Here are a bunch of photos for fans of contemporary Japanese architecture. Riverwalk Kitakyushu is a large mall complex near downtown Kokura. Kokura is the larger of two commercial districts in Kitakyushu and was the original target for the atomic bomb which was dropped on Nagasaki.
Category Archives: Japan
More Shimonoseki Fish
Someone asked me to post more pictures of fish from or trip to the Shimonoseki Aquarium. So here they are.
More on Todaiji in Nara
By request, here are some more pictures of Todaiji Temple in Nara. The original entry about Nara is was on April 14, 2004. As I mentioned in that entry, Todaiji is the world’s tallest wooden building and houses a giant bronze statue of Buddha.
Golden Week Crowds: Shimonoseki
Golden Week is a series of about a week’s worth of statutory holidays around the beginning of May. It’s notorious for being a time where every Japanese person travels to another part of the country or else to another country entirely. All of the transportation networks are clogged and all of the tourist traps are overrun. This year was no exception but there was also a lot more travel outside of Japan due to fears about SARS having been much smaller than last year.
Fashion math: Richard Simmons + Yelvis
Who would have thought that clothing and math could be so easy and work together so well? Today’s fashion equation is RS + Y = GT. In plain English: Richard Simmons + Yelvis = one of the local Gym Teachers.
Waking up in Nikko
Everyone has their own sense of decor. And temporality. Tonight I’m going to write more about my spring vacation, but I’m jumping back to the beginning whereas my last post was about the end. I know this is pretty nonlinear but I’ll leave it to someone else to piece together the chronology.
Nara park, near Todaiji temple
On April 4th, at the tail end of our trip, we went to Nara. It was cold and rainy and the rain didn’t let up until we had seen as much as we wanted to and were walking down the hill back to the train station to go back to Kyoto.
Kirifuri Falls
The Kirifuri Falls north of Nikko may not be among the most famous waterfalls in Japan but they’re still impressive. After having encountered package tourists at most of the sights in Nikko, I wanted to go somewhere where I could avoid the crowds. As a result, I went to these falls instead of the more famous Kegon Falls.
Kirifuri spring
During spring holidays this year, I spent some time in Nikko, which is about 2 hours north of Tokyo. Nikko is famous for the Kegon Falls—one of Japan’s most famous waterfalls, as well many temples and shrines from the Tokugawa period.