Its tradition in Japan to visit a shrine or temple during ’shogatsu’, or the new year. Most people will go on January 1, but new years celebrations last until January 3. So, on January 2, I struck out on a trip to visit Japan’s holiest Shinto shrine. I had known about Ise [...]

Its now 2006 here in Japan. The year of the dog (inu). The clock striking midnight isn’t apparently a big deal in Japan, since I was only able to find two television stations that were actually showing a countdown, and neither of them did anything spectacular right at midnight. I miss Dick [...]