Featured locations:
- Tsukiji Fish Market and Tuna Auction
- Senso Ji Buddhist Temple
- Roppongi Hills
- Ginza Shopping District
- Ueno Park and Cherry Blossoms
- Hakone
- Owakudani Boiling Valley and Mount Fuji
- Nikko and Shogun Tokugawa's Mausoleum
- Takayama and Festival Floats
- Koyasan and the the home of Shingon Buddhism
- Transportation via subways
- local trains
- Shinkansen Bullet Trains
- Komagatake Ropeway
- Aerial Cableway and Lake Cruise
DVDHD15 REVIEW: Discoveries Asia: Japan - Tokyo and Central Honshu Island
A sister project to Bennett-Watt's Discoveries America travelogue series, Discoveries Asia explores the splendor, history, and culture of the Far East. Japan - Tokyo and Central Honshu Island focuses on Tokyo and its environs, with attention to scenery, shopping and shrines.
Viewers will visit the Tsukiji Fish Market - the largest in the world of its kind - to witness a tuna auction (where other seafood delicacies are also sold to wholesalers), travel to the Senso Ji Buddhist temple w/ an English-speaking guide (who offers commentary about local holy places), see footage of the Roppongi Hills multi-complex property development, drop into the posh Ginza shopping district (where a square meter of real estate costs over $100,000), and attend a picnic celebrating the blooming of cherry blossoms in Ueno Park.
In addition, the program looks at the work of Takayami artisans and highlights Matsuri festival floats, as well as presents a peek at the Koyasan Buddhist mountain retreat.
One of the neatest segments here features a trip to the Mt. Fuji area that follows a public transportation labyrinth: from subway to train to bullet train to electric train (with switchbacks) to funicular cable railway to ropeways to boat to bus...whew! Armchair travelers and aficionados of Asian culture will appreciate both the sightseeing and the information provided in this beautiful, high-definition filmed journey to the center of the Land of the Rising Sun. Recommended."
