Noh and Kyogen at Mount Oyama

Fall brings about many changes in Japan: The changing of leaves, cozy clothing, and some pretty great cultural activities. I was lucky enough to get the opportunity to have a unique cultural experience: Traditional Noh and Kyogen performances as they were hundreds of years ago on an outside stage.

Things I Liked in 2019

Last year, I attempted to cobble together a “Best of 2018” post that turned out really disappointing for me. I waited too long and didn’t give myself enough time to really write it out in a thoughtful and appealing manner. This year, to combat that, and to avoid an Instagram Top 9 post, I’ve done […]

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 […]

Kawagoe Festival 2017

One of the three major festivals in Saitama prefecture, the Kawagoe festival is an autumn festival that occurs every year on the third Saturday/Sunday of October. The whole town gets in on the action, with gifts, snacks, drinks, and floats flooding the city streets. Despite threats of bad weather, I was able to see a […]

World Championship Hoop Dance Contest 2017

Having such a wonderful establishment like the Heard Museum so close has allowed me to gain an insight into cultures and customs from my own country that I never knew existed. One such tradition is Hoop Dancing, which is practiced by a wide variety of tribes all across North America. Once a year, they meet […]

Dia De Los Muertos Festival

This year, being busy Halloween weekend, I wanted to check out Phoenix’s Dia De Los Muertos Festival. It’s part of my cultural heritage that I never really did much with growing up nor as an adult up until this point and I wanted to change that. From the description of the festival on their website, […]

Indigenous People’s Day

There is a very large Native American presence here in Arizona, so it was no surprise to hear that Phoenix is the largest US city that observes Indigenous People’s Day in place of Columbus Day (this year, October 10th), which was first celebrated in Colorado in 1909. There has been a popular movement in recent […]

Hip Hop and Khuumii

Hip Hop For the uninitiated, Mongolian hip hop came into the scene after the fall of socialism. It has really begun to flourish here in Mongolia proper, and has even began to spring up in Chinese-controlled Inner Mongolia. It has gained the attention of the media most recently thanks to the documentary Mongolian Bling (which […]