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
Star-crossed lovers, indeed. Summer means many things in Japan – cicadas, sweltering heat, fireworks, yukata – and the Tanabata Festival is one of the most important to the Japanese people. Imported from China in the 8th Century, this is possibly the most romantic of all the big Japanese festivals – […] Read more
Matsuri season powers on. I paid a visit to Asakusabashi this evening for the conclusion of the Torigoe Shrine Festival, which is known for having the heaviest mikoshi in Tokyo. It’s known as the Sengan Mikoshi (“four-ton mikoshi”, these being short tons) and groups of mostly men (and a few […] Read more
And a little Todai, too. If it’s May there must be a matsuri somewhere today – especially if it’s a Saturday. Today’s happens to be the biggest in Tokyo, the Sanja Matsuri, which draws about 2 million people to Asakusa over three days. I actually visited this matsuri back in […] Read more
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