Japan Navigator

Gangoji is one of the oldest temples of Japan. Founded by Soga no Umako in 593 in the Asuka area, it played an important role in spreading Buddhism which initially was seen as a form of foreign magic to protect the state. In 718 the capital was transferred to Nara (Heijokyo) and Gangoji followed – [...]

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Sushi and Beyond: What the Japanese Know About Cooking by travel writer and journalist Michael Booth is a funny and easily digestible book. Booth’s interest in Japanese food starts when a Japanese friend after an argument about the quality of Japanese cuisine, hands him the classic Japanese Cooking: A Simple Art by Shizuo Tsuji. Booth [...]

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For some mysterious reason, both the links (blogroll) widget and the categories widget on my site stopped working. I upgraded to WordPress 2.8 last week, but at first things were working fine. Sorry for the inconvenience! Anybody had the same problems?
P.S. I de-installed all widgets and then re-installed them, first the links, but that didn’t [...]

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What are the best kofun in Japan?
Before I answer that question, first some facts.
Kofun are burial mounds dating back to the 3rd-7th centuries. They are also called takatsuka or tsuka. Kofun were covered with a large mound of earth. The burial chamber is either a pit or an artificial cave. There are about [...]

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In the middle of Kobe, almost obscured by flats and residences, lies one of the largest ancient graves (kofun) in Japan, the Goshikizuka Tumulus.

[Goshikizuka Kofun]
It sits in Tarumi on a hill overlooking Awaji island across the channel – affording a good view of the Akashi Kaikyo Bridge. The tumulus dates from the late 4th [...]

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As the Japan Times informs us, three female “ambassadors of cute” appointed by the Foreign Ministry have started traveling abroad to introduce Japanese pop culture to young people overseas.
Is this a good thing? Will people still take Japan serious when they are flooded with manga, cosplay and “kawaii” characters? Isn’t this degrading the whole [...]

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Ionushi aka Aurelio Asiain was already known to me because of his interesting blog (in Spanish) in which he mainly writes on Japanese literature. He often illustrates his posts with beautiful photo’s but until today I did not realize he is also a great photographer with a huge amount of must-see pictures on Flickr. Most [...]

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As an experiment I have started two new blogs on Blogger/Blogspot:
Japanese Food Dictionary – short posts about Japanese food ingredients, dishes, various types of cuisine etc. I have been writing about Japanese food in Japan Navigator, too, but wanted to make short posts like dictionary entries and thought that had better be separate, at least [...]

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In April 1988 my wife and I for the first time attended the Miyako Odori performance in Gion. At that time it was much less commercialized (or should I say “less vulgarized”?) than it is now. We also did not have to face the immense throngs of people that are herded through the performance today.
We [...]

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“Noryo yuka” are wooden terraces built over a small canal running parallel to the River Kamo in Kyoto. Those structures are set up between May 1 and September 30 at the back of the many restaurants that sit between Nijo and Gojo streets so that patrons can enjoy dinner in the cool evening breeze. There [...]

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