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
I haven’t had many of them, but this was one of those days where from the first moment, everything just seemed destined to be right. The road to Kurama is a winding path; at a glance the distance appears to be quite near, but it is quite far. – Sei […] Read more
If you’ve never been to Kyoto, it’s mighty hard to grasp the sheer magic of the place. In a way I find it a rather frustrating destination, because no matter how much time I spend here I can always find a list of things a mile long that I don’t […] Read more
I swear there are times this country is so sugoi I think my head is going to pop like a champagne cork… It’s Hatsumode time in Japan, and that means a visit to a temple or shrine on the first three days of the year. For many that comes on […] Read more
I wouldn’t exactly call attending Comiket fun, per se, but in a way I do think it’s sort of (stay with me here) inspirational. I think I played up the sheer terror of Comiket in my mind so much that in the actuality of the thing, it really wasn’t all […] Read more
Nikko is a good place to go if you want to dispel the notion that all of Japan displays a Zen sensibility. I made the 2-hour trip to Nikko yesterday. Along with Kamakura it’s probably the most historically important (and popular) destination with reach of an easy day trip from […] Read more
Holidays are a wonderful way to bring the differences between cultures into focus. I spent Christmas Eve in real Tokyo style – in a proper Japanese queue. I waited over an hour to slowly proceed through another Tokyo tradition – the “light-up”, this one at the Tokyo Midtown complex in […] Read more