And here we go, the Setouchi Triennale 2013 is underway; officially since last Wednesday, and personally since last Sunday when I spent the day on Ogijima. For the past few weeks, I’ve received a few e-mails and comments asking me for advice and tips about the Setouchi Triennale. While, I like

  A few times a year (three or four) Ritsurin Garden in Takamatsu opens its doors after sunset for some special events such as the cherry blossoms or when trees are changing into their autumnal colors. This is what is happening now. Since last Friday and until December 2nd, Ritsurin Garden will

  As you may already know, I took a few days of vacation last October (a luxury in Japan) and I spent some of this time on some of the islands in the area. Most of them are regularly featured on this blog, but I also visited a new one

  So, last Sunday, I went to Teshima. It was part of my mini Seto Islands Tour, but it was more than that. In a sense I had to be there on October 21st and not another day. Why is that? Well, because it’s the day of the Karato Hachiman

  I think it’s been quite a while I haven’t written a “personal” post, one where the focus is more about what I did that day than the things around me. Here is one. On Sunday, we went in the southern part of Takamatsu, in Asano District to attend the Hyōge

  As you may already know if you’ve been to Japan (or if you read blogs about Japan, the topic being very common) pretty much every city in the country has personalized manhole covers, usually representing a famous element of that city. Let’s take a look at manhole covers in

    It’s been more than one year since I visited the Teshima Art Museum for the first time, so maybe it’s time that I tell you about it, isn’t it? And actually it won’t be just one post but a series of posts. The place is so exceptional that

  Preliminary note: a lot of people have been coming to this site lately looking for information about the various islands and art projects, most likely because they want to send their own application for the Setouchi Triennale 2013 (the deadline approaching not being stranger to this increasing number of

  One of the good things about having Monday off is that one can avoid the week-end crowds for a few things, be it shopping or watching cherry blossoms in the most famous and beautiful park in the area. If on Sunday, any place that had cherry trees was invaded

  So, a few days ago I told you that I was done with telling you about New Year in Japan until next year. Well, I was wrong. I had forgotten about Dondo Yaki. What is this? Dondo Yaki? Well, it’s actually quite simple. See, for New Year’s, houses are

  Shortly after my arrival in Takamatsu, of course I had to take a small daytrip to Ogijima. Here is the tale of that day in pictures and a few comments:    The first good news of the day were that the original Meon was going to take us to

  Not too long ago I told you about the Benesse House and the Benesse Art Site on Naoshima. Here are a few more lines and pictures about it, although today, we are going to mainly focus on the Benesse House Park and Beach. This section of the Benesse House includes

  While I mention Kōbō-Daishi quite often, I never talked in detail about him. And as this post will mostly be about the ceremony I attended last June in Zentsūji for his birthday, maybe now is a good time to tell you a little bit about his life. I obviously won’t write a

  The final act of that day (May 21, 2009) was spent in the village of Kotohira where we visited the Konpirasan, a large Shinto shrine built on the mountain. Definitely the most beautiful thing I have seen during that first trip to Japan, and still one of my favorites

For some reason it’s not an easy decision to make. My mind is still with all the people that have lost everything in Tohoku, but I think that “the show must go on” and that it’s time to resume the normal course of this blog as much as possible. Of