Jonelle Patrick's Only In Japan
Every day, stuff you'd never see anywhere else.
It’s time again for the best free holiday light show ever! Here are this year’s Tokyo Illuminations offerings, some of them even better than before: • TOKYO MIDTOWN This year’s … Continue Reading The Best Tokyo Illuminations 2017
Are you ready once again to have holiday lights spoiled for-e-ver by the insanely great Tokyo Illuminations? This year, the old favorites do not disappoint, but there are a couple of … Continue Reading The Best Tokyo Winter Illuminations 2015
Many a cherry blossom party has been thwarted by wacky weather or unavoidable business trips, but even if the gods throw a wrench into your best-laid plans, don’t despair! Late-blooming yaezakura come into their … Continue Reading The Best Places To See Late-Blooming Cherry Trees In Tokyo
Cherry blossoms and crowds go together like long bathroom lines and hanami parties, but at these secret Tokyo spots, you can enjoy the pinkness without getting trampled, even at peak season! Here … Continue Reading The Best SECRET Cherry Blossom Spots In Tokyo!
I am a total, total sucker for plum blossoms. The flowers are much more beautiful than cherry blossoms up close, and you gotta admire that the damn things even bloom in … Continue Reading Where To See The Best Plum Blossoms In Tokyo
This has to be the most gorgeous walk in Tokyo. If you start at twilight, you can see the entire Tokyo waterfront slowly light up like the best holiday light show ever! Here’s … Continue Reading How To Walk Across The Rainbow Bridge!
#1 INSIDE JAPAN’S WILDEST HOST CLUBS Turn down the lights, hire a bunch of cute hosts, and keep the drinks coming, and it shouldn’t matter what your club looks like, right? Actually, no. … Continue Reading Top Ten Posts Of 2014
It’s that time of year again! Tokyo’s Illuminations are free, and they never disappoint! Here are my favorite places to see them. New this year! NAKAMEGURO One of my favorite places to … Continue Reading Where To See The Best Holiday Illuminations In Tokyo!
I hope you’re all rested up from our cherry blossom death march last spring, because it’s time to strap on your camera and a couple of extra batteries to hunt down … Continue Reading Where To See The Best Fall Leaves In Tokyo
These eye-popping exhibitions will change your opinion of those humble fall flowers forever! Here’s where to see the best chrysanthemums in Tokyo: • New for 2019! JINDAI BOTANICAL GARDEN Dates: October … Continue Reading Where To See The Best Chrysanthemums In Tokyo
As you may have guessed by now, in Japan no flower is safe from being planted together en masse, in order to deliver total sensory overload at the appointed moment. It’s no surprise … Continue Reading Up To My Knees In A Vermilion Sea
Not to be outdone by the cherry blossoms, azaleas and wisteria, the peonies of Tokyo come into their glory in May and June! First the big boys, like these at … Continue Reading Peonies As Big As Dinner Plates!
…who’s da shiniest car of all? As my intrepid spokemodel Adam is demonstrating, this Toyota is whatever color you want it to be, depending on where you park it! You’d just have to … Continue Reading Mirror, Mirror, On The Wall…
Okay, in a cherry blossoms vs. azaleas fight to the death, where are you going to slap down your hard-earned cash? (Hint: Let me put it this way, I’ve seen Japanese azalea gardens reduce people who … Continue Reading Azaleas For The Win
Okay, the season of all-sakura-all-the-time is officially over, and the cherryliciousness did not disappoint. From late-blooming white ones to pinker-than-pink, here are a few of this year’s faves. If you’d like to … Continue Reading Cherry Blossom Roundup
So, during cherry blossom season, people naturally flock to places with maximum pink fluffiness. But if you don’t have any real blooming cherry trees of epic proportions, how do you … Continue Reading Alt Cherry
Oh no, don’t think you can put your feet up and flip some channels after the sun goes down during cherry blossom season – thanks to the current craze for “illuminations,” … Continue Reading Cherry Blossoms Lit Up At Night: My Favorite Spots!
Okay, hanami warriors, it’s time to charge up your camera batteries, sharpen your elbows, and strap on your subway card, because the cherry blossoms only last a couple of days, … Continue Reading Hanami Blitz: My Picks For The Best Cherry Blossoms In Tokyo!
Don’t let this big daddy sneak up on you in the dark! In Japan they don’t mess around when it comes to cherry trees. I saw this explosion of goodness last … Continue Reading The Godzilla Of Cherry Trees
Fembots, scantily-clad taiko drummers, battling transformers…okay, I admit the Robot Restaurant is more like Vegas on steroids than ye olde Nippon, but you’ve really gotta see this extravaganza once in … Continue Reading The Robot Restaurant
It’s not that I don’t like cherry blossom season, I just like plum season better. (Okay, azalea season too. But that’s not ’til the end of April.) In case I haven’t … Continue Reading Once Again, Plum Blossoms Do Not Disappoint
Forget those pesky cherry blossoms. Leaf season is the BEST! If you’d like to visit Arisugawa Park, Gokoku-ji temple, Gotoku-ji temple (they’re different!), the Nezu Shrine, Koraku-en garden, or any … Continue Reading Leaf Season-O-Rama
It’s crowded. It’s crazy. But I’ve got to admit, cherry blossom season here does not disappoint. • After scouring Tokyo for the best of the pinkness, Jonelle Patrick writes novels set … Continue Reading Cherry Blossom-O-Rama
At first glance, I thought I’d climbed that big hill to Okurayama Park for nothing. Hey, what’s with the bare branches? Where’s the fluffy pink and white goodness? It’s supposed to … Continue Reading Better Than Cherry Blossom Season
Conveniently scheduled for a national holiday so hundreds of thousands of commuters wouldn’t be inconvenienced by trains that occasionally had to pause while snow and/or ice and/or tree limbs could … Continue Reading Today’s Special Guest: Winter
Yeah, yeah, I know – leaves glowing in autumnal splendor, fall evening clear and crisp, moon shining bright, pond like a mirror, and the photos are sure to wow the … Continue Reading It’s Really All About The Sticky Rice Balls
Cherry blossoms are definitely the favorite child. Back in March, as The Season approached, the newspapers all breathlessly reported the movement of the pink tide from south to north, weather … Continue Reading So How Come Azaleas Are Chopped Liver?
If you’re beginning to yawn when you see yet another park filled with tiresome clouds of of fluffy pink cherry blossoms…wait until dark! Every night this week, all along the … Continue Reading Glow In The Dark Cherry Trees
One thing I have to say about the seasons in Japan is that they’re relentlessly picturesque. And convenient! When I woke up Wednesday morning, I looked out the window and … Continue Reading Today’s Cute Little Season: Winter
Yesterday I went from Rikugi-en, the 17th century garden designed to include 88 views from famous waka poems, to Kabuki-chō, famous for more than 88 kinds of, er, entertainment. In … Continue Reading Electric Leaf Season
Jonelle Patrick's Only In Japan