Agon Shu's Hoshi Matsuri webpage - link below

The Hoshi Matsuri is a festival that looks to the ‘the star of destiny’, the star that is said to determine a persons happiness and misfortunes. Fortune telling by the Agon Buddhist astrology gos back a long way and is called ‘Mikkyo Senseijyutsu’.

As well as reading into a persons fortune, the Hoshi Matsuri Goma-kuyo festival (fire rites ceremony) is supposed to help in changing a persons luck and bringing good fortune. This is the part which is widely shown on television with huge fires burning in the center in to which are thrown the gomagi.

More details on the gomagi for bringing good luck (from the official site)

The timing for this festival is setsubun for the New Year.

I may try and attend next year and take some photos.

Official home page for the Hoshi Matsuri

Related posts:

1. Summer Matsuri Summer is a time of festivals in Japan and also...
2. Hina Matsuri Cake Saw this delicious looking Hina Matsuri cake for sale at...
3. Shibuya Nebuta Matsuri Tonight was the Shibuya Nebuta Matsuri (festival) in Center-gai. The...

Momiji

The trees line the path nicely

Autumn colors

What are your plans for Spring?

Related posts:

1. Aoyama Autumn A couple of weeks ago I took a walk along...
2. Nijo Castle, Kyoto Nijo Castle (Nijojo) in Kyoto is a great place to...
3. Spring on its way The weather doesn’t feel like it today, but Spring is...

Sweet chestnut and roasted green tea

Ginger lemonade and ginger chai.

White cocoa! What does it taste like?

Cha shu ramen.

Tsuke men is kind of ramen. Before eating, dip the noodles in the soup.

Meat dumpling is called " Gyo-za" in Japanese.

Tortillas from Mexico.

Ginza curry and hayashi rice （hashed beef with rice）.

Magazines for Lady's fashion. What kind of fashion trend is coming up this spring?

Strawberry cakes.

I want to try FuwaFuwa souffle!!

Apple tart and gateau chocolate. The displays look like whole cakes.

It named "Choco no Yama(chocolate mountain)".

In Japan, on Valentine’s Day the women present chocolates to the men, rather than the other way around as in many countries. How will you spend this year Valentine’s Day?

Related posts:

1. Mini Butter Roll Towel ? for Valentines Day Of course most people love chocolate and in Japan the...
2. Conbini Monday Wk68 The lights might be dimmed in most stores, but the...
3. Conbini Monday Wk58 It has been quite a few weeks since the last...

Shinjuku Station

The amazing part about the number of people who use public transport in Japan is not the staggering numbers themselves, but the ability for the system to continue working with so many users, and for it to have procedures in place that actually work smoothly for when things go wrong.

The Yamanote Line

During the time of the Tohoku earthquake last year, JR and some other railway companies were criticized for their handling of matters. I am sure there were manuals being checked for what to do at that time, however, just thinking about trying to manage 4 million people or more at that time must have been very difficult.

Next time you are riding the trains consider yourself a part of the many millions in the system and enjoy.

Related posts:

1. Nagoya Station I visited Nagoya a while ago and traveled to Ise...
2. Kyoto Station With such a great train culture, there are also some...
3. Station Concert Passing through Shinkiba station (新木場) I saw this classical music...

Keeping warm inside with my Fukujuen green tea and a dorayaki

The month of February used to be called Kisaragi in Japan. February was the second month of winter under the lunar calendar, which Japan used before the Heian Period. Under this calendar, Winter was the period from January to end of March, and Spring covered the three months starting from April.

The kanji for Kisaragi is written either 如月 or 衣更着, the latter meaning, literally, to wear more clothes. February is a cold month in Japan, where you can expect the wind to whip your face and make your cheeks red. The sky can be blue and the sun shining, but it still be cold outside.

It looks warm enough, but that wind is cold

The old classification of winter being January to March seems more natural when living in Japan. It certainly does not feel like Spring is here whilst the cold weather is just settling in.

February 3 marks the setsubun, changing of the season, moving on to Spring. This change was said to bring out the devils and so festivals and practices for driving out the devil forces came to be popular. The throwing of beans, mamemaki (まめまき) to ward off the devil is one of the popular customs still in practice at this time of the year.

At the nursery schools, teachers dress up as devils (鬼)　and visit the kids every year. The 鬼 say to the children, ‘if you are bad, we will take you to the mountains and eat you!”, at which the kids become worried and throw out the beans to fight the devils off.

The red devil dorayaki

Will you be throwing the beans out and chasing the devils away this year?

Related posts:

1. Cold riding your bike ? It is winter in Japan at the moment and whilst...
2. Hot Ginger drink Right now I have a cold so my best friend,...
3. Bamboo Walk in Arashiyama This is the bamboo walk in Arashiyama, from a photo...

It is very cold in Japan at the moment with snow falling heavily in many parts of the country. Back in summer when I visited Arashiyama, it was all blue skies and warm weather.

Visiting the gardens and Temples of Japan, the strong colors seem to be blue for the sky, green for the trees, some white/gray balance for the stone and the red used for many wooden building structures. The mix of this red,green and blue always make for a nice contrast.

Related posts:

1. Japan Sunset On the way back from IKEA to buy a bookcase...
2. Kodaiji Temple Kodaiji Temple (高台寺) established in Kyoto in 1606 is a...
3. Tokyo Midtown Illuminations The Christmas Illuminations have been up for a while at...

Buy 6 pack of green tea, you can get Nama-Cha Panda doll.

Panda rice cracker. Can you eat him??

Negi Miso Ramen with grated garlic!!

Onigiri box lunch. Classic Japanese box lunch wrapped with bamboo leaves. Like this?

Matcha and Matcha Latte. It’s tasty.

Have a break with coffee.

Strawberry pudding and Chocolate brownie parfait. Which one do you like?

ONE PIECE special package on the pocky.

Haruhi figure with a canned coffee. Have you ever watched “The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya”?
It’ s one of the popular Japanse animation.

Don perignon! I wonder who would buy this at convenience store…

After buying don perignon, you must go to the snacks corner. But these go more with beer than don perignon.

AOONI(blue ogre) beer.

Dorayaki. Two small pancakes wrapped around a filling of sweet red bean paste. Ogre appeared again!
February 3rd is Setsubun(the day before a change in seasons).
On this day, people throw beans while shouting “Fortune in and demons out.”

Ogre is one of the symble of Setsubun.
Recently, eating uncut futomaki called “Eho-makli” without any words on Setsubun has became popular in Japan.

Related posts:

1. Conbini Monday Wk39 It was a cold today in Tokyo today, and at...
2. Conbini Monday Wk72 A little bit of time since the last post. I...
3. Conbini Monday Wk69 Forgot to put these up yesterday. The Golden Week holiday...

Ryomaden

I watched the NHK drama series, Ryomaden 龍馬伝, in 2010 and also the Jin drama on TBS last year, which both focused on the story of Sakamoto Ryoma, 坂本龍馬. I bought the DVD set for the first series of Ryomaden to watch it again. It is a great story and well told with Fukuyama Masaharu playing the part of Ryoma. It provides much to think about, not just in history, but in modern day life.

Ryoma was born in Kochi from the Tosa-han, which is now Kochi-ken, Shikoku. He traveled to Edo (Tokyo) and saw first hand the Black Ships (kuro-fune) arrive from America with Commodore Perry. These “visits” by Perry led to the opening up of Japan to the West, pulling them out of their national isolation policy.

Ryoma became involved with the various factions for and against this change in Japan and became a leader of the movement to overthrow the Tokugawa Shogunate. He greatly assisted with bringing about the Meiji Restoration.

Ryoma was a true visionary, seeing a world of the future where others were arguing over the past. He looked overseas, particularly the US, for inspiration on breaking down class barriers and united the country as one. Although a Samurai, he was eager to see Japan modernize to compete on the world stage.

Statute of Sakamoto Ryoma looking out over ocean at Katsurahama Beach, Kochi

Sakamoto Ryoma is often depicted in a light-hearted manner, and his character appears to be more of a peacemaker than a fighter. He was well known for retaining Samurai clothing, yet wearing western footwear, in his own version of modernizing without comprising on history and culture.

His legacy is one that is much more important than this possibly romanticized character, a unified Japan that accepted the need to modernize to meet the challenges of the global world, whilst at the same time retaining the important cultural values of Japan. A nation that could rise and stand with other nations rather than just accept domination from a superior force.

Katsuurahama beach, Kochi

If you could look back and see Japan now, Ryoma, what would you be thinking? We have made some good progress since the Meiji Restoration and the opening of the country, but have we lost our way? Japan has been struggling with its economy for many years now. Leadership of the country appears to change from one person to another without any real purpose of direction. Infighting between parties is as strong as ever.

What would Ryoma think? What would Ryoma’s course of action be?

This is the opening sound track from Ryomaden. I couldn’t find a version with the actual opening scenes. My guess is NHK is guarding the copyright tightly.

Thank you, Ryoma

Related posts:

1. EggsnThings Japan Eggs’nThings Japan has opened its first store in Harajuku and...
2. Brutus Magazine I have introduced some articles from Brutus Magazine before, but...
3. JR Convenience Stores Looks like 7-Eleven have realized that NEWDAYS, the Japan Railway...

Coming out of the station at Takamatsu, there is a new plaza (Hiroba) that has been built. It has a real European feel to it

The JR Takamatsu Station

One of the great many arcades

The light and breezy shopping arcades are a great feature of Takamatsu

The greenery of Ritsurin Park and the wide open roads of Takamatsu

One of the main buildings inside Ritsurin Park

Inside the Park

I will write another post with more pictures from inside the park.

Some of the local produce

Fish art in one of the buildings

European influence here with some nice cakes

Seafood of course is very popular being right on the Setonaikai

A very warm welcome

Chicken with bones

The arcades are not as busy at night, but there are still plenty of people around

Cutlet curry rice burger

PR for the Setouchi Art Festival

Looking back down an arcade

The Eldorado. I heard a few foreigners hang out here to meet up and talk

Kushiage

Heading down one of the side streets

Very warm and inviting

The taxis look the same in many places in Japan

Takoyaki

Takamatsu is well known for its good udon

Tokaiya restaurant

Arcade entrance at night

I ate some of the best food I have had whilst in Japan right here in Takamatsu. Some of the dishes can be found in this related post.

Related posts:

1. Naoshima, Shikoku Naoshima is a small island in the Setonaikai. It takes...
2. Shikoku Trip I went on a trip to Shikoku recently and traveled...
3. Dougo Onsen, Shikoku Dougo Onsen is located in Matsuyama, on the island of...

Hotel inside Huis Ten Bosch, Nagasaki

At the end of last year I went on a trip to Huis Ten Bosch, Nagasaki. It is a theme park built towards the end of the economic bubble years in Japan, and struggled for a long time to attract enough visitors to make a profit. Recently, it was bought out by HIS and has begun to show a profit for the first time.

Economics aside, it is in a beautiful setting and the buildings inside the theme park are all built with character. They are not just wooden facades, but actually real buildings that you can shop, eat and stay in.

This picture above shows the scenic canals and one of the hotels.

During the winter season the park is not full, but during the warmer months you can expect to see many people. I have more photos from Huis Ten Bosch and will add them to a longer post shortly.

I made a book with some of the photos from my first visit to Huis Ten Bosch, which you can view here,

Streets of Huis Ten Bosch

Related posts:

1. Digital Book, Huis Ten Bosch A friend introduced me to Canon’s book printing service, PhotoPresso....
2. Sakura Season I went out to Ueno Park today to see the...
3. Painting in Yamashita Koen I took a walk around Yamashita Koen in Yokohama today...

Shinjuku

I have had dirty marks on my camera mirror for a while now and decided to take it to The Nikon service center to get it cleaned. I went to the center in Shinjuku which is near the station and also near Bic Camera.

Can you spot the marks on this photo I took from the 28th floor of the service center just before getting the camera cleaned? If not, can you see the new Sky Tree? The biggest dirty dot is to the right of that and a little higher than the Sky Tree.

I didn’t have to make an appointment in advance and the cleaning only took 90 minutes, which gave me plenty of time to go and look in BIC Camera at the brochures for the new Sony N7, Nikon D4 and a variety of other new cameras coming out.

I also visited the Epson Print Gallery which is close by. It is amazing in Japan how you can visit so many big brand companies in a 10 minute radius.

Related posts:

1. Ear Cleaning Service You can find almost any kind of service in Japan...
2. Camera Lens This is some of the camera lens equipment I use,...
3. Japan Lost Luggage Many of you following me on Twitter saw that I...

Trying to find the way home through Center-gai in Shibuya during snow

We had snow in Tokyo tonight. Normally we get a bit of snow between January and March, but it doesn’t normally settle so easily. I expect by the morning this snow will also have melted away and things should be back to normal. It was not so cold out, so I took a quick walk out to see what everyone was up to.

Clean white snow

Checking the train times or just checking in?

Carefully treading down this road trying not to slip

Shibuya traffic

The crossing looks almost empty compared to normal

Waiting at the crossing in Shibuya

Hachiko looks cold standing out here in the snow

QFront lit up against the snow

Keeping the trains running

Most train lines were able to keep running smoothly

Ebisu Station

Taxi?

Waiting in the cold for the lights to cross

Catching a taxi sounds like a good option

The snow is starting to settle quite a bit now

I would not look forward to riding this bike home in the snow

On the way home

Not that cold outside, but the snow has been confirmed ^^

Related posts:

1. Tokyo Snow It was snowing in Tokyo today. I was out this...
2. Tokyo Snow It doesn’t snow in Tokyo very often during the year,...
3. Snow in Tokyo The weather had got warmer for a while, but as...