More glimpses of unfamiliar Japan

Saga Shrine & Matsubara Shrine With lines of people waiting for their first shrine visit of the year, hatsumode, 5 full days already int...

While exploring Kagoshima Jingu I watched to miko practising for a ceremony later that night. Miko Mai, or Miko dance is believed to ...

Taga Shrine in Nogata is the main shrine of the area and when I visited just before the new year they were getting ready for the influx o...

The last part of my first day of vacation I was in Hakata and I visited the Sumiyoshi Shrine there. The head Sumiyoshi Shrine is in Osaka, b...

As well as the main ceremony at the Shunki Taisai there were several other ceremonies going on during the day. In one of the secondary shrin...

Yesterday was the Grand Spring Festival down in Tsuwano at the Taikodani Inari Shrine. Before the main ceremony could begin the miko assiste...

Iwashimizu Hachimangu, Kyoto. Miko, commonly translated as "shrine maiden" in English, can be seen at many shrines in Japan. Iw...

Though technically Hatsumode refers to the first shrine visit of the year, and of course there can only be one first, many people, myself in...