More glimpses of unfamiliar Japan

Kirishima Jingu is a large Shinto shrine on the lower slopes of the Kirishima Mountains, a group of volcanoes in northern Kagoshima. ...

Kirishima Mask Museum The mask museum in Kirishima was called "Tengu-kan", and obviously there were a lot of masks of tengu o...

Being a mask maker myself, I have a great interest in masks and am always on the lookout for them on my walks. Ive visited a few small m...

Not the Village of Dolls On my first day walking the Kyushu Fudo Myo Pilgrimage I left Taizoji Temple and the Kumano Magabutsu and st...

While in Miyakonojo I stopped by a strange piece of architecture, the Miyakonojo Civic Center. It was built in 1966 and was designed b...

Shitennoji Temple Osaka Shintennoji Temple is one of the oldest temples in Japan, having been established in 593, and is located in Osak...

On the 26th day of my first walk around Kyushu I headed directly north from Shibushi towards Miyakonojo where I had a room for the night...

That a natural phenomenon or an object like a mountain, a rock, a spring, or waterfall could be sacred  or home to something sacred is n...

Accommodation When I am walking around Japan I am on a serious budget. For accommodation, I often sleep out, called nojuku in Japanese. ...

Saigoku Pilgrimage Saturday, March 5th, 2016 and I leave Seiganto-ji, the first temple on the Saigoku Pilgrimage. It was not originally...