Sites to see!

On the Sunday before the Sports Day public holiday, Oct 11th this year, the All-Japan Ninja Competition is held at one of Japan’s surviving original Ninja training compounds: Koka Ninja Village. As part of our ‘making the most of the last few months’ campaign, we decided to head down on this day and we were glad we did. I’m not sure what we were expecting but we weren’t expecting a riot of colour and the ringing of children’s laughter through the trees. The... More...

   Our last day in Kyoto was Sunday and the weather finally cleared so it was both safe and worthwhile to get the dslr out. We strolled Gion again (still sweet but not half as romantic as in lantern light) and failed to see the Imperial palace (it seems you have to make a booking in advance – be warned) but enjoyed a walk in the surrounding... More...

Our trip to Kyoto last week was scheduled to catch the first night of the lantern festival in Gion. I’m doing this quick post because the festival is still on and it’s well worth a visit – especially if you haven’t been to Kyoto yet and you’ve been waiting for a reason to go. I know cherry blossoms are the traditional... More...

Hello. It’s been a looong while, I know. Since returning from Sapporo I’ve have had all sorts of exciting experiences including a genuine bout of Influenza A (not something one experiences in Australia, really) followed by a delightful secondary chest infection because the Aussie in me didn’t think a fever and a bad cough was worth... More...

Tony McNicol is a photojournalist based in Tokyo who has a great blog which covers his experiences both as a photographer and in Japan generally and, of course, always has great photos! Recently Tony did a piece on Miyazaki Hayao, one of my favourite directors, and he was given permission to take some photos inside the Ghibli Museum. I haven’t... More...

This past Saturday we went for a drive with a couple of our American ICT friends to the open air museum Meiji Mura. “Meiji Village” is a park with over 60 original buildings from the Meiji era (1868 -1912) transported and restored so that we can get a feel for what it was like during the period when Japan was opening itself to the West.... More...

NB.. For those of you who have stumbled on this page looking for directions and aren’t interested in a review of the shopping district of Osu Kannon (to wit: is it really the best place to go for cameras et al.) – scroll down to a little above where the photos begin. Okay, I’m not actually accusing any person or persons of deliberately... More...