Daley-sensei's Adventures in Himeji, Japan.

I went to Osaka on March 8th for the first day of a fifteen-day Sumo Wrestling tournament. A lot of my colleagues from Arizona and Australia went, and we'd reserved our tickets nearly two months prior. It was well worth the preparation, though! I left for Osaka early in the morning, so that I could spend time admiring the famous plum garden at Osaka Castle. It was a lovely day, and the blossoms were starting to reach their peak! It was quite crowded, but the atmosphere was festive, and once you worked your way closer to the center of the garden the paths thinned out a bit. The people-watching was nearly as amusing as the blossom-viewing, and I heard snippets of many different languages while winding my way through the paths. This is a photo of one of the outer buildings, over the outer moat. The moat is gigantic!  Osaka Castle was crowded, and it's a modern reconstruction of the original building, but it's still stunning! Although it is tricky to photograph...

I know, I know, I'm really late on updating this. For over the last month, my internet has been sporadic, and most days I was happy if it took less than 2-3 minutes to attach a .pdf to an email. For the first time, I was sitting around wanting to update my blog, but I didn't have the capability to do so! However, this week my connection seems to have returned to normal, so I can start catching up on uploading all of my photographs! I have been pretty busy this March, though I did explore a bit in February, too. February was mostly cold and grey, but I made one last trip to the Kobo-san market in Kyoto, and let myself go crazy and buy all of the kimonos that caught my eye! I finished the day with two silk kimonos (1,000 yen each) and three very high-quality obis. No idea where I'll put my collection when I return to Arizona come August, but I'll figure something out, I'm sure... The plum blossoms were just starting to bloom at the end of February, so I took so...

Loosely translates as "Nara's Wakausa Mountain Mountain Fire-Burning Festival." Wakakusa Mountain rises in the background.  It's held on the 4th Saturday of January, and is a tradition that dates back hundreds of years. It's origins are debatable, but two stories have emerged as the most popular. Origin Story #1 The monks at three of the area's major temples-- Kokufuji Temple , Todaiji Temple , and Kasuga Taisha Shrine --got into a big disagreement about something, and after fighting broke out they accidentally set Wakakusa Mountain on fire. After the conflagration, the monks were able to settle their differences. From then on, they would symbolically light the mountain on fire to remind themselves of this past conflict and rededicate themselves to peace. Origin Story #2 There's an old burial mound on top of Wakakusa Mountain, and soon rumors began to spread about the angry ghosts buried there. These ghosts would wreak havoc upon the ...

Albeit a short post. Busy as usual, but here's a few updates from New Years! I stayed local again this year, and went to Syosha Temple to see the lantern displays. It was very crowded! The line was a good city-block long to get in. And I was off to a  great start, seeing how I got to the front of the line, and realized I'd forgotten my wallet. Ran back home, did the line again, and wound up getting a "bad luck" fortune. Like last year, everyone walked through this bamboo circle before entering the temple gates.  The lanterns with red writing say "Phoenix" in katakana , though it probably is in reference to the nearby pachinko  parlor, and not to the city.  This wasn't actually Syosha temple, but the one right next to the castle (whose name I don't know, sorry!). There were hardly any people here, just a few other late-night photographers. It was very serene!  On the 2nd, I went to get rid of my bad fortune by tying it to a ...

I went to Nara for the first time (finally)! I've been meaning to go since last year, but always wound up getting side tracked. It was well worth the wait, though. I spent the whole day there (arrived at 9:30, left around 3:45), and I still didn't see everything that I wanted to see. Alas, my fully-charged camera couldn't withstand a couple more hours of photographing, so I didn't try too hard to find a couple of gardens I had heard about once it ran out of batteries. I'll just have to go again during Spring! Since I was on my own, I mostly just wandered wherever I found something interesting; which, with a whole mountain area to explore, meant that I didn't find everything. I also have no idea what half of the places I found are called, so I'll just let my photos speak for themselves. Nara is famous for the deer that wander through the temples and shrines. They were quite literally everywhere. I couldn't turn my head without spotting at least four ...