Like most westerns I was allergic to the sight of Japanese travel groups. I vividly remember local Parisians making fun of them when visiting there one summer back in my student days in the early 80’s. When taking my parents on a sightseeing tour of some famous Kyoto temples in […]
Japan Journal
Sayonara Chidorigafuchi
I attended the annual August 15 Nichiren Shu sponsored memorial ceremony honoring all victims of the Pacific War and prayer for world peace at Chidorigafuchi National Cemetery for 15 years. The first few years I also joined the Nichiren Shu related world peace march to Ikegami Honmonji temple that took […]
Japan Journal
Two Funerals
When my Dad passed away last November, there was no way our family, my older brothers, could hold a funeral right away. Dad died in Salt Lake City, the family columbarium was in Houston, I was in Japan. I looked at the calendar but already know what day we would […]
Buddhism - Japan Journal
Return of The Dragon
It was a very tough winter for the priests working at Keishin-in temple on the top of Shichimensan. There was so much heavy snow that it snapped the utility poles. Repairs couldn’t be done until the spring. Chief Priest Kochi Uchino described the scene. “We were without power and pumps […]
Japan Journal
Golden Weeks
Golden Week is never a good time to travel in Japan. Tickets are scarce, discounts are impossible to find. Japanese media shows packed Shinkansen trains and traffic jammed expressways. But somehow Golden Week nowadays doesn’t feel like the Golden Week of the early 1980’s. Back then Golden Week, Obon and […]