More glimpses of unfamiliar Japan

Mukade Caught this little bugger yesterday crawling across my floor. In japanese it is called Mukade, which means "100 legs"...

On May 28th 1905 the Russian ship Irtysh ran aground on the Shimane coast just off the fishing village of Waki (now part of Gotsu). The vill...

Driving from my place to Iwami Ginzan, which I used to do regularly a few years ago, you pass through the village of Mihara, and as one is d...

The Kunibiki Messe is a large convention and conference center up in Matsue. Kunibiki means "land pulling", and refers to an ancie...

The grand torii on the road leading to Izumo Taisha, often called the second most important shrine in Japan, and often claimed to be the old...

Following an email conversation about old schools in Japan I dug out this photo. Its the Fukiya Elementary School in northern Okayama Prefec...

Went up into the mountains to a village named Asuna for their matsuri that features large Hanakasaboko. All I have time to post right now is...

The procession reaches the riverbank where two boats are waiting to ferry the mikoshi upstream. One boat carries the young men with the bamb...

Most years on May 5th we cross over the river to the Suijin Matsuri in Kawado. This year we went instead to our local Suijin Matsuri in Tan...

Saotome, rice-planting maidens from last weekends Tauebayashi Matsuri up in Atoichi. Saotome appear in all kinds of rice planting ceremonies...