Yesterday we went to Hie Jinja for the Sanno Matsuri. Festivities continue through the 17th. An employee said the highlight actually happens Saturday night. Someone else said the best stuff is on the final night. Last night, the 11th, was very cool, although the participants seemed very tired upon returning to the Shinto shrine after marching through Tokyo all day long.

This is no ordinary festival. The costumes are incredible.

Directions
More information on what happens each day of the festival (Japanese)

Posted on June 11th, 2010 under Japan. Tags: matsuri, people, shinto. Comments: 1

On Kenpo Kinenbi (憲法記念日 or Constitution Day) I went on a bike ride to Oji (王子) via Otsuka (大塚), Ikebukuro (池袋), and a few other places. Along the way I stopped at Kishimojin in Ikebukuro. The name of this place is interesting I think.

The characters (read right to left) mean devil/demon, child, mother, god.

There is an inari shrine on the same grounds which can’t be adequately captured in a photo. The highlight between the torii gates is an enormous tree which is loaded with fresh, green leaves in May even though the tree itself is anything but fresh.

According to the sign, this tree has been around for more than 600 years.

Posted on May 12th, 2010 under Japan. Tags: buddhist, ikebukuro, shinto, signs, temples, torii. Comments: 1

Children’s Day (こどもの日) is today (May 5). This is a Japanese national holiday, the last of Golden Week. The weather for Golden Week has been absolutely fantastic. Every day has been warm and most have been more sunny than overcast.

As part of Children’s Day, people have been flying koinobori (carp streamers) from their homes, temples, shrines, etc. You can’t miss them. I can see some out my window on my neighbor’s balcony as I type this.

I took the photo, above, yesterday at Kainan Jinja (海南神社) in Miura City (三浦市) near Jogashima. We visited Jogashima (城ヶ島), which I will blog about more in the future.

Posted on May 5th, 2010 under Japan. Tags: jogashima, shinto. Comments Off on Happy Children’s Day!

I have yet to get past part one in my Suwa Jinja Matsuri series. Someday I’ll return to those pics. Fast forward six months to a neat-sky Sunday in February. I was out for a walk with my camera and decided to visit this Shinto shrine again to see if there were any plum blossoms on the grounds. There weren’t, but the sky made for some good photos anyway.

Normally you approach a shrine from the front, passing under the torii. I came from a park in the back (which is the order of today’s pictures). The kids’ park has been overrun with homeless men. There wasn’t a kid in the place, but there were about a half dozen homeless men hanging out or sleeping in their makeshift, blue-tarp, tent homes.

Ironically, there were boy scouts putting away their own tents on the shrine grounds when I arrived. A chain-link fence was the only thing between the homeless campers and the boy scout campers who were about to head home. I thought it was a strange scene. I wonder if the boy scouts or the homeless dudes felt the same way.

At last I exited, through the normal entrance.

Posted on March 3rd, 2010 under Japan. Tags: clouds, japan pictures, shinto, skywatch, torii. Comments Off on Suwa Jinja (諏訪神社)

Two weeks ago we set off for Togo Shrine (東郷神社) in Harajuku to check out the flea market. This Tokyo flea market was supposed to take place on the first and fourth Sundays of every month. As we approached we knew something was wrong as the place was nearly empty. A small sign (in Japanese) said the flea market had been discontinued as of the beginning of 2010.

As we were leaving, though, we spotted this wedding party.

Mom, or perhaps mother-in-law, had some last pieces of advice for the bride.

They made their way up the stairs and into Togo Jinja…

…where their wedding took place moments later.

Posted on February 21st, 2010 under Japan. Tags: harajuku, shinto, Temizuya (手水舎), wedding. Comments: 5