More glimpses of unfamiliar Japan

By now I was getting into the "relaxing" part of the vacation..... sleeping a little longer each night, but still I woke bef...

One of the features of Tadao Ando's Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art is the exterior spiral staircase. I posted some other p...

In the middle of the eighth Century Emperor Shomu established Kokubunji in every province. They were "state-protecting" mona...

Went to one of my favorite matsuris 2 weekends ago, the Kanmai matsuri on the tiny island of Iwaishima in the Inland Sea off the yamag...

The second temple on the Izumo 33 Kannon Pilgrimage is close to the first so on my way I took a short cut through the back roads to visi...

A long time ago a regular reader asked for more flower pictures, so....... I dont often take pictures of flowers, but while o...

Mikoshi are sacred palanquins or portable shrines used for transporting kami most often seen during matsuris when the kami are paraded...

Joren-an is the third and final "chapel"/shrine on the trail up to temple 12 Shosanji. The huge cedar and statue of K...

This is the third and final post on Mara Kannon. The first post showed the thousands of small, votive phalli left at the shrine. The ...

Higashiura is a town at the northern end of Awaji Island and its manhole cover depicts the nearby Akashi kaikyo Bridge which connects ...