It’s my week to blog at Murder is Everywhere, so I’m sharing some photos from my recent Golden Week trip to Kyoto. What’s Golden Week? Click the link and you’ll know!
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Discover the Secret Icicles of Narusawa Ice Cave in Yamanashi’s Suicide Forest
A few weeks ago, I took a visit to Narusawa Ice Cave, in Aokigahara (Japan’s famed “suicide forest”), to see the massive natural icicles that form there, underground.
Read moreKosatsuba – Japan’s Medieval Billboards
social classes, and since so many travelers passed through them, they were also excellent places for the Shogunate to post important news, new laws, and edicts, to ensure as many people as possible would see them.
Read moreHow a Sparrow Saved the Shogun
Medieval Japanese history might have taken an entirely different course, but for one big decision by one small bird.
Read moreThe First Sakura of 2022!
I took these pictures of the first cherry blossoms of 2022 on the grounds of Tsurugaoka Hachimangu, a Shintō shrine in Kamakura, last weekend.
Read moreA Modern Twist on an Ancient Rite of Spring
This week, I’m blogging at Murder is Everywhere – and sharing a modern twist on an ancient Japanese rite of spring.
Read moreLiving (Near) History in Tokyo’s Meguro Ward
While walking in my neighborhood a few years ago, I came up a little temple with a lovely grove of ume trees inside the outer gate. As it happens, this temple–called En’yū-ji–is 1,200 years old, and home to the oldest wooden building in Tokyo.
Read moreMakuyama, Blooming Trees, and Soft Serve: Yugawara’s Ume Festival
Last weekend (February 26), I headed south to the town of Yugawara, in Shizuoka Prefecture, to climb a mountain and attend an ume matsuri–a festival dedicated to the blooming plum tree blossoms (known as ume in Japanese).
Read moreOne Good Book Deserves Another
Books have played an important role in Japanese culture for centuries, which is one of the major reasons I decided to set the newest Hiro Hattori mystery, FIRES OF EDO, in the world of books, and the people who make and sell them.
Read moreHappy Release Day, FIRES OF EDO!
Today is Release Day for my newest Hiro Hattori novel, Fires of Edo! You can find it anywhere books are sold!
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