I was surprised the other day to read in the news a brief story about the Kyoto team in the Girls Professional Baseball League, not only because I didn’t know that Kyoto had a team, but also because I didn’t know there was a league for women (or “Girls,” as they put it). So I went digging, and there is a website for the team, the Kyoto Asto Dreams, but I couldn’t find league standings, only results for Kyoto’s  games against one team, the Hyogo Swing Smileys. (Don’t you like …

This is the Daimonji Fire Festival video for 2010. 9 minutes, 16:9.

September 2010 Update: Exhibition has moved to Cafe Dell’ Orso for September-October 2010
My Nippon, a photo exhibition in Kyoto by Micah Gampel all through August, but only on weekends at Hanagumo Bar on Miyagawacho in Gion Kyoto. All my photos were taken by my ketai (mobile phone) camera as I work and play around Kyoto and Osaka mostly. It’s my Nippon world, but I feel like the viewer, not really part of the parade. I think I look a little shocked and …

The 2010 Gion Matsuri (festival) parade of yama and hoko “floats” is coming up. This is a spectacle of ancient pageantry not to be missed.

Also, on the three days and nights leading up to the parade, Yoiyama (16th), Yoi-yoi-yama (15th) and Yoi-yoi-yoi-yama (14th), revelers stroll up and down shijo street and the other main downtown streets, many in colorful summer yukata, eating, drinking, carousing, visiting the floats and listening to the distinctive music of the festival.

Along with Jeffrey Friedl, Jim Brown and the Ickey Shuffle, the Etch-a-Sketch is one of the icons of Ohio. However, only a Japanese would still have the original box, instruction book and plastic maze overlay all in pristine condition after more than 30 years.