Working as a Professional Tourist.
One sunny morning while I was checking some ancient shrines in Kyoto I got a message from my friend Katerina:
– Do you want to work at Tokyo Museum of Advertising for a day?
– Hm… Doing what?
– Working. As a tourist. They will close the entire museum for the day and you’ll get 4 personal tour guides. All you need to do is listen and ask questions… and then you get paid.
It sounded like a damn good deal.
That day I took the first train to Tokyo and was at the museum by the set time. It belongs to Dentsu the famous advertising agency that almost entirely dominates the Japanese market.
The museum trains their staff by brining in english speaking guests who act as tourists. It was a great experience. I felt that my teaching, design, people, and communication skills all came together in one-of-a-kind job – a professional tourist. If you ever visit the museum in Tokyo you’ll likely hear fragments of the vast feedback that I left after my visit 🙂
Now I can say I have Japanese work experience. Otsukaresama deshita!
From Japan with love.
Love hotels is a type of short-stay accomodations popular in Japan. There you can pay per night or per ‘rest’.
Infamous Japanese sex shops. This photo was taken at M’s, the 7-storey department store in Akihabara. I’ve heard there are shops where women are not allowed to… I couldn’t find one.
Maiko – ¥8000, Geisha – ¥12,000.
In Kyoto, the traditional capital of Japan, for some 10,000 yen you can get the full Maiko makeover experience. They dress you up, do the make-up and let you walk around the city take pictures. If you want to be a geisha you’ll need to throw a couple more grands on top of that. For ¥2000 – 3000 you can just rent a kimono. When tourists say they see geishas on the streets of Gion, there’s a chance they just see a japanese bachelorette getaway.
October for Octoberfest
One of those thing you’d never imagine existed. October fest, Japanese style. Odaiba island, Tokyo.
Make a wish
Omikuji are random fortunes written on strips of paper at shrines and temples in Japan. For a small coin (¥100/$1) you can get yours. (If you are exceptionally lucky, it’ll also be in English) If the fortune is good you keep it, if not leave it at the temple. Mine rest somewhere among the unlucky ones.
Traditional villages
Shiragawa-go is a traditional village in Japanese highlands, near the town of Takayama. Over 1500 people still live the thatched roofed houses.
Japanese urbanism.
and hidden city gems
obscure corners 
and cats
Japanese serenity
Silk street, Arashiyama, Kyoto
and Japanese order
Japanese smoking cages
Ueno Zoo, Tokyo
Japanese street signs
