A Geek in Japan

Anime

The Garden of Words – 言の葉の庭

Post author By ageekinjapan
Post date July 15, 2014

The Garden of Words (言の葉の庭), is one of latest movies directed by Makoto Shinkai. For my liking Makoto’s movies are too romantic and slow. His only movie that I enjoyed was 5 Centimeters Per Second (秒速５センチメートル).

What really fascinates me about his movies is their artistic aspect, the scenarios are usually based on real places around Japan. Sometimes the artwork is so good that it’s not hard to confuse it for real photographs. These are some captures from The Garden of Words and the photo with the real place they are based on. All the action of the movie is set inside or around the park Shinjuku Gyoen.

The Garden of Words

Photos from imgur.

Traditional

The Shrine That Cures Hemorrhoids

Post author By ageekinjapan
Post date July 14, 2014

Kunigami is a Shintoist shrine that is specialized in blessing its visitors to cure them or protecting them from hemorrhoids. In the shrine there is a big egg-like rock in a fountain and a statue of a hen. This symbolizes a hen laying a magical rock egg that will cure hemorrhoids. According to the ritual you need to squat and put your butt towards the egg.

Hemorrhoids temple

If you want to visit the “hemorrhoids temple” you can find it here on Google Maps.

Source: Itmedia

More about hemorrhoids and its kanji character in Japanese

Architecture Tokyo

Toranomon Hills

Post author By ageekinjapan
Post date July 12, 2014

This past week I have been working for a couple of days at Toranomon Hills, the new tallest building in Tokyo (inaugurated one month ago) after surpassing Tokyo Midtown. Toranomon Hills is 255.5 meters / 838 feet tall and has been built by Mori, the same construction company that built Roppongi Hills.

Unlike Roppongi Hills, this new complex doesn’t have a shopping area or a movie theater. It only has offices, several residential floors, two floors for conferences, many restaurants and a small area with a garden. The mascot of the building is called Toranomon (トラのもん) and was designed by the production staff of Doraemon.

Can you spot the Toranomon mascot in the following photos?

Toranomon Hills

Toranomon Hills, Tokyo

Official website of Toranomon Hills