Tag Archives: inaka

April 24

Spring in the Japanese countryside

posted by

Spring comes in a flurry of flowers to the Japanese countryside in the tiny town of Kubota in Mie Prefecture.  

»»
November 22

Daily prompt: Safety First

posted by

“Mind your fingers!” The view on my daily commute when I swap my saddle for a seat on the train in rural Japan.

»»
December 08

Horses are cool

posted by

Forget all the futuristic technologies and oddities that have forged Japan’s modern reputation as ‘cool’.  The Land of the Rising Sun was cool way before then.  Since around the 13th and 14th centuries AD, to be precise. Yabusame (流鏑馬) is a ritualised form of mounted archery where would be warriors demonstrate their prowess whilst dressed […]

»»
November 23

Bolt from the blue

posted by

I’ve previously said that Tsu and Mie are on the cleaner side, environmentally speaking by Japanese standards, but I didn’t think the centre of Tsu was this clean.  Recently, I stopped by Tsu Castle to check how the autumn colours were progressing.  It’s one of the best places in Tsu to see them even though […]

»»
November 11

Yo-sa-koi~

posted by

Add crowds, a plethora of food stalls and pumping music to a riot of colourful costumes with a dash of city pride, and what do you get?  The two days of fun times that is the Tsu Matsuri (祭 – festival). Tsu might be a small and very quiet town, but, come the long weekend […]

»»
October 19

Stone Mountain

posted by

Want to see a place that is a combination of hundreds of years of work in Tsu?  Well you’re in luck. Just make sure you have a set of wheels, be that two or four. A senior co-worker first told me about an interesting mountain tucked away in north-eastern Tsu (closer to Shiroko and Suzuka […]

»»
October 08

Red October

posted by

Though by calendar reckoning, autumn has been with us for over a month, these glorious amaryllis lilies (higanbana – 彼岸花) herald the arrival of the ‘business end’ of autumn here in Japan.  They bloom around the Autumn Equinox and when they disappear, so do does the green of summer begin to wane.  The cooler nights […]

»»
October 01

Neighbour-less again

posted by

Peering out their living room window over the fence, a wife calls to her husband, “Honey, that greenie neighbour of ours has gotten himself a buzz cut and now he’s saying that he’s leaving town for eight months.  I think he might be on the run. Should we call the police?” Not an unreasonable response, […]

»»