Sengakuji, Tokyo

At first glance, it’s not as spectacular as other temples in Japan. However, it is well known as the grave for the 47 samurais that participated in the attack to avenge their lord Asano’s death whereby they were later sentenced to seppuku (hara-kiri). My visit to this 300 year old gravesite was a memorable one, with me burning incense sticks in order to pay respect to the samurais

The other day the ATM was out order, probably caused frustration to some customers. Hopefully this cute picture which looks like a humble apology from an assistant, offered some relieve

Kyoto Imperial Palace

Although the Emperor of Japan currently resides in Tokyo, this Palace is still preserved and used whenever the Emperor visits Kyoto. Within the Palace compound, there's 'Shishinden' (pic 1), which is the most important building here. It was the place where enthronement ceremonies were held. There are several entrance gates (pic 2) to the palace whereby each gate has a different status and purpose. There's also the beautiful 'Oikeniwa' garden (pic 3). I came to know that in 2005, the meeting between President Bush and Prime Minister Koizumi was held in this Palace..not to forget the tight security and street demonstrators

Nagara-gawa, Gifu

It refers to the Nagara river in the Gifu Prefecture. There's actually a promenade that allows tourist to walk along and enjoy the scenic beauty of Nagara river and Mt. Kinka. On top of the mountain is Gifu Castle which I did not have the opportunity to visit yet. However, at night it lights up 'like a castle floating in heaven'

WorldHockey Olympic Qualifier; Kakamigahara, Gifu. Six teams battle it out to seek the final remaining spot at the Olympics. On the 5th day of competition, Malaysia only managed a 3-3 draw against Japan and missed their chance to play in the finals after a late controversial goal from the Japanese team. On the 6th and final day of competition, it was Japan against tournament favourites Germany. In the end, Germany proved that they are too strong for all the remaining teams in this tournament and qualified to the Beijing Olympics without conceding a single goal, Wow!

Geological Museum, Tsukuba

Located within the AIST facility, it’s a site not to be missed even for non geology lovers. These two minerals (or rocks) from India impressed me very much

Probably the info here is 'lil bit' outdated but nevermind.. Quite often we would like to send/share large sized file (>100MB) but are restricted with size limitation of 'one-click hosting' sites or even worse traffic/bandwidth limit which sometimes makes the recipient wait hours (maybe with LAN). 1) One way of getting around this is to use file splitting application like GSplit and uploading the files to common file sharing sites like YouSendIt. Of course, 7 days time limit is applicable 2) The other service that I've used in the past is SendThisFile which has no file size restriction but 3 days (this was 1 year ago) time limit is applicable. Quite reasonable if the recipient has a stable Internet connection. Another awesome service is steekR which provides 1GB storage but has no time restriction. 3) Not to forget, few months back I have read that Lycos Mail offers 3GB free storage with no restriction on the file size you can send. Kindly ensure that the recipient also opens an account. - Anyway find the service that best suits you and remember nothing is perfect!

The Rising. It’s an upcoming documentary by Oceanic Preservation Society (OPS) which examines the annual massacre of dolphins in a hidden cove of Taiji (Wakayama Prefecture), Japan. According to Japan Times (Harnell, 2008), this film tells the story of the barbaric killing and subsequent butchering of dolphins together with resulting sale of their meat that massively exceeds Japanese and international limits for mercury content. In my point of view, any form of cruelty to human being, animals or even the environment is very much condemned. However, there’s a possibility that the vast majority of Japanese people are not aware of such activity and the consequences from consuming dolphin meat.. For more info on the documentary and also a feedback from the people of Taiji, visit here (The picture in this post is published with the kind permission from the Oceanic Preservation Society)

AIST, Tsukuba

This board actually shows the amount of solar energy generated within the AIST facility. Thus, making them the first mega-solar town in Asia, in line with their tagline ‘Making Solar Energy as Common as Sunshine’. Gee! I hope someday my country will catch up with this people.. even sunshine is not so common in Japan. For more info visit here

Spring, Kyoto. Spring in Kyoto certainly offers a beautiful view of ‘sakura’ (cherry blossom) and other seasonal flowers. In Japan, ‘hanami’ picnic is a common activity during spring which refers to cherry blossom viewing. For me, spring means FREEEDOM! after a painful winter