Posted in Festivals, Ishikawa, Photography, Rural Life, tagged dekayama, festival, float, Ishikawa, japan, matsuri, May, Nanao, photography, Seihakusai, spring on 2013/05/13 | 1 Comment »
Held in Nanao, Ishikawa pref., every May, the Seihakusai Festival (青柏祭) features three enormous floats that are said to ward off evil monkeys. (There’s lots of good information in English on Experience Kanazawa.) The Noto region of Ishikawa is famous for its summer festivals, but they’re not just kiriko (huge lantern) festivals.
Behold the dekayama:
Posted in Ishikawa, Photography, tagged Buddhism, Buddhist temple, Ishikawa, japan, Natadera, photography, temple, Travel on 2013/05/01 | Leave a Comment »
I’ve mentioned the precipitation of Ishikawa quite a few times on my photo posts. Even though it makes biking unpleasant and battling household mold a challenge in older homes, the constant rain in Ishikawa does make for a lush landscape.
Posted in Fukui, Photography, tagged cliffs, Fukui, geography, japan, ocean, photography, pyroxene andesite, rock pillars, sea, Tojinbo, Travel on 2013/04/24 | Leave a Comment »
Mr Postman, do you have a letter for me?
A letter for me
From my own true love
Lost at sea
-The Decemberists – “From My Own True Love (Lost at Sea)”
I wrote about Tôjinbô (東尋坊) once in 2009, when I went on a road trip to Fukui. (It seems like a million years ago.) I only posted one photo(!), so today I’ll share some from my return trip in March 2012.
The thing about living or traveling in Hokuriku is how moody the landscape seems, particularly in autumn and winter. (more…)
Posted in Ishikawa, Photography, tagged cherry blossoms, 芦城公園, 花見, hanami, illumination, Ishikawa, Komatsu, lanterns, light-up, night, photography, Rojo Park, sakura, 小松, 桜 on 2013/04/08 | 1 Comment »
The sakura were in full bloom in central Ishikawa at the end of last week. I managed to squeeze in some night-time hanami (flower viewing) at Rojô Park (芦城公園) in Komatsu before the storm hit us last weekend.
Posted in Nagano, Photography, tagged ニホンザル, 長野, japan, jigokudani, Jigokudani Monkey Park, monkeys, Nagano, onsen, photography, snow monkeys, Yamanouchi, 地獄谷, 地獄谷野猿公苑 on 2013/04/01 | 1 Comment »
One of Nagano prefecture’s famous tourist sites is Jigokudani, a natural hot-spring area where the snow monkeys like to bathe. Although I’ve been to Nagano before in the winter with quite a lot of snow on the ground, there was a warm front in mid-March that melted most of the snow for which the area is famous. Luckily for us, the monkeys seemed undeterred by the unseasonable weather.
３月中旬に長野県の有名がある地獄谷地獄谷野猿公苑にもう一度見に行きました。その時、驚いたほど天候が春のように温かくなりました。だが、ニホンザル達はもう温泉を楽しみたがっているそうだって良かったです。
Posted in Kanazawa, Photography, tagged 金沢, Ishikawa, japan, Kanazawa, March, photography, plum, plum blossom, plum grove, spring, 梅の花, 梅林 on 2013/03/24 | Leave a Comment »
Utatsuyama (卯辰山) is a small mountain in Kanazawa that stands taller than even the castle, and the Utatsuyama Park (卯辰山公演) area, accessible from Higashi Chaya-gai (tea district), is home to a number of gardens, including the iris garden I visited last summer. Last week, I hiked to the plum grove, which, in addition to Kenrokuen’s much larger plum grove, is one of the best places to view the plum blossoms in the city.
Posted in Nagoya, Photography, Sight-seeing, tagged japan, Nagoya, oasis 21, photography, Travel on 2013/03/17 | 2 Comments »
Oasis 21, Sakae, Nagoya, Feb. 2012
Living in Ishikawa’s constant cloud cover means that traveling to other cities, especially in the winter, is a welcome change of pace just for the sunshine. (more…)
Posted in Kanazawa, Photography, tagged Ezra Pound, flowers, In the Station of the Metro, Ishikawa, japan, Kanazawa, petals, photography, plum blossoms, plums, poem, poetry, spring, Travel on 2013/03/09 | 2 Comments »
“In a Station of the Metro”
The apparition of these faces in the crowd;
Petals on a wet, black bough.
— Ezra Pound
Posted in Cooking, Ishikawa, Photography, tagged Ishikawa, Japanese wine, Noto Peninsula, Noto Wine, photography, Sangiovese, Seibel, Travel, wine on 2013/03/03 | Leave a Comment »
I snapped this photo in the cellar at Noto Wine a couple years ago when my parents visited.
Posted in Architecture, Kanazawa, Photography, tagged autumn, 紅葉, 金沢, fall, foliage, garden, Ishikawa, japan, Kanazawa, Kenrokuen, photography, 兼六園, 写真 on 2012/11/24 | 3 Comments »
Photos take at Kenrokuen, Kanazawa, 17 Nov. 2012.
Text: selections from「金沢の雨」(Kanazawa no Ame) by Miyuki Kawanaka (川中美幸) (my translation)
東京言葉と 加賀なまり
I love Tokyo words with a Kaga accent
