More glimpses of unfamiliar Japan

The Yato River starts at about 900metres up in the mountains of the Mizuho Highlands, right where there is a small ski area. It then travels...

Enduring Identities: The guise of Shinto in contemporary Japan. John K. Nelson University of Hawaii Press ISBN: 0-8248-2259-5 32...

This is one of my original Iwami Kagura masks. I've never seen a blue hanya, and no-one I know has either, but I was wanting the fe...

Taishogun is short for Sei-Taishogun, which translates liberally as "barbarian fighting generalissimo", known more commonly as Sho...

I live on the banks of the Gonokawa River, the longest river in Western Japan, and yet it's less than 200K in length. Geologically speak...

After leaving Kamigamo shrine I set off t0 explore the foothills of the edge of the city to the west of Kamigamo in Nishigamo. On my walks ...

This manhole cover is from Tsuwano, a small castle town in the mountains of western Iwami. It's a very popular tourist destination, an...

Kamigamo Shrine is situated in a quiet residential area in the north of Kyoto, and is a little off the main tourist rou...

I've been experimenting with different ways of putting videos on the blog, and so far embedding youtube seems to be the best. This video...

I live in a hamlet of less than 100 people, called Shimonohara, which means "lower field". About 150 years ago, when the modern s...