Recommend January 2011 - (Page 42)

COSMOPOLITAN JAPAN CITY DISCOVERY (866-988-8687; city-discovery.com/tokyo), specializing in Tokyo and its environs, offers comprehensive tours of this 55-mile-wide mega-city that touch practically every corner of the great capital. The choices are as varied as Tokyo itself and include a turn around the city on Segways, night tours, daytrips and visits to the ultramodern theme parks. Yokohama, meanwhile, is so vast that its suburbs nearly reach Tokyo and in some ways it’s more appealing than the capital. It’s no wonder that an estimated 2.5 million visitors from Tokyo ﬂock to this port every weekend. Yokohama has some wonderful attractions. These include one of the world’s largest Chinatowns, the hi-tech Minato Mirai zone, the Landmark Tower and the stunning Sankeien Gardens. In conjunction with the city of Yokohama, the local BAYSIDE LINE offers a capsule bus tour (approximately $70 pp— yokohama-bus.jp) stopping at notable places. The tour allows travelers to experience Yokohama’s modern ﬂair and stops at restaurants and worthwhile spots during the day-long trek. Yamate, one of its suburbs, is full of European-style buildings and quiet tearooms. There are enough attractions near the waterfront—where most of its top sites are found—to keep visitors exploring for days. Basha-michi Street is full of chic shops, elegant restaurants, abstract buildings and delightful vintage phone booths lighted by gas lamps. The 70-story Landmark Tower has an observation deck that offers a magniﬁcent view of the city at night. Those heading for Osaka will ﬁnd that it is so thoroughly modern, it exempliﬁes life on the fast lane. It’s Japan’s capital of modernism. Ame-mura is a bustling commercial hive extremely crowded on weekends where you come to see the latest trend and fashions of Japanese youths. It’s full of bars, discos, music stores and clubs that cater to the young. Osaka’s Dotombori District, for example, is all energy all the time. This is where Japanese technology has come to roost. The district has put Osaka at the forefront of high-tech innovations. That’s quite an achievement in a country that is driven by technology. VIATOR TOURS (866-648-5873; viator.com) features a fascinating 6-hour water and walking tour of Osaka led by Englishspeaking guides. The trip unwinds along the city’s best sites. It begins at the ancient castle that’s the city’s landmark and proceeds along the river in the shadow of modernistic skyscrapers while stopping at the most notable attractions. Travel agents have many accommodation options to offer those who want to sample the singular lifestyle of these three cities. Kabukicho Street in Shinjuku in Tokyo. Those coming to the Land of the Rising Sun to experience the frenzied motion and color that exempliﬁes the country’s urban vibrancy will be captivated by the non-stop pace of the troika of cities—Tokyo, Yokohama and Osaka—that epitomize Japan’s post-modern era. Sure, a case can be made that these often-intimidating metropolises lack the delicate style and quaintness of smaller, less-frantic towns where Japan’s emblematic image ﬂourishes like the ubiquitous cherry blossoms that bloom every spring. Those coming to see tomorrow won’t be disappointed, though. In Japan’s great metropolitan sprawls, life twirls to a techno beat, having nothing in common with the gentle tones of a shamisen plucked by geishas in a cozy teahouse. Tokyo, home to more than 10 percent of the country’s population, is a bafﬂing mega-city that would take years to get to know. There is newness everywhere: modern trains glide on overhead rails and the nightly glare of neon in its famous Ginza District staggers. On one hand, the city personiﬁes conservative Japan; on the other, it’s excessive and avant-garde, time and again giving the sense that it belongs in another dimension. Think neighborhoods like Harajuku, the cultural haven for Tokyo’s youth, or Shibuya, with youth fashion shops, fast food restaurants, and game centers, and most famous as the place where new trends are born. In fact, the latter is known as “Bit Valley,” because venture enterprises that support the IT industry are concentrated here. A22 recommend.com http://www.city-discovery.com/tokyo http://www.yokohama-bus.jp http://www.viator.com http://www.recommend.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Recommend January 2011

Editor's Notes/Agent Speak
Hotel Desk
Tour Talk
A New Look at Ancient Egypt
Celebrity Cruises' Eclipse
Asia Travel Planner
Viking River Cruises' Viking Sky
Discovering Piedmont, Italy
Latin America 2011
The M Resort in Las Vegas Hits its Off-Strip Stride
Gansevoort Miami Beach
Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, Punta Cana, Dominican Republic

Recommend January 2011