Goshuin: Temple Stamp Books

Listen, Japan loves paper. It is a very tactile country, and you can find many examples of this all across the culture. One such is the pervasiveness of stamps: You can get stamps from train stations, collect them from special events, and find them on special pedestals in museums. The granddaddy of them all, quite […]

Japanese Fortunes and Luck: Ema and Omikuji

Aside from washing your hands and praying, there are a few fortune-related activities one can partake in at a traditional Shinto Shrine or Buddhist Temple: Hanging an Ema and braving the Omikuji. For your consideration, here is a brief primer on each as they relate to my personal experiences visiting many, many different Shinto shrines […]

Bodhidharma: The Original Daruma

Daruma are an interesting tradition in Japan, and their roots in Zen Buddhism are not to be overlooked. Since my original post on the Daruma Festival, I’ve been reading more and more about the doll, its tradition, symbolism, and connection to the figure Bodhidharma and decided that another post to sort out my thoughts was […]

Zenkoji Temple

Zenkoji is the most famous temple in Nagano City. It has beautiful grounds and a lot going for it, but for this post, I want to try something different. I want to focus on the O-Asaji morning ceremony and my experience with it. This will be a long read (clocking in at just over 1500 […]

New Year’s in Japan: Joya no Kane, Hatsumode, and Shishi-mai

I’ve heard a lot and have spoken to a lot of people about the New Year’s traditions. There were so many small pieces that lead up to the evening itself that I decided to focus on two of the biggest and give them a go: Joya no Kane (New Year’s Bell) and Hatsumode (First Temple […]

Kita-in Temple

Just uptown a little ways from the train station in Kawagoe is a collection of temples and shrines. At one point, it even hosted a castle from the imperial capital. I went one day to check out the grounds and learn a little more about this location, as well as gaze upon the sites most […]

Kencho-ji Temple

During my first month in Japan, a colleague of mine offered to take us to Kamakura, the Kyoto of the East. Kamakura is littered with all sorts of historical and cultural goodies, the most famous of which is the giant Buddha. While visiting, I did not see the big man himself, but did manage to […]

More Traditional Mongolian Symbols

I’ve noticed that I’ve been getting lots of traffic from search engine searches on Mongolian symbols. My friend told me that she was looking for some info on a particular symbol, and my blog came up in her search, but that I didn’t have the symbol she was looking for. With that in mind, I […]

New Year’s Blessing

A tradition that exists in Mongolia, after the new year season, is to invite a monk over to one’s home or place of employment to have them perform a blessing for the new year. Last year, I did not see any such event at my usual haunts in Erdenet. This year, however, while visiting Khentii […]

Offering Condolences

Death. It’s a topic that makes most cultures squirm a bit, and I’ve seen more than my fair share of Mongolians aptly avoid the subject. Some believe that speaking about it invites it into your life. I’ve recently had two of my teachers experience such a terrible loss. I was at a loss for what […]