Cats everywhere. Just another lazy day of wandering about Shitamachi. This time it’s Gokokuji, which of all Tokyo’s most important temples is the closest to me. I took the 25-minute walk up there today and snapped some more pics (along with a few at a small but picturesque temple I […] Read more
I love the newly born year in Japan. Hatsumode is the tradition of visiting a shrine or temple to pray during the first three days of the year, and one which Japanese folks overwhelmingly observe, irrespective of their daily spiritual inclinations. There’s a strong element of family and community to […] Read more
Well – mostly. Hard to believe it’s my second New Year’s in Tokyo already. I actually have a TV this time, so I decided to start out with the classic Japanese New Year’s Eve tradition – the Kouhaku Uta Gassen (Red and White Song Competition) on NTV. It would be […] Read more
Boy, does that suck the life out of you. The “choose your own adventure book for fetishes” is back for it’s Winter incarnation. Maybe it was because I went on the first day this time (for 83 and 84 I never did) but the crowds were even more insane last […] Read more
Chalk one up for patience. Zenkouji is not a tremendously well-known temple on the tourist circuit, but to the Japanese it’s among the two or three most important religious sites in the country. This is still a true pilgrimage temple to this very day – to visit it’s magnificent main […] Read more
The weather outside is frightful. Nagano (home of the 1998 Winter Olympics) is only about 85 minutes from Tokyo by the fastest Shinkanesen. I’d always wanted to go there, but after Red Data Girl so spectacularly showed off Togakushi (P.A. Works should really just do travel advertisements as their main […] Read more
It’s Shueshia’s world – they just let us use it. I didn’t go to Jump Festa last year – I was still pretty new to Japan, and Chiba seemed a lot farther away than it really is (about an hour with one transfer to Makuhari Messe, ¥480). In truth I’m […] Read more
It’s at the point now where I notice every anniversary in Japan. I went to a couple of Tori no Ichi festivals last November, soon after I arrived in Japan, and did a post on it then. But I decided to check out the big one this year, in Asakusa’s […] Read more
Can it really be my second autumn in Japan already? It’s Koyo season in Japan, when the locals get almost as obsessed with fall colors as they do with cherry blossoms. The weather was perfect yesterday and the season at its peak up in the mountains (we’re still about a […] Read more
This episode only increases my affection both for Kyoisogiga, and the places and people that inspired it. You can make a case that the mid-point of a series isn’t the best place for an episode like this, but I found it absolutely captivating. It had nothing to do with the […] Read more