More glimpses of unfamiliar Japan

  Suwa Shrine is located on the lower slope of the mountains behind Kobe and is reached up a steep slope. Though ostensibly a Suwa Shrine, a...

  While walking around the countryside near Sasebo in Nagasaki on the 66th day of my walk along the Kyushu pilgrimage I stopped in at any sh...

Lines of red torii placed so close together they form a tunnel are a common sight throughout Japan. The most famous and most photograp...

Only about 3k from another Suwa Shrine, this second one in Itano Town, Tokushima, has a huge camphor tree at the entrance. Believed to ...

Suwa Shrine in Itano, Tokushima, is located between temples 2 & 3. It is one of the approximately 10,000 branch shrines of Suwa Taisha...

Komainu, the pairs of guardian "lion/dogs" that guard the entrance to shrines, come in a variety of styles and forms. All the ones...