You might be stuck in the office for the next month until spring break, but that doesn’t mean you can’t take a mental vacation. Travel (virtually) with us to Iceland, where the landscape is as diverse as it is breathtaking. Off we go…
Stapafell Mountain is located on the Reykjanes Peninsula in southern Iceland. Urban legend is that giants used to habitate this area.
Photo by Joey Zanotti / CC BY
Street art is a widely debated topic for many cities across the world. Some cities see it as graffiti and do their best to keep it to a minimum. But then there are the cities that embrace the local artistic community and become a hot spot for art-loving tourists. Talk to any art historian and they’ll say it’s imperative to visit some of the better known “street art” sections of a city if you’re looking for the best symbolic and cultural art. Art lovers from all walks of life will appreciate these fabulous 7 cities where you can immerse yourself in vivid landscapes, realistic portraits or hysterical self-expression.
Cherry blossom season in Japan draws tourists from all over the world for an event that captures the ephemeral nature of beauty. Throughout the country, cherry blossoms erupt in astonishing color in the spring for a very short time, and tourists flock to various cities from January to June to view the cultural event that Japanese citizens have celebrated for more than a thousand years.
Wind, weather and temperatures affect the dates when trees begin to blossom. Forecasts for 2013 include the following dates provided by the Japanese Weather Association:
|
Location |
Begins |
Best Viewing Dates |
| Aomori | April 24 | April 29 to May 6 |
| Fukushima | April 10 | April 15 to April 22 |
| Hiroshima | March 24 | April 1 to April 9 |
| Hakodate | May 1 | May 5 to May 12 |
| Kanazawa | April 2 | April 8 to April 15 |
| Kyoto | March 25 | April 1 to April 10 |
| Nagoya | March 24 | March 31 to April 8 |
| Tokyo | March 25 | April 1 to April 10 |
Hanami is the Japanese custom of taking time to view flowers, and cherry blossoms in full bloom create one of the world’s most spectacular tourist attractions. Retirees, frequent travelers and professional couples can enjoy viewing the blossoms at different times in various Japanese cities, rekindling romances, taking part in a world-class celebration of the arts and enjoying the company of similar people who take an interest in the finer humanistic disciplines.
You can choose from formal tours, personal travel or pick a favorite hotel to combine festival visits, trips to tourist attractions and cherry blossom viewing activities to get the most from your vacation. In fact, you need not worry too much about exact dates because fast train rides can get you quickly to the best areas for viewing.
Popular festivals sites include Asukayama Park, above JR Oji Station in Tokyo, and Koishikawa Botanical Garden near Hakusan and Myogadani Stations, and both events take place in early April in 2013. Popular areas to consider for your trip include Marunouchi and Shinjuku Tokyo
and the Ginza hotel.
The Golden Route of Japan tours of Tokyo and Kyoto offer visits to cultural landmarks, shopping destinations and flowering gardens amidst historical shrines, temples and Japan’s unique architecture.
Trips to see the flowering cherry trees in spring make very romantic honeymoons and wedding anniversaries, and arts aficionados will enjoy the astonishing array of festivals, parades, cultural events and gallery showings. Blossoming cherry trees have carved their place as an enduring symbol of Japanese beauty and artistic expression.
Which brings us to the question of how to celebrate! Sure, you could freeze your tail off with thousand of other revelers in New York’s Times Square, or curl up at home in your pajamas and observe the traditional ball drop on TV. But if you want to shake up your holiday traditions, here are a few ideas from around the world!
Those fun-loving Scots call New Years Eve Hogomanay, or Night of the Candle. They clean their homes (not fun!), eat traditional foods such as Haggis (questionable fun?) and drink whiskey and wine (now that’s better!) and hope that the “First Footer” to come through their doorway after midnight is a handsome dark haired man bearing gifts to symbolize a coming pleasant year ( who can argue with that?) Often a straw figure known as the “Auld Wife” or a barrel of tar is set on fire to symbolize the end of the old year. And of course people gather to sing the traditional New Year song Auld Lang Syne, which as you may have guessed, originated in Scotland.
Don’t feel like wearing your woolies? Head to Brazil! Pack your bathing suit, because January is summertime in Brazil, and Vespera de Ano Novo is often celebrated at the beach, where people gather to offer flowers and gifts to Iemanja, the Goddess of Water. Floating candles and revelers wearing white add to the beauty of the landscape. Brazilian fishermen believe the New Year’s catch portends the fortune for the rest of the year. But don’t worry if you’re not a fish person, as the traditional holiday fare is lentils and rice, along with a tapioca dish called Farofa.
After a month of Bonenkai (“forget the year”) parties to bid goodbye to the year and all its problems, folks in Japan are ready to forgive grudges, and houses are scrubbed (again with the cleaning!?!) in preparation for the new beginning. New Years is considered the most important holiday of the year. Buckwheat soba noodles are served to symbolize longevity, homes are decorated with ornaments made from bamboo and plum trees, and a visit to a shrine such as Tokyo’s Meijii Jingu is in order. At midnight on December 31st Buddhist temples bang their gongs 108 times to expel 108 types of human weakness.
