Today’s photograph is of the town of Himeji from the top of the town’s famous castle. If you ever plan to visit Himeji (and you should if you are visiting Kyoto, Osaka, or Kobe) I have two suggestions for you.

#1 If you are going to Himeji on a weekend be sure to arrive well before noon. The crowds in the afternoon on a weekend are out of control. Once inside the castle you will be unable to move for long periods of time.

#2 If you are more than 6′ tall be sure to watch your head as many of the ceilings, doorways, and ladder areas have a clearance below 6′. I hit my head so hard going up a set of stairs (ladder really, the same one you can see in the Shogun miniseries) that I thought I was going to pass out.

Posted on January 13th, 2009 under Japan. Tags: himeji, japan pictures. Comments Off on Himeji from above

I have 11 issues of Mangajin left for sale. They are Nos. 17, 18, 21, 29, 30, 38, 47, 49, 55, 56, and 58. No. 38 is pictured above. The other covers can be seen in prior blog entries. All 11 issues can be yours for $50 with free shipping. That’s much more than $20 cheaper than you will find it on the publisher’s site. Plus, the publisher doesn’t even have issue 29 anymore and it sells issue 21 for $20 + shipping by itself since it is so rare. 

Email me if interested.

Posted on January 12th, 2009 under Japan. Tags: mangajin. Comments: 1

This was the first, of many, bamboo glimpses we had in Kyoto. If I remember correctly, in order to get this view I had to crouch down and put my camera through some bushes while waiting in line to get into Ginkakuji (The Silver Pavilion).

Posted on January 11th, 2009 under Japan. Tags: bamboo, japan pictures, kyoto. Comments Off on Kyoto bamboo

Behind and up the road from our hotel in Hakone were a couple of very peaceful temples. Pictured above is what lies behind Sounji. There was a large graveyard which led to some paths up the mountain. We took the mountain path (which was wonderful). On the other side you find yourself back near the river and the Hakoneyumoto Train Station. The Yumoto Fujiya Hotel is also right there. So you could start there and come over the mountain to get to 金湯山早雲寺.

It is said that Hojo Ujinao (whose grave is here at Sounji) has a ghost who wanders this place at midnight. I didn’t come back to find out. Maybe next time.

Posted on January 10th, 2009 under Japan. Tags: buddhist, hakone, japan pictures. Comments Off on 箱根町の金湯山早雲寺 Sounji

I just purchased a new laptop. When I went to type in Japanese for yesterday’s blog entry I realized that I’d have to set up that option since this is a new computer. It has been a long while since I have had to make this change to a computer, and it took me a while to get it right.

To save you some time, if you want to write in Japanese on your computer if you are using the English version of Vista I offer the following quick, step-by-step instructions.

Click on the “Start” circle in the lower left corner of your screen.
Select the “Control Panel.”
Select “Change keyboard or other input methods.”
You should see the following screen. If you don’t, click on the “Keyboards and Languages” tab.

Click on “Change keyboards…” button.
Click “Add” button.
Click the + sign next to Japanese.
Check the “Microsoft IME” box.
Click OK, Apply, and then OK again.

You should be all set.

If you click on the “EN” on your toolbar you can now change it to “JP” when you want to type in Japanese. You will also want to change the input mode when you want to type in hiragana or katakana. Pushing the spacebar after typing a word in romaji on your regular keyboard while in hiragana mode will allow you to choose the kanji that go along with the word you just wrote.

Note that for the particle wa you have to type ha and for the particle o you have to type wo.

Posted on January 9th, 2009 under Japan. Comments: 2