Sometimes you come across a place that looks like it was born directly from your own fantasies and imaginings. A place that looks, feels, and even sounds like a place that you had visited before, but only in your dreams. I found one such place in Yokkaichi, Mie last week. For the vast majority of […]
japan
Conversations in Japan: Big Drama in a Small Town
This post is an attempt to recapture and preserve a few, short exchanges I had in Japan this summer. Interjecting my own descriptions and interpretations for context, I nonetheless hope to focus on what the individuals with whom I spoke had to say about their lives, the challenges they face, and their hope for the […]
Shintō – Goshūin
Goshūin (御朱印), Japanese for red seal, literally refers to only the stamped impression of a particular shrine or temple’s formal seal. Historically, devout (and literate) worshippers that donated a handwritten copy of a Buddhist sutra (although Buddhist monks, much like in Medieval Europe, spent much time copying scripture, this task was also popular as a […]