Missing Tokyo?  Here are some great time lapse videos to remind you of the hustle and bustle of this great city.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Whether you live in Japan or are visiting for the first time, taking the subway trains you’ll see these big white and yellow Tokyo Metro Posters reminding people of common manners – “Please Do it at Home”

What other poster themes should Tokyo Metro be putting up? (See all the posters here)

Nineteen year old Misaki Omukai 大向美咲さん of Kuji City in Iwate Prefecture is just like any Japanese lady except that she is a traditional Japanese Ama Diver (the old women who dive for abalone (called “awabi” in Japanese with virtually no equipment) and an overnight internet sensation which she was featured on an NHK TV documentary.

The tradition of women free diving in the sea is  over 2,000 years ago and today many tourists can watch them work and eat seafood like sea urchin or oysters right out of the sea. While Misaki is still a relative “beginner” in the tradition, she certainly has become the town’s campaign girl as more tourists flock to the area to have a glimpse of this diver with the gravure idol good looks.

Misaki Omukai Videos

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

According to Monocle magazine Tokyo is ranked as the third most livable city in the world.  The magazine ranked the “World’s Most Livable Cities (Quality Of Life)” using the following criteria:

• Safety / low crime
• International connectivity
• Climate
• Quality of architecture
• Public transportation
• Tolerance of others
• Environmental issues and access to nature
• Urban design
• Business conditions
• “Pro-active policy developments” and
• Medical care

Their entire Top ten “most livable cities” are:

1. Zürich, Switzerland
2. Copenhagen, Denmark
3. Tokyo, Japan
4. Munich, Germany
5. Helsinki, Finland
6. Stockholm, Sweden
7. Vienna, Austria
8. Paris, France
9. Melbourne, Australia
10. Berlin, Germany

If you were at the Kanda Nyojin 神田明神, shinto shrine in Tokyo last weekend, you might have seen some Japanese folks taking part in the winter season Daikoku festival which has a water purification ceremony, known as Kanchu misogi.

This year 33 white gown clad participants including one gaijin dude ran through the temple and performed  Torifune, a traditional Shinto warm-up exercise. Afterward, they entered the sacred bathing pools called misogiba which were filled with cold water and featured a large ice pillar. The participants then poured icey  cold water over themselves for purification and good fortune for the new year.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Photo of the day: Vending Machines for Omikuji (fortune paper) in Kinkaku-ji Temple, Kyoto.

For Japanese, Omikuji 御御籤, 御神籤, or おみくじ are random fortunes written on strips of paper at Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples which literally mean “sacred lottery”.

Omikuji are usually received by making a small monetary offering and randomly choosing one from a box or  given from a coin-slot machine. The omikuji is scrolled up or folded, and unrolling the piece of paper reveals the fortune written on it. It includes a general blessing which can be any one of the following:

* Great blessing (dai-kichi, 大吉)
* Middle blessing (chū-kichi, 中吉)
* Small blessing (shō-kichi, 小吉)
* Blessing (kichi, 吉)
* Half-blessing (han-kichi, 半吉)
* Near-blessing (sue-kichi, 末吉)
* Near-small-blessing (sue-shō-kichi, 末小吉)
* Curse (kyō, 凶)
* Small curse (shō-kyō, 小凶)
* Half-curse (han-kyō, 半凶)
* Near-curse (sue-kyō, 末凶)
* Great curse (dai-kyō, 大凶)

It then lists fortunes regarding specific aspects of one’s life, which may include any number of the following:

* 願事 (negaigoto) – one’s wish or desire
* 待人 (machibito) – a person being waited for
* 失せ物 (usemono) – lost article(s)
* 旅立ち (tabitachi) – travel
* 商い (akinai) – business dealings
* 學問 (gakumon) – studies or learning
* 相場 (souba) – market speculation
* 爭事 (arasoigoto) – disputes
* 戀愛 (renai) – romantic relationships
* 転居 (tenkyo) – moving or changing residence
* 出產 (shussan) – childbirth or pregnancy
* 病気 (byōki) – illness
* 縁談 (endan) – marriage proposal or engagement

Like fortune telling in other parts of the world, omikuji predicts matters of health, fortune, love and life. When the prediction is bad, it is a custom to fold up the strip of paper and attach it to a pine tree or a wall of metal wires alongside other bad fortunes in the temple or shrine grounds.

A purported reason for this custom is a pun on the word for pine tree (松 matsu) and the verb ‘to wait’ (待つ matsu), the idea being that the bad luck will wait by the tree rather than attach itself to the bearer. In the event of the fortune being good, the bearer has the option of tying it for the fortune to have a greater effect or can keep it for luck. Though nowadays this custom seems more of a children’s amusement, omikuji are available at most shrines, and remain one of the traditional activities related to shrine-going, if lesser.

Let’s hope 2010 is a good year for all of us!

Omikuji videos

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

pick from a box

Click here to view the embedded video.

mythical lion omikuji machine

Click here to view the embedded video.

It was just a matter of time but between Jan 23 2010 and March 14 2010 , if you’ re in the Asakusa 浅草 shopping and tourist part of Tokyo you can use real Hello Kitty Money at 500 participating shops.  Asakusa is known as the “traditional” part of Tokyo with the Sensoji temple 浅草寺 and old style shops that draw in the tourists local and foreign.

The Hello Kitty Money is more of  marketing gimmick than a real local currency but if you’re interested in using them or just collecting them, you can start ordering them (5  x 1,000 Yen notes or 10 x 500 Yen coins) for 4,750 Yen at the sanrio website.  Order today as only 30,000 1,000 Yen notes and 30,000 500 Yen coins will be issued (payment by credit card only).

Traveling to Japan? If you’re in Iga Ueno, between Osaka and Nagoya in Mie prefecture, visit the The Haiseiden (Poet’s Memorial Hall), a  Hakkakudo (an octagonal circular hall) and shrine constructed in 1942 commemorating the 300th anniversary of the haiku poet Matsuo Basho.

Basho, born in 1644, is famous for having established the highly artistic Japanese poetry (haiku) and traveling around whole country.  An Igayaki life-size seated figure of the Basho is enshrined in the hall and is open to public only on Basho Festival which has been held yearly on October 12, Basho’s death anniversary.

Shibuya Tokyo, the center of street fashion which moves 24 hours a day.