New Year’s at Nishinomiya Shrine: Photo Gallery
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This article is brought to you through a partnership between the Heart of Japan blog, a project by the Hyogo International Association, and the Hyogo Times. Boasting 10,000 candles placed all over the town, Takasago Lantern Festival (é«˜ç ‚ä¸‡ç¯ç¥, Takasago Mantousai) also features jazz and traditional Japanese music performances along with specially illuminated historical buildings, temples…
It’s April and that means the brief, but beautiful cherry blossom season. The sales of blue tarpaulins are set to sky rocket and public intoxication in the middle of the day will reach giddy new heights. Whether it’s your first, final or other, 花見 season in Japan, Hyogo has a positive cornucopia of great spots…
Love is in the air. Or perhaps it isn’t depending on where you live, who lives near you (or doesn’t), or if the cold air actually froze it… So what can you do? My advice to cope with those lonely, cold winter nights (and days) is to BE LOVE. The rewarding thing about choosing to…
2012. A new year begins, and for me, an American in Japan, it looks like it’s going to be quite a ride. The yen is up, the dollar down. The Tohoku region is still picking up what the earthquake/tsunami left behind. The world scrambles against global warming and an uncertain economy. The ancient Mayans predicted…
This temple’s rock garden was designed to represent the beach where a teenager was killed in single combat. His death is one of the most famous in Japanese history. His killer renounced his samurai life soon after and became a Buddhist monk. This place has some serious education going on…any guesses?
Steam rises, obscuring the snowy mountain scene outside the window. Serene pools ripple gently. You let the heat soak into your skin, through your muscles, down to the bone. It ensconces you, slowly coaxing all of the tightness in your shoulders and back into release. You sigh, giving in to the calm of the onsen….