February 3 is a special day in Japan, not technically a holiday, but special nonetheless. Setsubun (節分) coincides with the Chinese New Year. It has something to do with the beginning of Spring, but Nikko looked (and felt, as it was below freezing) anything but Springish when I took this photo during Setsubun 2010 at Rinnoji Temple.

This part of the ceremony had nothing to do with bean throwing. The shells some of the participants were blowing made the coolest sound. The beans were thrown later. Actually, beans were just handed out and prizes were thrown. We won a bunch of stuff, including a night at one of Nikko’s hotels including meals. Woohoo!

Posted on February 3rd, 2011 under Japan. Tags: nikko, setsubun. Comments: 1

There are reports that Yamamotoyama (facing away in the above picture) is one of the sumo wrestlers who is being investigated for fixing sumo matches. He said today that “he hasn’t.” (やってない) The cell phone text in question is “俺は誰に借りているかな？ 貸しは光龍と山本山だけだよね。” (“Who am I indebted to? I only have a loan with Koryu and Yamamotoyama, right?”)

Of course the “debt” in this message could mean anything. It need not be bout fixing. Apparently three sumo wrestlers have admitted wrongdoing. We’ll find out soon, I imagine, who they are and if Yamamotoyama is found guilty.

Stay tuned.

Posted on February 2nd, 2011 under Japan. Tags: sumo, yamamotoyama. Comments Off on Is Yamamotoyama guilty of fixing his sumo matches?

Although this looked and felt like a storm would burst at any second, it didn’t. This was fortunate as I was on my bike and not close to home. I was in Akihabara (秋葉原), a part of Tokyo famous for its electronics.

Posted on February 1st, 2011 under Japan. Tags: akihabara, Tokyo. Comments: 1

When you are done looking at the fish in Tsukiji Market, you can always head to the outside markets to find endless rows of things foreigners aren’t used to seeing.

Ellie and I made this trip a few mornings after we had arrived in Tokyo. We were still jet lagged so badly that we couldn’t sleep anyway.

Posted on January 31st, 2011 under Japan. Tags: ellie, tsukiji. Comments Off on Shopping at Tsukiji

Connected, via a walkway, to the Osaki Station on the Yamanote Line is Osaki New City, a shopping mall with loads of really inexpensive restaurants. Today’s photo is of the atrium in the center of the place. The two or three times we were there the place was empty (by Tokyo standards). Maybe that is why the restaurants are so cheap.

Posted on January 30th, 2011 under Japan. Tags: Tokyo. Comments Off on Osaki New City Atrium (大崎ニューシティ)