Category: Japan 2010

I’ve put up the last set of photos from our recent vacation in Japan. It’s a collection of photos of odd bits of Engrish, food, fashion, and other things which didn’t really fit in anywhere else. Just for the fun of it I’ll provide a guided tour here. All of these photos are hosted on flickr so you can click them to find larger versions.

Food

It’s probably obvious by now that I love the food in Japan, even if it isn’t really Japanese as such. Here’s a shot of Mister Donut, Kyoto-style: read more

I’ve put up a set of photos here taken outside of Sanjusangendo, one of our favorite places in Japan. Sanjusangendo is a Buddhist temple in Kyoto that houses 1000 statues of the deity Kannon. We first visited it a couple of years ago when Sid took us there as our guide. When he described it as a long hall with 1000 gilded statues in it, Tracie and I somehow formed the mental image of a bunch of smallish statues maybe a foot or so in height. (Tracie observed that perhaps that impression was influenced by our earlier visit to Hase-Dera, at which there are hundreds of diminutive statutes.) read more

One of the things that caught us by surprise upon our arrival in Tokyo was the new Tokyo Sky Tree. The Sky Tree will be the successor to the Tokyo Tower and will be the tallest free-standing tower in the world. It was about half of its final height of 634 meters while we were there, but according to its rather cool website it has reached 368 meters. We had a dramatic view of it from our hotel window, and the bellboy that showed us to our room pointed it out and described it to us with a obvious amount of pride. read more

I just posted a set of photos from Kobe here. We spent the afternoon and evening in Kobe with our friends Sid and Takako Makino. It was very nice to see them again. They showed us around Kobe’s Chinatown and other parts of downtown Kobe, and we stopped for tea at one of Takako’s favorite cafes. Takako mentioned that her parents used to take her shopping on the street shown here before it was covered.

That evening we had dinner at the same restaurant at which we dined last year. It has a beautiful view of Kobe and the bay, and they serve a rather remarkable multi-course dinner consisting mostly of tofu prepared in far more ways than you can imagine. (Yes, you have to appreciate tofu to enjoy it. Fortunately I do, and did.) read more

I’ve put up four photos of Lake Shinji here. Lake Shinji is immediately next to Matsue. The residents of Matsue are very proud of Lake Shinji, and rightfully so. It is very pretty, even though we didn’t see the crimson sunsets for which it is renowned.

It is connected to another lake which is in turn connected to the ocean. Hence Lake Shinji has a varying level of salinity and hence is home to both freshwater and saltwater creatures. At some point in Matsue’s history it was somehow established that seven of these creatures are considered delicacies. These delicacies are mentioned in tourist guides, on menus, etc. and hence we ended up committing them to memory. They are: eel, bass, smelt, whitebait, shrimp, clams, and read more

I just put up a set of photos here from a walk we took one morning in Kyoto. I’m feeling lazy (actually I’m feeling tired of dealing with stoopid computers on what’s supposed to be my day off) so I didn’t put comments on the photos. If you have any questions about any of them you can either leave a comment here or on my flickr site. I’ll probably notice them more quickly if you leave them here.

Looking over the photos we took, I’ll probably post at least two more sets from Kyoto, at least one from Kobe, and one of miscellaneous odd bits of Engrish and stuff collected from various locations. Stay tuned… read more

Today’s post brings us to the main reason that we traveled to Matsue. Over a year ago we saw a particularly striking photo of a garden on one of our Japanese calendars. Tracie eventually figured out that the photo was taken at the Adachi Museum of Art near Yasugi, Japan. Yasugi itself is fairly small and out of the way, so it is usually recommended that one travel first to nearby Matsue to visit the Adachi Museum. This all sounded a little complicated at first, but upon further investigation it appeared that Matsue itself was worth visiting anyway and we decided that we’d add it to the itinerary. read more

Mastue is home to one of the few castles remaining from the feudal era of Japan’s history. We figured that it would be a must-see while we were in Matsue, simply because castles are generally must-see sorts of things as far as Tracie and I are concerned. The castle and the surrounding grounds were indeed very much worth visiting. Two things caught us by surprise. First, the castle grounds are home to a lovely collection of cherry trees that were at their peak while we were there. Second, the castle is home to a small but spectacular collection of old armor, helmets, swords, arrows, etc. The lighting inside this area is obviously not idea for photography, but I took a bunch of photos anyway. There is a new set on my flickr site here containing over 70 photos from the castle grounds and interior. read more

We visited Matsue for the first time during our trip in Japan this year. Matsue is a city of about 195,000 people near the west coast of Japan, i.e. on the other side from where we’ve spent most of our time. It’s not on a shinkansen line so one reaches it by taking an express train. We took the shinkansen from Kobe to Okayama and then switched trains for the remainder of the journey to Matsue. I’ve posted a set of photos taken from the train here. Tracie took most of them; she was trying to take pictures of the numerous small farms visible from the train. Next I’ll post at least two sets of photos from Matsue, one of the castle there and one of the spectacular gardens surrounding the Adachi Museum. read more

I just put up a set of photos on Flickr here taken at or near the Hase-Dera temple near Kamakura, Japan. It’s a lovely place and there’s much more to it than these photos show but I’ve taken a lot of pictures there on previous visits and hence mostly just admired the cherry trees.