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
There’s nothing like a Shrine visit to break up the routine. It’s strictly a coincidence and nothing to do with Gingitsune, but I paid a visit to Kameido Tenjinja in Eastern Tokyo today. The weather was perfect and I was in dire need of a mental health day, and the […] Read more
Yes, it’s a dance video on the net with no twerking. Exams are over, and now it’s a long weekend (a three-day weekend, in fact – the Autumnal Equinox is a national holiday here. Why are equinoxes holidays in Japan, but not solstices? That’r probably too much text for inside […] Read more
Go…Yon…San…Ni…Ichi…Tamaya! Japan must surely love fireworks as much as any nation on Earth. You can find a big hanabi taikai pretty much every weekend during the summer here – in fact, there were two huge events in Metropolitan Tokyo tonight. The one I attended tonight is probably ranked no higher […] Read more
Don’t let anyone kid you – the weather here in the summer truly is awful. But it’s still a great damn place to be. With my first visitor from America (against my advice, in August) here, I spent much of the last week engaged as host and tour guide. Remarkably […] Read more
It’s all about the old dude in the sunflower ears. There are bigger festivals in Tokyo, but no bigger in my neighborhood. Kagurazaka’s annual bash is this weekend (it started on Wednesdays in fact). I feel a definite sentimental attraction to this one, being as it’s the first major festival […] Read more
Well, scratch another one off the bucket list. It’s been a lifetime of firsts in the months since I’ve been in Tokyo. A couple days ago I heard my first Japanese cicada (sadly, he sounded nothing like the one in Namiuchigiwa Muromi-san) and tonight, saw my first Japanese fireworks display. […] Read more
There are very few places in Tokyo that I’ve intentionally avoided, but tonight I finally visited the most prominent of them. Yasukuni Jinja has quite an unsavory reputation, certainly in the West and in certain circles inside Japan too. It represents a kind of litmus test for what your politics […] Read more