Japan’s overhead power line problem
Yanaka 谷中
I love nearly everything about Yanaka. It is perhaps my favorite part of Tokyo. One thing I could do without, though, is the ridiculous number of power lines overhead.
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Posts tagged yanaka
Yanaka Cemetery (谷中霊園)
Yanaka Cemetery is lovely in any season, but April is the best time to visit. Today’s photo was taken on April 8. This picture is of the exact place where The Street of a Thousand Blossoms got its name.
Swastika water
As I’ve mentioned previously, the swastika was commonplace before the Nazis. Now you don’t see it much, except in Japan where it is still usual to see the swastika represent a Buddhist temple on a map or in religious architecture like at this Shinto shrine. Today’s photo is from Nezu Jinja (根津神社) in Tokyo. I’m not sure when this particular temizu basin was created, but this Shinto shrine has been in existence for over 300 years.
Notice the senja fuda (千社札) or stickers on the posts of the covering over the temizubachi (手水鉢). These name stickers were much more common in the Edo Period than they are now, but you still see them. Shrine visitors paste or stick senjafuda on the temple gate or shrine buildings to prove that they visited that temple or shrine and to obtain good luck or good fortune.
Little Japanese Girl
In early December fall colors can still be seen on the trees and on the ground in Tokyo. Today’s photo was taken at Nezu Jinja.
Sakura countdown
In just one more month, my favorite part of Tokyo (Yanaka) will look like this. I took today’s photo of some of Tokyo’s finest cherry blossoms at Tennoji (天王寺) on April 8, 2010.
幼稚園入園式
If you can read Japanese, you already know what this photo is about. If you can’t, try and guess. A funeral? A wedding? But why all the kids? I’ll give you a hint, I took this photo in April. Still not getting it?
April is when school starts in Japan. This is the first day of school at a Japanese kindergarten. And the first day of school for these four- and five-year olds is a huge deal. Just getting accepted to some Japanese kindergartens is a big deal. One of my Japanese friends paid tens of thousands of yen for a kindergarten prep-school for her three-year old daughter so that she could get into a good kindergarten. Crazy right? This is not a rare occurrence. If you see a Japanese mom with a three- or four-year old, both dressed to the T, in a train station in Japan the odds are very good that they are on their way to, or from, one of these kindergarten prep schools.
幼稚園入園式 = yochiennyuenshiki = Kindergarten Entrance Ceremony