More glimpses of unfamiliar Japan

Been away for a while but now its time to start posting again. Here's an odd little thing I found recently. It's the oldest existing...

Before moving to the Japanese countryside, my experiences of gardening were all in the desert, so learning to grow food in Japan has been a ...

Umeboshi, pickled plums, can most often be found in bentos, where a single plum is placed in the center of the rice to look like the Japanes...

These bags were designed and made by my good wife Yoko. She is a dab hand with a needle, and makes a lot of clothes, curtains etc. A few yea...

With the flooding of the paddies in late spring, there is an explosion of frogs . This has effects on other species in the vicinity, not the...

Yamaguchi City is a prefectural capital, but it is the smallest in Japan, and has a feel more like a large town rather than a city. There is...

This is the second manhole cover design from the small town of Nichihara (now merged with Tsuwano) in western Shimane. The first design is h...

This is a view looking up the valley of Ato Town in northern Yamaguchi, not far from Tsuwano.

This small shrine, located a little off the yamanobenomichi in Sakurai, Nara, is the legendary site of the first Sumo match between humans. ...

I've passed this building hundreds of times, and with its walls of blue corrugated tin I've always presumed it to be some sort of wo...