This Week in Tokyo – 20 November 2018

The latest edition of This Week in Tokyo – a review of the Maction Planet week that was and a look ahead to what’s coming up in and beyond the city. Check out photos from our tours and read insights into our explorations as we get under the skin of the World’s Greatest Metropolis. This week: Autumn with Higashiyama Kaii; Bonsai chrysanthemums; Flower Room Asami; Monkeys on the train and Nekobus is alive! 

Featured Image – Autumn with Higashiyama Kaii: The leaves are changing in Tokyo, but another way to experience koyo is through the eyes of artist Higashiyama Kaii. 68 paintings and 45 studies and sketches make up this comprehensive retrospective of the world of one of Japan’s best-loved landscape painters. The exhibition marks 110 years since his birth, on show in Tokyo until to December 3 at the The National Art Center, Tokyo in Nogizaka. Our Founder and Lead Guide, Mac, wrote a review for Tokyo Art Beat, which you can read here. For more information about the Nogizaka area, including some music from eponymous band Nogizaka 46, check out ‘Tour de Tokyo I‘ the latest episode of Tokyo ON, Maction Planet Radio’s flagship show. In this episode Mac takes you on an aural and geographically accurate journey through the World’s Greatest Metropolis. Download the Mixcloud App and follow Maction Planet to be the first to listen to new episodes as soon as they drop! (Featured image: Passing Autumn; 1990; Colour on paper, Nagano Prefectural Shinano Art Museum / Higashiyama Kaii Gallery)

Bonsai chrysanthemum: We are huge lovers of chrysanthemums here at Maction Planet, and we share that love with our guests. On Saturday Mac took our guest Dave to the Tokyo Metropolitan Tourism Chrysanthemum Exhibition in Hibiya Park. The show features around 1,200 chrysanthemums of all different kinds of —ogiku, edogiku, domed, osugi-style, cushion-style… but it was the bonsais which really caught their eye, including this magnificent example captured beautifully in this great photo by Dave.

Flower Room Asami: We love the aesthetic of Asami, one of our favourite flower shops in West Tokyo.

Monkeys on the train: ‘Good manners’ posters in Tokyo are innovative and entertaining. Here is one from Seibu Group, which operate several lines heading north-west of Central Tokyo, encouraging passengers to refrain from noisy behaviour. The monkeys on the train are well beyond rowdy; they are engaged in a full-on football match. Clearly things have got a little out of hand in the suburbs of the World’s Greatest Metropolis!

And finally – Nekobus is alive: Our guest Dave snapped this great pic during a backstreets of Shibuya-ku tour with Mac. The Nekobus is a character from the classic Studio Ghibli film My Neighbour Totoro… a twelve-legged cat with a hollow body that serves as a bus.

Maction Planet runs bespoke Private Tours and Experiences in Tokyo, and beyond. To book yours, contact us on info@mactionplanet.com