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
That cute little surprise snow has turned into an actual snowstorm. We’ve got around 15cm so far where I live, and they closed Kagurazaka-dori to traffic this afternoon. I haven’t checked, but I think it’s pretty rare for Tokyo to get this much snow – I consider myself very lucky […] Read more
At long last, snow in Tokyo. Never trust the weather forecast. “Rain all day” it said – and here we are, with gorgeous snow swirling everywhere and even starting to stick. I grew up with snow and missed it when I lived in California (as you know if you read […] 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