On January 13, 2011, I attended a traditional local ceremony at Shiratama waterfall in Niigata Prefecture. I’ve been to this waterfall several times in the summer to escape the heat, but this is the first time to see it in the snowy mid winter, and the very first time to see people stand under it! It’s actually a religious ceremony called misogi.
Continue reading →In midsummer, Japan holds public festivals which are called in Japanese Omatsuri. They remind me of Old Testament Hebrew festivals!
Continue reading →There is evidence that Christianity may have come to Japan long before the Jesuit priest, Francis Xavier, reached Japan on July 27, 1549. The northern prefecture of Honshu, Aomori, contains many Christian symbols that predate Xaxier, things from the 2nd or 3rd century!
Continue reading →I had three books I wished to present as a gift to a Japanese friend. I intended to give them as is without any formal wrapping paper to cover them, but a Japanese co-worker suggested that they be wrapped together … Continue reading →
Everything you need to know about Japanese shoji (paper) doors, how easy it is to put holes in them, and a step-by-step explanation of how to fix them.
Continue reading →I first wrote this in February 2002 and posted it on my first website at kt70.com/~jamesjpn Because that website no longer exists, I am re-posting it here. On Feb. 13, 2002, while in Tokyo, I was invited by German Marina … Continue reading →
Another oldie goldie adventure from my old website I am reposting. On April 30, 2004, I hitchhiked 500 kilometers from Niigata city to Nagoya, the 3rd largest metropolis in Japan. It was the second day of “Golden Week.” Below is … Continue reading →
My old website at kt70.com~jamesjpn is no longer on line. I am therefore posting some of the articles from it to this website. On May 16, 2008 I saw two young bamboo shoots about 3 feet high growing next to … Continue reading →
I took these photos in 2008. They were on my old website which is no longer on line, and so I’m re-posting them.
Continue reading →I went by bicycle to a park an hour from home and took the photos below with a Nikon D50 camera (not mine) and a tripod (mine) with slow shutter speeds as slow as 5 seconds.
Continue reading →Did you know that in winter, the average temperate of a Japanese home is colder than homes in Russia? This is because houses in Japan have no central heating! I know from experience with 3 winters in Russia and 36 … Continue reading →
Me hugging a huge palm street on Hollywood boulevard, Los Angeles California I’ve lived in Japan for 36 years at the time of this post — more than half of my life. In 2014 I had an opportunity to go … Continue reading →
It’s been my observation that most people who have never been to Japan seem to think of Fukushima as an uninhabitable nuclear wasteland. My Facebook friends are surprised when on some of my posts I wrote that I traveled through … Continue reading →
I still hear a lot of fear-mongering about the Fukushima nuclear accident. Some call it “worse than Chernobyl”. I find no logic in that statement at all. Two and a half years later and yet not a single Fukushima power … Continue reading →
The fear mongers of the threat of radiation from the nuclear power plant meltdown were all wrong! Life goes on in Japan as it always had.
Continue reading →Today was cloudy when I started out on my journey to Aomori city, 470 kilometers from home. I wore for the first time this season a warm overcoat. I heard it had been snowing in Aomori, the northernmost prefecture of … Continue reading →
During my cycling trip to the summit of Mt. Yahiko in Niigata Prefecture, I stopped at the Yahiko Shrine which was on the way. I didn’t know it before hand, but it was the time of the annual chrysanthemum festival. … Continue reading →
November 19, 2012: It was a bright sunny day and I didn’t want to spend it indoors in front of a PC screen. Instead I rode my bicycle to a village at the foothills of Mt. Yahiko, about 33 kilometers … Continue reading →
