More glimpses of unfamiliar Japan

This is the third and final part of a walk I took last May up in Izumo. The previous 2 posts can be found in the links below this post. Walk...

The Otoshi Shrine in Inome, a fishing village on the coast directly north of Izumo Taisha, is unusual in that it has a double honden. Double...

The most common name in Japan for the praying mantis is "kamakiri" which means "sickle cut" referring to its front leg...

The Fukuoka City Museum has a large hall with galleries running off either side. Designed by the AXS Satow company it is located in the Momo...

The Byakko Matsuri takes place during the first weekend of April in Yuda Onsen, Yamaguchi. Children dressed as white foxes parade through th...

Tarumi Shrine is a fairly standard village shrine located in Kawashima, the fishing village at the base of the mountains below Gakuen-Ji. I ...

Gakuen-Ji is among the oldest buddhist temples in Japan. According to the story it is connected to Empress Suiko who ruled from 592CE to 628...

My favorite temple, Gakuenji, like most larger temples is guarded by a pair of Nio statues. Once the largest temple in the province of Izumo...

This is a continuation of a previous post Lower Imbe is a small hillside village that is cut off from the main road (Route 24) by a small re...

Matarajin Shrine is located next to the main hall in Gakuen-Ji Temple, though the shrine originally stood behind Izumo Taisha. It was disman...