Shopping centers in Japan frequently have a similar look and feel to them. Some are called ginza, some are out of doors, but a common look is the one above–sort of a covered arcade of sorts.

This one is one of the largest, if not the largest, for this variety in Japan. You head down one of these lanes off of Kawaramachi Dori (河原町通) or Shijo Dori (四条通) in Kyoto and when you get to the end you can turn the corner to head down another mega-long street loaded with nothing but more shops and more shoppers.

Posted on June 30th, 2009 under Japan. Tags: japan pictures, kyoto, signs. Comments: 2

Although no one voted for the Pet Squirrel picture in my recent blog entry, it was the winner when I posed the same question on Facebook. Today’s photo is another angle on the pet squirrel that was roaming the grounds of Castle Himeji a couple years ago.

Posted on June 26th, 2009 under Japan. Tags: japan pictures, kids, people, pets. Comments: 3

This is the view of Mt. Fuji after some serious zoom work and a nice crop from the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco.

Just kidding. I would say something similar while heading south on the Golden Gate Bridge (天気がよければ右手の方によく見ると富士山が見えるでしょう) when I was a tour guide in San Francisco for a Japanese company. You’d be surprised how many customers I had who actually looked hard out the window to the west before I told them I was just joking.

Actually, this is from Lake Ashi (芦ノ湖) near Hakone. My camera was at only 35mm and there was no crop so you can see how impressive Fuji San is from this neck of the woods. We were tailing a boat very similar to the one we were on.

Posted on June 24th, 2009 under Japan. Tags: hakone, japan pictures, mt. fuji. Comments: 3

Soon my kids will be riding the Yamanote-Sen from Takadanobaba to Tamachi on an almost daily basis. It won’t look much like the above. I took the above picture on the Seibu-Sen on our way to Tokorozawa, going in the opposite direction as the commuters, late in the morning. Some lines, for instance the Seibu Shinjuku Line arriving at Takadanobaba from Tokorozawa, are jammed to the max. Hopefully, getting on at Takadanobaba will be pretty decent since many people should be getting off there for Waseda University.

I don’t think we will regularly be encountering this:

Posted on June 20th, 2009 under Japan. Tags: japan pictures, Tokyo, trains. Comments: 2

You can seldom go a day in Japan without encountering a jizo, or six, or thousands. They usually are featured wearing a red bib. Jizo are associated with many things including peace, children, and safe traveling.

I spotted this jizo in front of a shop in Kyoto. The sign reads “Yorokobi wa fubyo no kusuri” which means something like “Happiness is the medicine for no sickness.”

Posted on June 14th, 2009 under Japan. Tags: buddhist, japan pictures, jizo. Comments: 1