Cherry blossom time is coming… 桜と花見

Spring has come and the cherry blossoms are opening soon all over Japan. For many spring is the favorite time of the year in Japan and I’m no exception well I do like Autumn too with the beautiful autumn colors.

This year I won’t be able to see Tokyo blossoming in sakura (cherry flower) because I will arrive to Tokyo in the begin of May when the main season has officially finished but I did take couple of thousand photos last spring that I’d like to share with you!

Depends how my plans go but I might be able to see cherry blossom in north of Japan since there the season starts later than in Tokyo.

Little Japanese for you.
サクラ　(桜) = Cherry blossom (Sakura)
はなみ　(花見) = Flower viewing (Hanami)

Did you know that in Japanese TV you can see info when and where the flowers are at their best? .Well you can so keep you eye on the tv shows 😀

Little bit about Hanami (flower viewing)

One of the best things to do in Japan is to get together with your friends under the colorful cherry flowers and drink beer (or something stronger),eat tasty food and talk with your friends.
The first Hanami I went was organized by the Sakura hostel asakusa and since I was renting an apartment from Sakura house (basically the same company) I could join their parties without paying anything. At that time I did not know pretty much anyone in Tokyo but at the hanami where all of us were having fun and drinking I made lots of new friends.

Actually about 5-10minutes after this photo was taken it started raining a lot (and I mean A LOT) so everyone quickly packed their bags and ran back to the lobby of the hostel (I know I tolled this story like million times but it was such a fun night). At the hostel we were sitting at the lobby drinking and getting to know one another and after couple of hours someone got this great idea that we should go to a bar that was close called “Samurai bar” (hope I’m not mistaken about the name), in the bar we stayed until the last train.  So even tho the rain stopped our fun under the flowers we still kept the party on!

Here are some of my favorite shots of the cherry blossoms.

(This one was taken at Shinjuku park in the begin of sakura season)

(Ueno park)

(Near the Imperial palace)

(This one is from erm somewhere near shibuya :D)

One of my favorite shots of last spring was this I took in front Yasukuni Shrine near the Imperial palace.

These are great too 😀

Here are some “closer” shots of sakura flowers.

I need to get myself a macro lens so I could take better shots of them for y’all !

Famous and huge Hanami (flower viewing) happens in Ueno park! Here are some photos and video from there!

 
I took a lot of photos there which you can see more in my flickr!

If you like this post “like” my facebook page 😀 Photographer Ari Helminen facebook

Hamburgers of Tokyo

Hi,

Here are some of the most delicious hamburgers I have eaten in Japan and some other extras!! If you don’t become hungry while reading this post there is only two options:
1st. you don’t like food
2nd. you are a vegan or vegetarian

Let’s start with the awesome M.O.S burger ! This burger is my favorite there and I miss it so much !

Just look at how tasty that looks 😀

Hard Rock cafe Tokyo

World famous restaurant strikes again!

Always a good place to go to have a great evening.

Freshness burger

Very similar burger place to M.O.S but I guess this place is more “fresh” ? 😀 hehe

Got a love those onion rings as well 😀

McDonald’s (マクドナルド)

I don’t eat often Mc often but the morning sets I love !

Cheap and good !

Hooters Tokyo (フーターズ 東京)
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That was my first time in Hooters and damn it was goood 😀 women were nice too hehe 😀

zest cantina (ゼストキャンティーナ)

Zest is a great place ! I recommend eating here ! their website is in English as well 🙂

Wolfgang Puck (ウルフギャング・パック)

Very cheap and delicious place as well ! easy to find in Harajuku 😀

Festival Hamburger

This burger was huge and gooooddd 😀

There were couple Hamburgers that you might like to try in Japan!

If you liked the photos “Like” my facebook page 😀

Roppongi Hills Mori Tower。Best view of Tokyo

こんにちわ！！

This is a tower where all of you have to visit when you are in Tokyo! This is an order ! hehe.

This belongs to the top 5 places I like to spent hours and hours watching the Tokyo skyline.

The tower itself is 238 meters (781 ft) tall so you see it is not just a normal office size  building. the 52nd floor has the Tokyo city view and from there you can see pretty much everything nicely through the glass but if you can spare couple of hundred yen more you can see much wider view from the “sky deck” which is the helipad on top of the building.

52nd floor also has a nice restaurant (expensive) and a great smoothie shop which I like and it is not too expensive like normal Roppongi prices.

To go up to the Tokyo city view (52nd floor)
– Costs 1500円　or 1200円　if you buy your ticket in advance from a comibini like family mart or sunkus.

To go more up to the Sky deck (helipad)
– Costs 300円

Okay so this is the Mori tower at Roppongi Hills
(it kinda looks small in the photo but it is actually very tall, it’s the one on the left)

The architecture and design of this building is just fantastic !

Here are some photos from the 52nd floor that I have taken.

You can’t see the glass at all from these photos, it’s very clean so you can get nice photos through it.

Here are some photos I took at the Sky deck !

As you can see the photos are much more clear! ok the weather was not that good but still 😀

Here are couple of sunset photos for y’all as extra 😀 (of course you can see all of these and more in my flickr)

The Tokyo Tower is always a beautiful building to take photos.

Let’s now wait until Sky Tree opens and we will see if the view will be better than the one from this beautiful building!

Cat cafe Calico, Shinjuku 猫カフェ 新宿

It seems that always when I go to my favorite cat cafe in Tokyo, I keep going to eat in the same restaurant called Shakeys pizza ( if you been reading my blog before you know it).

This time was no different, before we went to the cat cafe we took a quick stop at the restaurant to some delicious salad that they have and of course the best onion rings and few slices of pizza.

Calico
-Best cat cafe in Tokyo (in my honest oppinion)
-not too expensive 1000yen an hour
-you get a free ticket always when you leave and with it you can get a free drink when you come back.

I took some great shots of the cats again there 😀 I know all you cat lovers will like them a lot !

The first ones are my favorite 😀

These days when I go to this place I always buy that small box of chicken that the cats love. Always when I have it open the cats come around me 😀

Here are couple of photos of the cat downstairs and up.

-upstairs is great with Wii and ipad to play with 😀

Downstairs is full of Manga and an area where you can eat and drink as well 😀

More photos of the cute cats!

I love it how they put their paw on your hand when you are giving them chicken so that you don’t pull you don’t take the chicken away!

Sleepy sleepy

I loved this cat! I was watching this big cat jumping in to that small basket and everyone started laughing when she was trying to make herself fit in to it 😀

There there cute cat’s

I want more chicken !

He doesn’t want anyone touching him while he is a sleep.

Standing on my legs.

and Sleepy again

Some things I bought those days.
-From left to right
1st. European plug-in
2nd. SD card box for 4 cards
3rd. C270 logitech webcam for my girlfriend

I love this thing, recharging the batteries of my ipads and everything 🙂

Nice panorama I took at the station

She has a cute back bag 😀

Thank you for reading one of my posts again ! “Like” my facebook page if you liked those cats 😀

Shopping day in Akihabara

Few days before I left Japan to come to Finland I was busy with work and shopping. Yodobashi Akiba is my main place to buy electronics and camera equipment in Tokyo since the points you get to your yodobashi point card are awesome and of course that place is cheapish.

This day we went there and I bought two new webcams I got the Logitech C910 (photo) and I got one cheaper one for my girl as well. Long distance relationship is hard but these days the technology has made it much easier.

Also I did buy other things like portable battery that works with ipad2,iphone4 etc so I’m never without power and got some memory card boxes and so on.

In the morning we had meals in Lotteria, I don’t often eat there so I wanted to try their morning set out. I do love their cheap shakes tho!

Always when we are walking near Akiba and we see the New york doughnut plant and we say to each other that we will buy from there someday and this was the day and damnnnn they were deeelicious ! When I get back to Tokyo I will get them the first day !

Japanese toilet map!

Shopping bags!!

I saw these Surprise bags in Asakusa again ! I almost bought one since they were fairly cheap and you could get the psp vita, camera or Wii 😀 Next time this season comes I will get one