the view from japan » squampton

minato matsuri

squampton — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 06:00:57 +0000

The summer festival season in Miyagi gets underway this weekend with the Shiogama Minato Matsuri (Port Festival). Towns all along the Pacific coast will hold their own port festival, featuring music, dancing, fireworks, and delicious festival food. This photo was taken in Kesennuma, Miyagi Prefecture, last summer.

atami sunrise

squampton — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 06:00:50 +0000

Life in Tokyo is not only hectic, in the summer it’s hot and humid, with temperatures regularly eclipsing 30 Celcius with 90% humidity. With all the tall buildings blocking any cool breezes, what’s a person to do? Why not head out to Atami, a small resort town in Shizuoka Prefecture. Beautiful beaches and sunrises like this await you!

feeding time

squampton — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 06:00:29 +0000

Matsushima Bay is known as one of the “Three Views of Japan (日本三景, Nihon Sankei)”, reknown for the hundreds of tiny islands that pepper the coast. Take a boat ride around Matsushima Bay in Miyagi and you’re bound to have a hundred or so seagulls tracking your every move. I haven’t gotten one to take one from my teeth yet; on second thought perhaps that’s not such a wise idea…

keeping the rocks clean

squampton — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 03:39:07 +0000

On sweltering August days you’ll find men like this maintaining the rock paths around Meiji Shrine. Rock sweeping has an altogether different meaning back home in Canada!

inside the tanabata

squampton — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 06:00:50 +0000

The Sendai Tanabata is a Japanese star festival, and is one of Tohoku’s biggest summer festivals. Thousands of beautiful, delicate paper decorations line the shopping arcades downtown. Here’s a view inside one of them. This photo right here is as exciting as it gets though, so go see The Kanto or Nebuta Festivals in Akita or Aomori instead!