Sorry for the lack of posts these days (I’m embarrassed I haven’t posted about my trip to Shamijima for previewing the Setouchi Triennale there yet) but this time of the year is probably the busiest at work and as a consequence, I’m sometimes too tired at night to post

    Onigawara in the Bikan district of Kurashiki, Okayama Prefecture.    

    The other day I was thinking that maybe it’s time that I visit Marugame Castle again one of these days.    

    Ema at Kibitsuhiko-jinja in Okayama.   I don’t need to explain why they are peach-shaped, do I?    

    The Heijō Palace in Nara is 1,300 years old… … unless it’s only three years old. It depends on how you see the whole thing. Here are more details about Heijō-kyō, if you don’t know what this is about.    

  I remember that during my first trip to Japan (possibly even my first hours in Japan), one of the things that fascinated me the most were traditional Japanese roofs.     Of course, nowadays, they’re a pretty common sight – pretty much a daily one – and they still

  OK, it’s getting a bit late to talk about Hatsumode (the first visit of the year to the shrine) and other things related to New Year’s in Japan, so I’ll be quick, with just a few pics and commentaries. Just like last year, we went to Iwaseo Hachiman-gū for Hatsumode

    Unless I’m wrong, those houses, right next to Hōryū-ji in Nara are where the priests live. But I could be wrong.    

    Zenigata in Kan’onji is a 100 meters wide, 400 years old sand coin. In other words,   The island in the background is Ibukijima by the way.    

  I went to Kōfuku-ji in Nara, briefly during the Spring of 2010, and I can’t wait to return there. In the meantime three pictures of the place :   The Gojū-no-tō, Kōfuku-ji’s five-story pagoda is 50 meters high, and probably one of the highest pagodas in Japan. It was destroyed (by

  I just wanted to wish all of you a very Happy New Year 2013, the year of the snake.     Just like last year, I will post a short series of posts about New Year’s in Japan over the next few days. I hope you’ll enjoy them.  

  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

  On Monday, I went to Negoro-ji. I believe that November is the best month of the year to go to this temple. Unless you don’t like red…     More pictures coming soon…    

    Shichi-Go-San at Marugamemachi Dome (actually this picture dates from last year, but it’s timely)

    All those Darumas (from a shrine in Kurashiki) to tell you that a year ago I drew the second eye to mine, as today I celebrate the first anniversary of my arrival in Japan (well “celebrate” not really, today was a very normal day, the only special thing