Come Rain or Shrine
In general the weather in Japan has been amazing for us. It feels like 90% of the days have been gloriously sunny, temperate and wonderful for pictures. Today was not one of those days – and I think it felt all the more dreich because the rest have been so good. Yesterday, the gloomy weather ...
You Buddha Believe it
You wait a month for a UNESCO World Heritage site, and then three come along at once, or in the space of a week, at least. Today we were in Koya-san, a holy site for Buddhists of the Shingon sect. A place of worship for over 1200 years, it was founded by the enigmatic Kukai, ...
Nara Say Nara Again
…It bit me! At least I thought it did. There was definitely a flash of teeth. Were my jeans wet with the monster’s drool? It was hard to tell, but still: the horror! We shuffled off, a good deal perturbed by the experience, and after that avoided the unrelenting deer. Rather than contemplate the world’s ...
Nara Say Nara
So far as capitial cities go, Nara’s shift as the top dog was pretty brief. For just 74 years from 710AD it was the ruling city of all Japan, including a five year holiday when power was transferred to what is now Osaka. Actually, moving the capital was a standard practice at that time: each ...
Gods Help Us!
Last year we met a guy in the Philippines who lost his faith in Catholicism because of Frodo Baggins. It was hard to deny his logic: if Tolkien could create a world so vivid and steeped in history as Middle Earth, then of course the Greatest Story Ever Told, could be just that – especially ...