If today’s picture looks a little familiar it is because a portion of it sometimes appears as the banner across the top of this blog.

To the foreign eye this photograph probably looks like a cool piece of Japan–lantern after lantern loaded with strange and unique Japanese characters. I wonder what it looks like to a Japanese person. What is written on these lanterns you ask? Business names. That’s right; this is just a wall of advertising. I find it to be more beautiful than American billboards, but maybe the Japanese look at it as an eyesore.

The location of these lanterns is near the entrance of a shopping street in Kyoto. Immediately behind the lanterns is a shrine. I’m guessing it is for the prosperity of the businesses that sponsor it. You can see some shimenawa and gohei if you look closely.

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Posted on March 1st, 2009 under Japan • Tags: japan pictures, kyoto, lanterns, shimenawa, shinto. • RSS 2.0 feed • Leave a response, or trackback