NAP Spring Japan Tour 2023
Photos by Bruce Fleming
Text by Karyn Kubo Fleming
For The North American Post
Go Giants! First row, from left: Ann Kumata, Kimiko, Steve Ko, Elaine Ikoma Ko, Donna Yamamoto, Bryce Nevermann, Shari Woo, Frank Kiuchi, Karyn Kubo Fleming. Back row: Renato Foz, Bruce Rutledge, John Foz, Matt Hobbs, Bruce Fleming.
Index maps: The first leg of the NAP tour captured in the photos. The blue line to Takayama (“Hida-Takayama”) is 502 km (312 miles; six hours by train).Images: Google Maps
The popular Japan Tour sponsored by the North American Post returned this spring after a three-year pandemic hiatus. Our group of 19 travelers (plus two guides) hit the ground walking for 13 days of adventure! The tour balanced exploration with education; camaraderie with new friends was a bonus. Intrepid tour leaders Elaine Ikoma Ko and Bruce Rutledge graciously accommodated individual and group requests, and continually looked for new things to include in the itinerary. On our first full day in Tokyo, for example, they made arrangements for the baseball fans amongst us to attend a game at the Tokyo Dome. (Home team Yomiuri Giants were beaten by Hiroshima Toyo Carp in the 10th.) The second day, they added a visit to Yoyogi Park and in the evening, a few hours in the hip Shimokitazawa neighborhood.
In this first of a two-part photo-essay, we’ll focus on Tokyo and Takayama. Scenes from Kyoto, Uji and Nara await in part two.
The fish are auctioned elsewhere these days, but Tsukiji Outer Market remains a bustling and delicious “food town.” Bring your appetite!
The Kaminari-mon, or Thunder Gate, is the symbol of the Asakusa District, Tokyo. It leads to Sensoji Temple, the city’s most popular temple.
The iconic Shibuya Scramble Crossing in the rain, as seen from Shibuya Sky observatory. Often used in movies to quickly set the location.
teamLab Planets TOKYO is an immersive sensory experience, “art that you feel with your whole being.” Photographer Bruce Fleming has an interactive experience with a sphere in the space entitled, “Expanding Three-Dimensional Existence in Transforming Space — Flattening 3 Colors and 9 Blurred Colors, Free Floating.”
Mascot Umberto welcomes visitors to the Unko Museum on Odaiba Island, an artificial island in Tokyo Bay. Here he displays poop-themed gift items such as snacks, magazines, and of course toilet paper.
Small independent retailers, vintage clothing stores and funky, distinctive bars and restaurants thrive in Shimokitazawa, a lively neighborhood of narrow streets and alleys known as the bohemian district of Tokyo.
Hida no Sato (Hida Village), a restored village in Takayama, Gifu Prefecture, provides a sense of daily life in the Edo Period (1603-1867). Hida is the former provincial name.
Beckoning customers in to Daimoku Tavern in Shinjuku with offerings of fresh oysters — raw, baked, grilled with moromi butter or steamed in sake.
Utagawa Hiroshige, “Hida in ‘The Famous Scenes of the Sixty States’” (1853). Image: public domain
Karyn Kubo Fleming is a dedicated public servant, active volunteer and third-generation Japanese American. She handcrafts greeting cards that feature Japanese elements such as washi (Japanese paper), origami (paper folding) and mizuhiki (paper cords). She had to buy an art tube to bring home all the washi she purchased on the tour.
Instagram: @kubocards
Bruce Fleming is a photographer and graphic artist. His work has appeared in Seattle coffee shops, salons, pop-up events and galleries. As a photographer, Bruce experienced the Post’s Japan Tour like fishing in an aquarium. More of his catch can be viewed online at:
@brucedenefleming
