As the title says, I wish you all a very happy new year 2019. Yesterday, on the actual New Year’s Day, I did my favorite activity on that day, that is I stayed at home. Meanwhile, most Japanese people tend to go to the shrine for Hatsumode (literally “the first […]
Traditional Culture
170 posts
So, a few days ago, I went to Ritsurin Garden for a very special visit (as a “linguistic consultant” if you like), so I didn’t take any pictures, except from one spot: Kikugetsu-tei, that is Ritsurin Garden’s main tea house. I hadn’t been inside in years, literally (not a […]
How about we resume our Shikoku Pilgrimage? I left you at Konsen-ji and it was a little while ago, right? So today, I’m bringing you to the fourth temple of the Shikoku Henro, that is Dainichi-ji (大日寺 – The Temple of the Big Sun – or is it the […]
Today, we’re going to Tokushima Prefecture, more precisely in the city of Itano (city by name only, a town really) to visit Konsen-ji, Shikoku Pilgrimage’s third temple. It’s located just three kilometers from Gokuraku-ji, its predecessor, and to go from one to the other is a piece of cake, the […]
Barely more than a kilometer after leaving Ryozen-ji, pilgrims on the Shikoku Pilgrimage will encounter their first stop, Gokuraku-ji. There’s some excitation arriving there. This time, it’s for real, the pilgrimage is underway, it’s too late to change one’s mind. This is the second temple, one has now become a […]
Kikugetsu-tei is the largest tea house in Ritsurin Garden. It is also the one tea house that is open every day to the public. There, you can have matcha while enjoying the view of the South Pond of the garden. Sometimes it is also used to host traditional […]
Fall is coming! And with it, the various Fall matsuri, which are numerous in the Setouchi area, probably because they’re harvest matsuri, and we’re still in a quite rural part of Japan. Among them, one of my favorite matsuri. I try to never miss it although I missed it last […]
Nagao-ji, located in the small town of Nagao, itself a part of Sanuki City, in the Kagawa Prefecture, is the 87th Temple of the Shikoku Pilgrimage. It’s a pretty small and “urban” temple. It doesn’t really have anything mind-blowing about it, but it has some interesting statues, here and […]
If you’ve heard of Takamatsu, you’ve probably have heard of Ritsurin Garden. And if you’ve heard of Ritsurin Garden, you’ve probably seen this view: However, what you may not know is that the artificial hill where you’re standing enjoying this view is called Hiraiho. And the bridge, […]