngsters down the road in Harajuku or Shibuya.

Be chic, be discreet – visit Hills.

Open seven days a week – 11:00 – 22:00.

As a man of the sea, Togo has no equal in Japanese naval history; a fact the small shrine sandwiched between Meiji Jingu and the up-market Aoyama area tends to belie.

First built in 1940, several years after Togo’s death, it contains the now deified spirit of the former Admiral – his actual grave being in Western Tokyo.

The grounds also contain a little museum and also a bookshop focusing on the life and times of the man trained in the UK, a true servant of Japan; both his son and his grandson also giving their lives in the service of the nation.

Each month, rain or shine (and nicer when it shines) two flea markets are held – usually on the first and fourth Sundays – each event attracting many tens of vendors specialising in antiques.

Things do get going early – often before sunrise on winter mornings so get along early and try and pick up a bargain.

The Meiji Jingu Treasure Museum is situated in the grounds of the main Meiji Jingu Shrine, a short walk from the main shrine buildings and approach.

A single storey concrete building dating back to 1921, but apparently constructed in the Oyukazukuri style of the much earlier State Treasure House in the city of Nara, near Osaka, the building does, at first appear to be at least two floors in height.

Within its walls are to be found a number of artifacts related to the　1868-1912 reign of the Meiji Emperor and his wife.

Of perhaps the most interest to the average visitor, however, is the horse drawn carriage used by the imperial couple on official travel in the late 19th and early 20th centuries; a black and red, gold trimmed affair that would not look out of place in any of the European capitals in the Middle Ages.

Although at least one famous English language guidebook passes the museum off as “pretty unexciting“, chances to view the lives of Japan’s imperial family up close and in person, come few and far between – perhaps the only other regular opportunity in Tokyo the museum in the outer gardens of the Imperial Palace proper – making this a museum not to miss for those interested in either the nation’s imperial lineage or, in particular, the Meiji-era named after the Emperor himself.

NB: A small entrance fee does apply, and the museum is closed on the third Friday each month, otherwise it is open daily from 09:00 - 16:30.

Kabuki, Noh, Bunraku and Takarazuka are all uniquely Japanese although the roots to some can be found on the Asian mainland – particularly in the case of Bunraku and Noh.

Much has been written about all of them here and elsewhere, and in their own right each is more than worthy of a visit.

The slower paced Noh is often described as the most difficult to comprehend given that it uses archaic Chinese, while Kabuki can be viewed as over the top and gaudy if seen too soon after a performance of the minimalism of Noh. Bunraku meanwhile is a form of puppet theatre that is the granddaddy of them all – although being centered in the West Japan Kansai district, can be a tad difficult to chance upon in the capital. That said, performances are held regularly so should your visit or interest peak at just the right time ……. Takarazuka is covered here and is the newest form of popular theatre in the top four – but perhaps the easiest to follow for non-Japanese speakers.

Shingeki – lit: New Theatre is Japan’s ‘any and all others’ (almost) and serves as a label for so many forms of stage based entertainment developed during the years of the twentieth century – from the bizarre to the banal – often combining the two.

Shogeki – lit: Little Theatre – as the name suggests constitutes theatre performed on limited budgets, with limited actors and limited interest if truth be told – in both the native and visiting populations.

Lights, camera, ……..

Taller than average perhaps, and doing a job only a tiny fraction of Japanese women will ever get close to doing, but down to earth and a delight to speak to all the same.

Like most, she dislikes ghosts and creepy crawlies. As do many of us, she has a soft spot for animals, in particular dogs.

So, besides the normalcy, what does this rising star in the Japanese world of Takarazuka have to say when put under the Tokyo Explorer microscope?

Speaking in her soft Osakan accent, she was kind enough to sit down with TE’s Mark Buckton and Enatsu Watanabe on one of the few afternoons she is not performing in The Scarlet Pimpernel this September.

TE: Please tell us what your family thought when you told them you wanted to join the Revue?

YR: As I wanted to be a ballerina when growing up, and my hobby was ballet, they knew how much I wanted to dance, so it was really them, not I that thought about joining Takarazuka.

TE: Other Japanese theatrical forms such as Kabuki, and Noh, have been well documented by foreign writers, but so far Takarazuka has not had much written about it. Why do you think this is?

YR: That’s true isn’t it? Hmmm, I’d like to see many more people coming to watch, but people, even Japanese, think they have to be brave to a degree in order to come and see Takarazuka. They don’t know how to get tickets (to see the shows) so I’d like (to see this change and) see more coming (first).

TE: Early Kabuki Onnagata actors such as Yoshizawa Ayama (1673-1729) often lived as women outside the theatre. Have any actors in the Revue ever been known to do the same?

YR: The fans look at (some of) us, and see men, so it would be a shock for them to really see us as women. On stage and during the shows they see us as men so for that reason we try to take care, wearing shirts, trousers (and appear as men in public).

TE: Do you prefer performing in Takarazuka or here in Tokyo?

YR: I come from the area near Takarazuka so I really enjoy going back to perform there, but Tokyo is so vibrant, full of theatres and life that I think I would have to say Tokyo.

TE: The Takarazuka school training is said to be very disciplined and I have heard it compared to joining the military. Looking back, just how hard do you think it was?

YR: The training was hard and there was a lot of work to do. (I think) it was two years of training very different to the lives of regular students, but it was all to make us capable of standing on the stage as actresses.

TE: Do you consider yourself a star?

YR: (laughs) Hmmm. That’s difficult. Do I see myself as a star? I guess I would like to be a star.(Laughs some more)

TE: How do you like to relax away from the theatre?

YR: I like wind. I like the wind in my face, the smell of wind, looking at the sky and looking at flowers. I am often so busy I forget what these things are like. Even if I don’t go out, just going out onto my verandah is OK.

TE: What other forms of (live) theatre do you yourself enjoy?

YR: Dance! I have always been interested in dance and often went to see dance performances so I guess that answer would be dance.

TE: What has been your happiest moment to date on stage?

YR: I think I am at my happiest right now (performing in Tokyo in Scarlet Pimpernel). I am very happy now.

TE: How do you prepare mentally for a role?

YR: I think about every aspect of my role very deeply. When I practice, I adopt the necessary hairstyle, similar clothes and try to think hard about what I am doing (and who I am).

TE: The troupe members are obviously gifted dancers, but can you let us know how you got into dance as a youngster?

YR: Actually, I started out as someone practicing Shaolin-ji style martial arts! In the apartment building in which I lived though, there was a person practicing ballet so I went to view a performance and wanted to practice myself. I often changed my mind and became interested in different things but classical ballet was different.

TE: Next year, the performances will increase from eight to ten each year. What do you think about this?

YR: I’m looking forward to it, but am also a little unsure. I am glad to be trying something new but just as I am enjoying one role, I will be moving into a new role, a new show.

TE: When you look out from the stage during a performance, what do you see in the eyes of the audience?

YR: When I look out and see the faces of the audience as they watch me, it pushes me on, motivates me and makes me realize what I am doing so I try harder. They are looking at me so I really want to do my best.

TE: A question now from a young Takarazuka fan named Haruki. What was the first Takarazuka performance you watched?

YR: Lost Paradise and The Southern Cross Revue starring Maya Miki.

TE: And another from Haruki – in The Scarlet Pimpernel, if you were able to perform any other role other than that of Chauvelin, who would you like to be?

YR: Hmm (and smiling), Percy looks like an interesting role as does Marguerite. In Scarlet Pimpernel there are many interesting aspects. It is difficult to answer that one.

TE: If you could meet, and perform with any famous actress no longer with us, who would that be, and why?

YR: (thinking) That person who appeared in (the Japanese production) ‘Shinkansen’ ……… the man…….. (a name no-one present could recall) Ah, no, a person who came (to see the show) yesterday – Nakamura Shido (a Japanese Kabuki actor). He looked really interesting in the audience.

TE: What about a foreign, American, European actor or actress?

YR: (answering very quickly) Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie! (laughs all round)

TE: Where do you see yourself in 10-years time?

YR: In 10-years time? On an island in the South taking things easy!

TE: If you had a chance to send out a message to foreign people to draw them to watch Takarazuka, what would you say?

YR: Like Kabuki, Takarazuka is an integral part of Japanese culture, and it is a form of theatre in which women play all the roles, unique in the world, so I’d like as many people as possible to come and see it. Even if they don’t understand what is being said, there is always the show (aspect – which they can follow).

Yuzuki Reon is currently starring as ‘Chauvelin’ – an agent of the French state – in The Scarlet Pimpernel at The Tokyo Takarazuka Theatre.

>>http://kageki.hankyu.co.jp/english/tt_stage.html

She will next appear in Tokyo in a performance of Viento de Buenos Aires in Tokyo from November 1st to the 6th. Tickets are priced at 4,000 and 5,000 yen respectively and go on sale on October 5th. The show will then move to Takarazuka for a few days.

>>http://kageki.hankyu.co.jp/revue/96/index.shtml

Oftentimes, these ‘actions’ are at, near or in onsen – hot springs in English.

For millions of years, naturally heated water has bubbled up from beneath the land in this part of Asia, and for at last the past 1500 years, likely much longer, (human) locals have found ways to take advantage of this gift of nature.

Primarily used to ‘heal’ – even the earliest Japanese texts (Kojiki, Man-yoshu and Nihongi) refer to the magical healing powers of onsen waters, today, these medicinal powers, whilst better understood are actually of lesser importance to those visiting onsen spots up and down the land.

In the hustle and bustle of modern Japan, onsen are more often than not viewed as a simple form of relaxation to be enjoyed as is for a day or two, as opposed to a potential opportunity to heal specific ailments.

By law, every facility offering onsen bathing, must now list and display the exact chemical make-up and properties of the waters, and even conditions that may benefit from repeated use over successive dips. Unfortunately few ever get around to reading said posters, and even if they do, they likely won’t be staying at the facility long enough to truly benefit from the waters.

That said, who’s to say the mere act of relaxation is itself unworthy of classification as a form of healing?

In so passionately seeking out this avenue of sitting back, chilling out and ignoring the world outside the bath, the Japanese truly exceed. It is not coincidence that letters sent by early Christian missionaries back to the home countries in Europe (mid-16th Century) labeled Japan a nation of ‘clean’ people – for even then, during the reign of warlord Oda Nobunaga, the locals knew the best way to be at one with nature whilst also replenishing their own batteries – by heading to an onsen!

Anywhere you travel in Japan – be it up in the hills, along the coast or even in the larger cities, there will usually be an onsen or two within a short distance. Japan has literally thousands of these ‘free baths’ although some are better than others, some more expensive (nothing is free anymore anyway) and others relatively unknown, but all, in their own way, well worthy of a visit – GET CLEAN!

Takarazuka first came into being in 1913 in a small town of the same name to the west of Osaka in Japan’s Kansai area. Set on its way by Ichizo Kobayashi, founder of the Hankyu Railway system, what started out as a group of sixteen young women employed to entertain guests at a hot spring resort first performed the following year, and has snowballed over the decades into a theatrical form unlike any other the world over; and in the ninety four years since first taking to the stage, over the world they have truly been.

Still officially based in the same town where they own the main Takarazuka Grand Theatre (capacity 2,527) and put on the first show in 1914, the controlling Hankyu Railways Company also owns the 2,500 capacity Tokyo Takarazuka Theatre in the nation’s capital.

Neither are ever lacking in audience members or those seeking tickets, making Takarazuka, arguably the most popular form of live entertainment outside the sporting world in modern Japan.

Today, around 900 people work as part of the Takarazuka Revue, including roughly 400 actresses in the five main troupes that make up the Takarazuka Revue.

The actresses are all graduates of a special period of training lasting two years at the Takarazuka Music School where everybody undergoes the same training in singing, dancing and acting. Only upon successful completion of this period of training can those who entered expect to get anywhere near membership in one of the troupes; Flower Troupe (founded 1914), Moon Troupe (1914), Snow Troupe (1924), Star Troupe (1933) and the more recent Cosmos Troupe (2001). Each troupe is made up of roughly 80-90 members and takes turn putting on the backbone of the Takarazuka repertoire – popular and often internationally famous musicals, and revues.

Whereas the first few years saw the Revue put on just three or four shows a year, the first ever being the April 1st to May 30th showing of ‘Donburako’ in the Paradise Theatre, some running for as few as ten days, others for as long as two months, today’s troupes have a far more demanding schedule. At present the Revue manages to perform eight times each year in Tokyo, (average six weeks duration) another eight times annually in Takarazuka; numbers that will increase to ten shows per year from 2009 – in both locations.

At time of writing(Sep,08), the Tokyo Takarazuka Theatre in the Hibiya district – not far from the Imperial Palace – is playing host to a performance of famed stage play “The Scarlet Pimpernel” by Hungarian Baroness Orczy. Put on by the Star Troupe with Kei Aran, Asuka Tono and Reon Yuzuki leading the cast, and running from August 22nd through October 5th, it is a wonderfully entertaining rendition of the play penned a century ago. Those fortunate enough to attend any of the performances will find themselves carried away on a wave of intrigue and romance permeating the upper echelons of British and French society of the time.

In a blend of swashbuckling action, song and dance, The Scarlet Pimpernel succeeds in mixing in acute awareness and historical accuracy of the times in which it is set – Paris, France 1794 – with the song, dance and even comedy for which his theatre form has become renowned the world over; a show not to be missed, not least as it is the first time the play has ever been performed in Japan.

Tickets for Takarazuka are generally not easy to come by, but a little effort in terms of research, the date sales start and different forms of ticket on sale* should see persistence pay off somewhere down the line.

For tourists or short-term visitors to Tokyo, ask at your hotel reception for advice on ticket purchase, but to resident and visitor alike, Japanese and non-Japanese, irrespective of background, and perceived comprehension of Takarazuka prior to attendance, please DO NOT live your life, or leave Japan without seeing this truly wonderful, passionate and wholly unique form of theatre.

Reap what you sow and the efforts made in obtaining tickets, and attending a performance of Takarazuka will be paid back a hundredfold in terms of memories that will last a lifetime.

Link: http://kageki.hankyu.co.jp/english/

* Tickets range in price from 10,000 per person to 3,500 yen per person. Around fifty tickets priced 2,500 yen are available for purchase on the day of the performance, and even standing tickets (rear of the second floor) can be secured for 1,500 yen.

There are few competitive sports in the world today that cannot be sampled somewhere or other in Japan, while those of us on the lookout merely to serve as spectators have a similar wealth of options to go with.

Baseball is perhaps the de-facto national sport – certainly in terms of popularity. A dozen pro-teams compete for the Japan Series Pennant in a title race that kicks off in late march and runs to the autumn with a recently introduced ‘inter-league’ session held in the early summer.

Football turned pro in Japan only in the mid-1990s, attracted a huge initial following to the two divisions of the J-League, but has slumped somewhat in recent years making tickets a little easier to obtain. The area around Tokyo has at least four or five top flight teams (Urawa Reds, Yokohama F. Marinos, FC Tokyo, Tokyo Verdy and Kashiwa Reysol) worth scoping if a fan of the ‘Beautiful Game’ with tickets going for roughly 2000 – 5000 yen a pop.

Sumo – of course – is a Japanese sport although it didn’t start out that way; sumo, judo, karate and kendo as well as several other related ‘martial arts’ were at first methods of training the individual (mind and body) and were never intended as out and out sports. Sumo tourneys take place six times a year – thrice in Tokyo – in January, May, and September. For the interested – TE’s Sumo Tours would be a great place to get a taster of this ancient aspect of Japanese culture.

Tennis and a range of other sports popular in the west such as American football, rugby, ice hockey, horse racing and even winter sports have their own legion of dedicated fans, with many of the country’s universities home to sports teams and riding clubs that make up regional and national leagues and serve as nurseries for the still fledgling sports such as ice hockey.

Running is perhaps something of an exception in the Japanese psyche – in that it is a sport carried out by an individual in a nation that largely worships team effort and suffering.

The marathon is of particular interest to Japanese, and rightly so with several Olympic and World Championship winners of Japanese (usually female) origin; this summer’s last minute withdrawal of Mizuki Noguchi – gold medal winner four years earlier) from the Beijing Games, seen almost as a national tragedy.

With milk the very essence of life in some parts of the world, a staple in others, there are few, if any people alive today for whom milk does not feature in one way or another.

But, is milk an art-form? Something capable of being turned into an object to be admired, sought after?

It is now – for rarely in my own nigh on forty years of life have I sampled a milk based product quite like these puddings, yogurts and – in its most basic, olde worlde form – milk!

Delicious to the point of disbelief, full bodied yet not overly so, and textured to perfection, none need the sugar based additives offered by other companies to sweeten the taste. None need anything other than an individual with a sense of anticipation to achieve the goal sought – satisfaction in style.

Whilst the words ‘milk’ and ‘yoghurt’ may not, in and of themselves look overly appealing; the familiarity we have with these products perhaps deadens our senses in this regard, opt to walk this way, try these delights and from this day hence, from wherever your senses came, they shall never return.

URL(Japanese only): http://www.cook3.com/