More glimpses of unfamiliar Japan

While I was at the kids kagura last saturday, a little bird whispered in my ear that there was going to be a secret, surprise yosakoi perfor...

Hibara Shrine lies on the Yamanobenomichi at the base of Miwa-san. It is an affiliate shrine of Omiwa Shrine, and like it, enshrines the kam...

With a total length of 29,761 Kms, the coastline of Japan is where a large proportion of the population lived historically. The idea, underp...

Found a whole bunch of these critters under some rotting wood. I gave them to a friend's sons, because they ( the critters, not the boys...

We went over to Ichiyama last night for the annual Kids Kagura Festival. Each year there are fewer and fewer kids performing. Partly thats d...

Just 4 shots of a red Japanese umbrella I saw at Matsuo Shrine near Kyoto. My favorite is the last one.

One of the reasons our Turkey trip was so cheap, I think, is because we flew with Uzbekistan Airways. After spending 4 hours in the middle o...

Depending on how you define "biggest" or "largest", then the Izumo Dome is the biggest wooden building in Japan. Most s...

Back in July we went on an 8 day package tour of Turkey. It was very much a spur of the moment thing, I've never felt any draw to Turkey...

No, this is not going to be a rant about the loudspeaker vans passing through the village electioneering right now. Actually we don't ge...