Mount Fuji sunrise
Traditonal Japanese instrument, the koto
Geisha
Interesting English can be found on signs everywhere in Japan!
Families line up outside a neighborhood shrine to pray on New Year's Day
A Shrine in our neighborhood
People with tatoos are not allowed to enter the hot springs, or "onsen" in Japan
A festival near our home
A traditional dance
A woman waving incense on herself at a temple to receive blessings
A woman praying at a Buddhist temple
Shinjuku
Heated toilet seats with "washlets" are very common in Japan... very nice!
Damage from the 2004 Niigata earthquake
A bullet train derails during the quake
Landslides from the quake
Collapsed houses
Collapsed highway
The plum flower... a sign that spring has come!
The Daibutsu in Kamakura
These statutes represent babies that have been aborted or that died in the womb
Families purchase them and come and bring offerings to them.
DSC02889
Cherry blossoms bloom at a park in Shinjuku
Japanese people enjoy "hanami" or, "flower-viewing parties" under the cherry blossom trees.
A traditional Shinto wedding
A garden on temple grounds in Kamakura
A man prays at an altar in Asakusa
Japanese people love beautiful gardens and nature.
A quiet teahouse in Tokyo...
surrounded by tall modern buildings in Tokyo. The traditional and the modern meet like this, all over Tokyo.
Judo wrestlers in training
A sunset in Harajuku
A new generation... youth dressed in anime costumes...
... crowd the streets of Harajuku on Sundays.
The 2007 Inaugural Toykyo Marathon
30,000 runners ran the streets of Tokyo...
in the pouring rain!
DSC03003 copy