This Week in Tokyo – 4 September 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: Happy Birthday Doraemon, Kitazawa Hachiman Matsuri, Cicada Gold, Melting In The Mouth and Marilyn Monroe in Tokyo! 

Featured image – Happy Birthday Doraemon!: 3 September 2112 is the birthday of the robot cat from the future. What better way to celebrate it than with this delicious chocolate bread from Bakery Kanazawa!

Kitazawa Hachiman Matsuri: Sunday 2 September was the main day of the 2018 Kitazawa Hachiman Matsuri. The streets were lined with revellers, but as always we managed to get our guests to the absolute best vantage points to take incredible photos… like this one!

Cicada Gold: Cicadas go hand in hand with the Japanese summer. Called semi in Japanese, their trademark chirping, which varies by species, is the soundtrack to life here at this time of year. There is no avoiding their call – they are the loudest insects in the world! They use their hollow abdomen to amplify sound and produce noise up to 120 decibels. Their ability to disable their hearing mechanisms is what stops them from deafening themselves. We spotted this specimen crawling over the 金 kanji at Shomyoji temple complex on a Maction Planet Photography Tour.

Melting In The Mouth: 125g of ice cream perfection served up by Melting In The Mouth, one of our favourite sweet treat stores in the Hiroo neighbourhood of Tokyo. They have other organic desserts, but the highlight is always their incredible soft serve. Hiroo is not a neighbourhood that normal shows up on visitors’ radar, but with the special private access we are able to provide to some of the area’s incredible sights, building and museums it becomes a unique off-the-beaten-track paradise for our Maction Planet Tokyo Private Tour guests.

And finally… Marilyn Monroe visits Tokyo: Once the world’s most glamorous film star, now spotted on the streets of East Tokyo having seen better days.

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