This gallery contains 25 photos.
Underneath the contemporary glass and steel of Tokyo likes the older city of Edo, the seat of power of the Tokugawa Shogunate. The city became the de facto capital of Japan in 1603, when the Tokugawa Ieyasu consolidated power and … Continue reading
This gallery contains 15 photos.
So finally, 15 months and 14 cities later, we arrive here at the final destination of our Grand Tour of the Far East: Tokyo, also known as the Eastern Capital 東京. Tokyo is most often known as a hyper-modern metropolis – … Continue reading
This gallery contains 1 photo.
So it’s hard to believe that I’ve only been back home in Singapore 2 years and 9 months. I moved home officially from New York City in October 2012, and in three months time, I commemorate three years of homecoming. It doesn’t … Continue reading
This gallery contains 20 photos.
Hotel New Grand is the grande dame of Yokohama’s hospitality scene, and the only European-style grand hotel in Japan that still exists in pretty much condition as in the 1920s. The hotel was opened in 1927, four years after the … Continue reading
This gallery contains 10 photos.
If Nagasaki’s Chinatown is Japan’s oldest and most historic, Yokohama’s Chinatown, also known as Chukagai 中華街, is the nation’s largest and most bustling. Located within the former foreign settlement of Kannai, alongside its European sibling, Bashamichi, the Chinese settlement was … Continue reading
This gallery contains 29 photos.
During the Treaty Port Era, foreign residents in Yokohama settled high up in the Yokohama Hills, which they called The Bluff. Here also was to be found the major foreign consulates of the various Great Powers with trading interest in the city. … Continue reading
This gallery contains 27 photos.
Yokohama was the first treaty port in Japan to be opened to foreign trade in 1859, and the heart of the foreign concession area was known (and is still known today) as Kannai 関内, or within the Kanmon 関門 (“Kan … Continue reading
This gallery contains 19 photos.
Yokohama is the original treaty port in Japan; it was here, in 1854 that the Treaty of Amity was signed between Commodore Perry (of the United States) and Japan, which forced open Japanese ports to European trade. In fact, the … Continue reading
This gallery contains 2 photos.
So its been almost three years now since I stopped this business of trying to discover myself through travelling all over the world, visiting old friends and exploring new vistas. [I officially stopped in August 2012.] At the time, I … Continue reading
This gallery contains 17 photos.
The Oriental Hotel is the grande dame of the Kobe hospitality scene, and it has had a long and complicated history. The first generation of the hotel was established by a Dutchman in 1870 at Lot 6 of the Foreign … Continue reading
Dream Of A City 