Every February, Ushi-Tenjin Kitano Jinja (shrine) holds a koubai (red plum blossom) festival to celebrate the blooming ume (Japanese plum) trees that grow around the shrine. Last weekend, a friend and I hopped a train to Bunkyo to check out the festival, and the early blooms.
Read moreAbout
Susan Spann is the award-winning author of CLIMB (Prometheus Books, 2020) and the Hiro Hattori mystery novels (Minotaur / Seventh Street Books), featuring ninja detective Hiro Hattori and Portuguese Jesuit Father Mateo.
The Ninja Blog
Join me as I blog about Japan, my books, my travels, and all the things I see along the way!
The Koubai (Red Plum Blossom) Festival at Ushi-Tenjin Kitano Shrine in Tokyo
Ringing in the New Year With Tokyo’s “Knotted Jizo”
The New Year holidays are a particularly important time in Japan. We observe a three-day New Year celebration, which officially starts on January 1.
Preparation for the holidays often starts well in advance; we give the house a thorough, deep cleaning, to ensure everything starts the new year fresh and clean. For me, that starts about a week before December 31. When I finish cleaning, I hang the New Year decorations.
Read morePraise for the Hiro Hattori Novels & CLIMB
Spann keeps getting better . . . a taut closed-circle mystery with perilous consequences. Fans of classic whodunits will be pleased.
review of BETRAYAL AT IGA
A tremendous reach into uncertainty amidst a cancer diagnosis, and ultimately her summits become a reward far more than the tops of the mountains she attains
mountaineer, bestselling author, founder of NO BARRIERS
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