More from Kanda Matsuri. I woke up to beautiful sunshine on Sunday morning, so I decided to go back for okawari from the Kanda Matsuri. Sunday is the day the local neighborhood groups in the “low city” – over 100 of them in total – bring their own mikoshi to […] Read more
In May just about every day has a major festival somewhere in Japan, if you’re willing to look. But this is one of the big ones. Perfect weather all week, rain on the one day I had something planned – that’s the way it’s been lately in Tokyo. This week […] Read more
Big drums are big. Here are some pictures and videos from the Kurayami Matsuri at Okunitama Jinja in Fuchu, about 30 minutes by express from Shinjuku. Sorry about the quality – these were all taken at dusk and at night (Kurayama Matsuri means “Darkness Festival” after all) and failing light […] Read more
There’s more to Narita than just an airport… While most people never get past their terminal, there’s actually a town called Narita a few miles away. It’s the location of one of the most popular temples in Japan (12 million annual visitors) and has a very attractive temple approach lined […] Read more
Hey, I can’t help myself – they’re pretty. Two more rounds of cherry blossom shots. The daytime ones are from Shinjuku Gyoen, a large former Imperial garden just steps away from the madness of central Shinjuku. It was a drizzly and overcast day, which never lends itself to getting good […] Read more
It’s Spring – sort of. Attached are some pics of my outings this weekend. First off is the Ume Matsuri at Yushima Tenjin, in Yushima (a neighborhood famous as the one-time center for Tokyo’s transvestite geisha). This shrine is dedicated to Sugawara Michizane, the same legendary Heian scholar enshrined at […] Read more
It’s New Years again already? As matsuri go, Ta’Asobi (“Rice field play”) has a pretty good history – about 1,000 years. Japan, like other Asian nations, is celebrating the lunar new year at the moment, and that also represents the beginning of planting season (if you recall, Setsubun is actually […] Read more
What a fascinating country this is. A little belatedly, here are some pics and videos from a trip to the Ryoguku Kokugikan, the national sumo stadium in East Tokyo. Sumo isn’t an element of Japanese culture than I know all that well, honestly, but it’s a very deeply ingrained part […] Read more
Oni wa soto! Fuku wa uchi! Here are some pics and videos from this year’s Setsubun at Kanda Myojin, the same shrine at which I rang in the new year. That’s “New Year’s” according to the modern calendar – according to the old calendar though, the lunar new year is […] Read more
Omi-Jingu is seeing a different sort of pilgrimage than it’s used to these days. Having made the journey to Enoshima last month and seeing that York Shin isn’t likely to be an option anytime soon, there was never really any question that I’d be visiting Omi-Jingu while in Kyoto. And […] Read more