Ema are wooden votive tablets found in all temples, used as lucky charms or to express gratitude to the God. There are pictures of animals or the people write on them. Below there are Omikuji, oracles written on paper. People give an offert and have this oracle giving advice on various matters, like exams, work, love .... After reading it people tide them up to a brunch or in organized space in the jinja courtyard.

In the Sensoji jinja compound there are many buildings, small and big temples, there is always a lot of people visiting and praying even in the small temples. All Asakusa area is full of turists, and around temples especially. This  was my first visit in Winter 05 and was raining, shame for the grey mood, but the whole area is very nice and interesting.

In Asakusa there are many old theatre where performs young and old artists, comedians of the traditional genre of manzai (dialogue between two actors) and rakugò (monologue) ofthen also some sexy interludes are performed.

One of this was Takeshi Kitano, he wrote a wonderful book, his autobiography, called Asakusa Kid, where he describe his youth, his difficult beginnings, his foundamental encounter with an old actor that became his master and mentor.

Here in the picture a theatre in the Asakusa area, is not the one where Takeshi worked, or may be ...

I like rain, in japanese ame, I love it especially in the evening, in the fading ligth, I love the reflections on the stones of the pavements. I love the colors and the incredible nuances of blue, purple and pink, or the red, green reflections of urban lights.

In this picture taken from the window of my family in Kitakata at sunset, just stopped raining, the clouds in the sky opened at the orizon and the blue sky shined reflecting on the old stones of the street.

Monument, usually, are celebration of important people, heroes or significant events in history. But why not celebrate somthing that changed life of millions of youngsters and less young people all over the word: the walkman and his headphone, something that become a philosophy of life.

Forgive me but I forgot to look for the author of this pop sculpture, if not splendid, is amusing and fun. I found this monument in Shinagawa, a new area of Tokyo, is on claimed land, it was sea and the industrious Japanese people decided to strech their town into the see, they build a wonderfull modern area with canal and nice view on the ocean.

Do you like it?

In Koriyama there is the Planetarium on top of this tall building, inside the sphere! Looks great and is the tollest planetarium in the word, on fine days the vew is fantastic. This building is convenientely locate beside the train station, just outside, turn left and you can see it, can't miss it.

Otaru is a small town in Okkaido, the big northern island of Japan, so in Winter is very cold and snowy! The main attraction there is .....  seafood!There is a nice fish market, people is very friendly and open, and are proud of their own products. This giant crab was really impressive, I just would be scared at handling it alive, much less to hanle it dead on a plate ...... raw or barbecued! The crab taste is fantastic in both ways, in soup as well. A variety of recepiesare very good, sashimi, sushi, grilled, in soups. Once in a restaurant I had on my plate an alive srimp! Not scared but impressed, it was cleaned of his shell tail, and the head was there and little arms still moving! I waited a little and as soon hi stopped moving I deeped into soy sauce and ...... was the end of it. Cannibal!

This is a side building housing a big bell, the green thing inside the window. The bell is used in buddist ceremonies by the priest. Is a very nice architecture, very clean, probably re-build not too long ago. in Japan traditional architecture is all made with wood structure, so after a certain number of years is not possible to restore it, must be rebuilt, keeping all parts that are not damaged, inside furnishing and architectural decorations. The courtyard is big and on the side of it there is a nice small garden very well kept. In the other picture we can see the innter temple, the altar with a statue of Lord Buddha and other accessories for rituals, like a big black bell on the left of the altar, tha wooden box on the floor in front of the altar is the Saisenbako, is an offertory box and people throw money into it before they says a prayer. 

In December 2005 I went for the first time to Japan in winter, that day was a very sunny but extremely and windy day, for that reason the sky was deeply blue (with a bit of help from a polarizing filter). This Temple is in Koriyama, a big town north of Tokyo on the Shinkansen (fast train) line half way to Okkaido. In this town there are very few old buildings, few Jinja, is all modern or just a bit old, modern urbanization devoured everything. Very little personality in the landscape. Just temple and graveyards are tokens of a great past with an incredible rich culture and art, even in the architectural styles. Probably only Kyoto has mantained the splendour of the past, in fact it was the ancient capital of Japan.

In Koriyama I found a miniature jinja in a niche cut in a commercial building. Is not so rare in Japan to find something lik this, probably it was the site of an ancient temple, may be destroyed, and the site remains holy land, the building develops itself around the site, to save space, and preserve the holy place. The temple is miniaturized (1 meter high), the wooden Torii (gate) is half way between life size and miniature, (1,5 meter) a child can get through standing, an adult should stoop, but is not a place to enter, just stop outside, bow and say a prayer..... I haven't meet a srinked priest, may be was gon for a little walk?

Tis is a Buddist priest celebrating a ritual of purification in Noghijinja in Asakasa, Tokyo. Is a great small temple on an hill ands surrounded by a park with very old trees in a modern residencial and commercial area of Tokyo. The big ves with large sleeves is called Hō. The wooden laquered clogs are called Asagutsu.

The Omikuji are little paper folded into a stripe and tied up to wires or little structures in Temples in Japan. The paper have an oracle written on it telling the future or giving advice on different subjects like love, work, study, family. Visiting a Jinja, especially on New Year's day, people ask for advice or fortune telling, after giving a small donation, people take a wooden box and after shaking it they extract from a little hole a numbered wooden stick and the Omikuji corresponding to that number is given by an attendant. After reading it, the paper is folded into a stripe and tied to a structure or a tree in the temple ground, in this temple, Nogijinja in Akasaka, Tokyo was shaped like a ball, interesting effect.

Tsukune is a barbecued hamburger of chicken meat, like Yakitori bar dish, at home is made more simly in a pan. Accompained by soy sauce or lemon and salt and salad. Taste very good, and in yakitori restaurant are shaped like a sausage and cooked on a bamboo spit, this is the home cooking version. A traditional side salad in Japanese cisine is the raw cabbage (the one used for sauerkrauts) sliced very very thin no dressing is used. Again this is a photo for an Italian magazine of few years back.

Matcha is the Green Tea minced into a thin powder, used in Japan for the Tea Ceremony and now used in many recepies. Here used to make a great siphon cake, with flour, whip up eggs, sugar and macha. Is great accompained by whiped cream or ice cream. Matcha (green tea in general)have a great amount of vitamin C, very good for health, so is good to eat in the milk or yogurt with honey.

This are called Kaki-no-tane, literally kaki seeds, just the name, this are Japanese classic snacks at the bar or at home. You can see peanuts and the other are little crackers, of course there is soy sauce in the ingredients, they are crunchy like pretzels but taste differently. The one I love the most are wasabi flavour, fantastic with an iced beer or a cold sake. mmmmmhh very stimulating!

In Wakamatsu, on a back street I fount an old small Jinja suffocate by tall modern buildings, the site is very nice, shame for the surroundings. A red Torii and a Chozuya, a basin in stone filled with fresh (here very fresh, freezing) water to wash hands and rinse the mouth entering into the temple garden, to purify yourself before to enter the main temple, using the dipper on the right in the picture. Washing hands and mouth simbolise cleaning yourself from everyday life and worries and present yourself in front of God with clean, pure soul.

A stone lantern, Ishidoro, coverd with snow close to a temple in Kitakata, and around trees protected from the snow by a structure of wood and ropes to sustain the branches to avoid breking under the wait of the snow. Winter in this region is long and usually cold and snowy, in this moment is Febuary and in Milano the weather is  nice, not too cold (10C° in the day 0C° at night) and I saw on a web cam in Kitakata and Wakamatsu is snowing copiously and windy! Like to have a look for yourself? Go here. Fukushima region with many web cams locate in different locations, everytime I look Kitakata (top left on the map) or the Wakamatsu Station (JR on the map), I became nostalgic!

Little town and little street, same landscape, same view in any Japanese town, a overlooking web of cables and wires and poles. Not nice to see them, but nothing I can do to hide them in the photo, are just part of the scenery.

This is the Kitakata Staion and the JR train is going to Wakamatsu, this line goes from Niigata, on the Japanese Sea, to Fukushima, close to the Pacific Ocean. There the line connect to the Shinkansen line from Tokyo to Aomori in the North of Japan. Wakamatsu is an old town, there is a Castle from the Middle Age, is also famous for laquered goods. Japanese laquer is of great quality and there are also modern interpretations of it, very interesting indeed. I took photos of a couple of great artisan making laquer and decorating it.

Cold day but sunny in Kitakata, in 2005 was my first time in Japan in Winter I was amazed to see how differen looks the landscape from Summer, especially because are very famous images of Japan in Spring or Autumn (the best seasons to visit) and rarely are seen pictures of Winter.Erroneusly we think of Japan of a warm country, always sunny and covered of cherry flowers ..... In fact Japan is a very long Country, longer than Italy considering only the main three islands, the there are tousand of small islands in the South, Okinawa is the most famous for the infamous battle in WW II. Torii are this pillars at the entrance of any temple (Jinja) in Japan, most of the times sre red, but an be raw wood or stone or concrete. They simbolize the passage, the division from the material world to the spiritual world. Somethimes a single Torii is found and somethimes a gallery forming  portico is found, very nice to walk inside and be inside this tunnel that reveal the temple at the end little by little, because are very rarely on a straight path, always forming a curve, a tortuose road like life is harduous journey to reach the true spirituality.