Sakei-en is a garden that has been declared a National Place of Scenic Beauty in Yokohama. It takes approximately 30 minutes to get to the place from the center of the city. Hara Tomitaro (Sankei is his pseudonym), a businessman in Yokohama, had collected a number of precious buildings from all over Japan and relocated them in Yokohama to make this marvelous Japanese garden.

You will find this great pond when you pass through the front gate.

Let’s take a walk on the east side of the pond. The building called Kakushokaku was constructed by Sankei in 1902 and became the foothold toward constructing the whole garden. A number of notable Japanese politicians or writers have had meetings or conferences in Kakushokaku. Artists such as Yokoyama Taikan or Shimomura Kanzan also stayed here to create their work. Kakushokan is now open for everyone to hold a wedding celebration, concert, or exhibition.

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Monzen Nakacho, which is convenient to access to Marunouchi, Otemachi, and Nihonbashi, is popular place to go. There are many recommended place, from Tatsumi Shindo where the Showa still shows its shadow to Museum Of Contemporary Art Tokyo.

First off is Tatsumi Shindo. Many bars stand along both side of the narrow road. Most of the bars will be full if five to ten people get in the store.

The path leading to Fukagawa Fudo-do is crowded with many worshipers.

Along the road, there are shops such as tsukudani shop, Japanese sweet shop, and bars lining.

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In Japan, the traditional Japanese New Year foods are called osechi and are one of the things to look forward to for the New Year.

Originally, the food that was offered to the god on the beginning of each season was called osechi so it was not only for the New Year. However, the most important one was the New Year so the food during the New Year gradually monopolized the name “osechi”. Normally you eat osechi on the first three days of the new year and they are gorgeous foods that can be kept for long. The bases of osechi are otoso, celebrating small dish, zoni, and nishime. The celebrating fish and nishime are put into jubako, a special box. The reason why the foods are stuffed into the box is to hope for good luck from stacking up the box, stacking up luck.

There are many good saying s and customs regarding osechi because they are originally foods for god and foods to hope good luck in the family. Let’s check out some of the foods.

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