This lovely lady and her samurai entourage were posing for a photo at the base of Takeda Jinja in Kofu, Japan during the Shingen Festival of 2010.

Posted on February 23rd, 2012 under Japan. Tags: kofu, people. Comments Off on Shingen Festival (信玄公祭り)

The Hanshin Tigers are said to have the most dedicated and rabid fans in the world, frequently outnumbering the fans for the home team at away games. I have never been to a home game for the Tigers in Osaka, but I imagine it is pretty fun. Today’s photo was taken in Yokohama when the Tigers were playing the Bay Stars.

Posted on February 22nd, 2012 under Japan. Tags: baseball. Comments Off on Craziest fans on the planet

Underneath this photo/sign of Mt. Fuji it says, “On a day with good weather, this is what Mt. Fuji looks like.” The reason for such a sign is that 95%+ of the time, you can’t see Mt. Fuji from this location. Mt. Fuji is usually covered in clouds. Even when it isn’t, there is usually enough haze and humidity in the air that you can’t see Mt. Fuji from Kamakura. To improve your odds, arrive at this location just before the sun sets and you may be able to see the haze magically dissipate before your eyes and the sun set majestically behind Mt. Fuji.

Here is an earlier post of mine showing some disappointed females at this same location. That post also includes directions to finding this Mt. Fuji Viewing Platform (富士見台).

Posted on February 21st, 2012 under Japan. Tags: kamakura, kenchoji, mt. fuji, signs. Comments Off on Mt. Fuji (sort of)

Mt. Fuji (富士山) is on the right of this photo in the distance. The building in the center with the tall smokestack is the Meguro Incinerator. One of these days I’ll have to tell you about the incinerator tour I went on in Japan.

Some Japanese vocabulary for those of you learning Japanese at the moment…

sunset = yuuyake = 夕焼け (literally: evening burn)
crescent moon = mikazuki = 三日月 (literally: three day moon)

As always, these photos look much better on a big screen after clicking on them. I have had several people ask about using my images. Here is the deal. All images can be used under a Creative Commons license for non-commercial use only. What this means is you are free to use images from traveljapanblog.com on your blog, Facebook, for fun, etc., but you must link to the page on this site that has the photo. If you don’t know that specific page, you can simply link to traveljapanblog.com from the same page you include the photo. If you want to use a photo for any commercial use you must contact me before using the image and we can work something out. All images are copyrighted, even though I allow people to use them.

For each picture I post there are actually two images on the server. The one you see above is a small one. For the larger size (great for desktop backgrounds) click on the image first and then save the image that appears. I have even larger images available should you ever want to make a print.

Posted on February 20th, 2012 under Japan. Tags: aerial photography, moon, mt. fuji, night photography, sunset, Tokyo. Comments: 6

This isn’t your typical view of Enoshima (江ノ島). This is the backside, facing the eastern side of Sagami Bay (相模湾). In the far distance to the right is the Miura (三浦)/Jogashima (城ヶ島) area. Iwayabashi is the nearby bridge on Enoshima to the left.

Posted on February 17th, 2012 under Japan. Tags: enoshima. Comments: 2