Believe it or not, I hadn’t been to Oshima in six years! I mean, during the Setouchi Triennale, I actually went last winter. The problem with this island is that due to its very unique status, you don’t really go there to just hang out and have fun as you […]
History
Near my house, there’s a small park on the coast with a lone torii. I wonder why it’s there, alone, without a shrine. I mean, sometimes it can happen, places where there used to be a shrine, but it disappeared, not its torii. However, in this case, […]
As you may already know if you’ve been to Japan (or if you read blogs about Japan, the topic being very common) pretty much every city in the country has personalized manhole covers, usually representing a famous element of that city. Let’s take a look at manhole covers in […]
As you know it, today we commemorate one of the worst days in recorded history, that is the day when the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima 67 years ago. I went to Hiroshima only once, two years ago. I believe visiting the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park and […]
To tell you about Heijō-kyō, I need to tell you a thing or two about Nara‘s history in case you don’t already know it. In the year 710, the Empress Gemmei decided to move the capital city to the town of Heijō-kyō. At the time, moving capital cities was common […]
A few days ago I told you about how Takamatsu Castle’s main tower is in the process of being rebuilt. Sometime this week I’m planning on telling you about Okayama Castle which has been rebuilt in 1966. Coincidentally, KuyshuDan at Japanese Castle Explorer posted a couple of days ago a […]
Ok, not exactly Japan itself, but a Western map (possibly French) from 1707. I found it on Wikipedia while looking for information about another topic that I’ll talk about soon (there’s a big clue on the map itself for people who know the history of Japan well) You’ll notice that […]