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 [...]

Wall Street Journal: Link to story with slideshow

(anyone know where this is?)

Squeezed next to a centuries-old shrine in this historical city stands a slight, two-story abode that looks modern, but is meant to embody the spirit of Kyoto’s homes of the past.
The all-white structure with a dramatic glass façade is long and [...]

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

2010 Daimonji Fire Festival Video is here.
Video coming tomorrow. Here are some screengrabs in the meantime. Got home too late to do the whole edit tonite. Refer to previous post for details.

2010 Daimonji Fire Festival Video is here.
Tonight there will be a video here of the 2010 Kyoto Daimonji Fire Festival. This video will be my first Video On Demand (VOD) experiment. That is, there will be a fee of $1.50 (Paypal or credit card) to download the full video.
A previous short video is here.
I sincerely [...]

2010 Daimonji Fire Festival Video is here.
map of the daimonji fire festival

Daimonji video 2008

Every August 16 since the 1600s, Kyoto marks the end of o-Bon season by lighting up the hillsides with giant kanji, starting at 8 p.m. It’s called Daimonji Gozan Okuribi, literally “Giant characters five mountains sendoff fires.” This marks their function as [...]

the Toki Matsuri pottery fair at Gojo-zaka is on through Tuesday, Gojo street between
http://www.toukimaturi.gr.jp/

Weekends in August 12:00-18:00 at Hanagumo Bar on Miyagawacho in Gion, Kyoto.  Party Saturday, Aug. 7, Closed Aug. 8.
All my photos were taken by my ketai 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. [...]

Elementary school kids ride free on Kyoto city buses (normally kids are half adult fare) through 8.31  by saying “Eco-summer” to the driver when getting off the bus. This is good for up to two kids per group, so if you have a big group, make sure they sit apart and pretend not to [...]

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.

The Gion Festival (matsuri=festival) is the biggest event of the year in Kyoto, and one of the biggest in Japan. It started in 869 as an appeal to the gods after a plague, according to the official story. The huge pikes that spear the sky are meant to appease the gods, which [...]

If you happen to have a monkey as a pet, let it watch television. It can help relieve the stress of captivity, according to Kyoto University’s Primate Research Institute.

A research team led by Nobuo Masataka, a professor of cognitive neuroscience at the institute, monitored the brain activities of a 3-year-old male rhesus macaque when it was shown video of a circus elephant, giraffe and a tiger performing.

There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.

Northern Kyoto sakura (North of Imadegawa Street) are in fine bloom right now. Anything south of Imadegawa is fading and falling now, which is beautiful in it’s own way and worth seeing.
More new pictures at my flickr page: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kyoto/

Look at my flickr stream for the latest batch of pics. I’m adding daily as the season progresses.
My Flickr User Name is Kyoto

Omiya Kotsu Koen
This park has go-karts on simulated city streets with traffic signals and crosswalks for kids to learn about traffic safety. Also an old steam locomotive and old streetcars from Kyoto, pedal carts. It’s a good place for a o-hanami because there is a grass-covered knoll with many sakura. They weren’t in bloom yet, [...]

[ March 13, 2010 6:00 pm to March 22, 2010 9:30 pm. ] The annual Higashiyama hana-touro evening lantern walk event will be held March 13-22 from 18:00-21:30 nightly in eastern Kyoto, between Shoren-in Temple and Kiyomizu-dera Temple. The streets and stone-paved alleys of eastern Kyoto will be lined with electric lanterns, and artistic illumination displays are presented at temples along the route. Creatively-lighted floral displays can be [...]

There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.

[ January 31, 2010; 6:30 pm; ] January 31 (Sunday)
RAW elements (max, ryotaro & Yung Tsubotaj) and Ms. Meka Nism at UrBANGUILD in Kiyamachi.
OPEN 18:30 Ms. Meka Nism 19:00/ Elements 19:30
adv 1800yen with 1drink / door 2300yen with 1drink
TEL075-212-1125

Coming of Age Day (2nd Monday in January) is a national holiday on Japan, when those who reached the age of legal adulthood (20) over the past year are bored by speeches at a city assembly hall in their hometowns, then party with their friends. Sometimes the party starts before the speeches. Traditionally, the new [...]