Japan Photo Guide

Chalk this up in the category of bizarre Japan. This weekend I had the chance to go to Kanamara Matsuri, commonly referred to by foreigners as “The Penis Festival.” Every year Kanamara Shrine holds this festival on the 1st Sunday in April in Kawasaki, Kanagawa. According to Wikipedia:

The Kanamara Matsuri is centered around a local penis-venerating shrine, once popular among prostitutes who wished to pray for protection against sexually transmitted diseases. It is said that there are divine protections also in business prosperity and the clan’s prosperity, easy delivery, marriage, and married couple harmony, etc. Today, the festival is used to raise money for HIV research. There’s also a legend of a demon that hid inside a young girl and castrated two young men on their wedding nights before a blacksmith fashioned an iron phallus that was used to break the demon’s teeth, leading to the enshrinement of the item.

Metropolis had this to say in their article about Kanamara Matsuri:

Today, the highlights of this saucy festival include transvestites parading through the town’s streets carrying a mikoshi (portable shrine) with a humongous pink phallus on top. And, if that’s not guaranteed to make you blush as deeply as the surrounding cherry blossoms, then the spectacle of grandmas and grandpas sucking on carnal candy and sweetmeat replicas of this stupendous phallus, is more than likely to. Other attractions include locals carving penises out of daikon (radish), children and young women sitting astride penis-shaped seesaws for good luck and fertility blessings, as well as a seated banquet in the compound of Kanamara Jinja (aka Wakamiya Hachiman-gu shrine) where the phallic radishes are auctioned.

As you might expect, because of the nature of this festival, the photos and videos I have are probably not safe for work (NSFW), but neither are they x-rated. The photos and videos from Kanamara Matsuri are not for everyone; however, they are somewhat interesting, sometimes surprising, usually inappropriate and definitely bizarre. If this sounds like something that would interest you, then continue on at your own risk to see the photos and a movie.

I have been in Japan for more than 3 years now and I am very rarely surprised by much of anything anymore…That being said, I was surprised about a couple things at this festival…
See more photos and read the rest of this entry »

Sticking with the food theme, I have to share another food with you, tonkatsu. According to wikipedia, tonkatsu is:

Tonkatsu (豚カツ, とんかつ, or トンカツ), invented in the late 19th century, is a popular dish in Japan. It consists of a breaded, deep-fried pork cutlet one to two centimeters thick and sliced to bite-sized pieces, generally served with shredded cabbage. Either a pork fillet (ヒレ, hire) or pork loin (ロース, rōsu) cut may be used; the meat is usually salted, peppered and dipped in a mixture of flour, beaten egg and panko (Japanese breadcrumbs) before being deep fried.

I have a couple more months left in Japan, and before I leave I am on a mission to find the best tonkatsu in Japan. I have been to many restaurants and tried many different kinds of katsu, but so far my favorite has been a place called Saboten. There are two main kinds of tonkatsu, pork loin and fillet, I prefer the fillet because it has less fat. Of course Saboten has these but they also have many different variations like dishes with cheese, shiso and ume, minced meat, chicken or shrimp. Also, you get a small bowl of sesame and (i think?) poppy seeds to grind and then mix with the tonktasu sauce. Below is a photo from saboten’s site that shows one of their meals.

Anyway, I like I said, I am looking for the best tonkatsu in Japan, so if anyone has any recommendations, please please share them with me!

********UPDATED 3.6********

Now that the Sapporo Snow Festival is over, the next major thing to look forward to is the blooming of the cherry blossoms trees. Below is the first released forecast for the 2008 cherry blossom season from tenki.jp. The site is in Japanese, but here is google’s translation which you might be able to make some sense out of. Keep in mind that cherry blossom forecasts are not an exact science and are very subject to change.

Basically because of a warm winter, they are expecting earlier than usual blooming dates. Also be sure to check out sakurazensen if you can read Japanese, or try your look with google’s translation if you can’t. Just so you know, sakura zensen means cherry blossom forecast, so if you wanna do your own research you can google the kanji “桜前線” or try sakura zensen. Here is my previous post about cherry blossoms in general.

UPDATE 2.19 Weathernews.jp has released their own forecast.

UPDATE 3.6 Now the Japan Meteorology Agency has released their forcast.

Recently I have been neglecting this blog (sorry about that) but the reason for that is that I have been working on my new photo blog, Japan Daily Photo, where as you can probably guess, I will be sharing photos from Japan, daily (imagine that). A photo blog is like a regular blog but more photos and a lot less text, which is fitting for a photographer. I am not abandoning this site, and now that I have got the other up, I will be updating more here, but basically I wanted the freedom to share photos that I like without having to talk about why you should or should visit there. Anyway, let me know what you think.

With Kyoto’s endless amount of temples and shrines and such a unique and rich history, sometimes the smaller, but equally beautiful, things are missed. When in Kyoto, of course some of the bigger places are nice and “must sees,” but also do not be afraid to go off the beaten path, got lost, and find your own place.

One thing that makes Kyoto such an interesting city is the mix of a very old society and culture with the modern day Japan. This contrast can really make for some interesting photos and can be seen all over the city. Let’s take houses in Kyoto for an example. Houses and buildings in Japan can really make for some interesting photos, but even more so in Kyoto.

See more photos and read the rest of this entry »

This site has just a small fraction of the photos I have taken in Japan, so for those of you that want to see more (and large sized images), check out my gallery on smugmug.com. For those interested, I have used many different photosharing sites and smugmug is by far my favorite. Seriously, this is good stuff, I mean, there is a reason why 9 out of 10 people who sign up for the 2 week Free Smugmug Trial end up staying with it. If you want to give it a try, use my email ( evanpike [at] gmail [dot] com) to get a discount.

First of all, if you do not know what geisha or maiko are, check out my previous post about geisha and maiko.

One of the most popular questions I get from tourists and photographers alike is, “Where can I see geisha?” There are two very big misconceptions about geisha, the first being that geisha are prostitutes and second is that geisha can be seen commonly all over Japan. Both of these are false. Actually, it is very rare that you will see a geisha in Japan. That being said I am going to give you the easiest way to find them; HOWEVER, even if you take my advice, there is still a chance you might be unsuccessful! I am not guaranteeing you will see geisha or maiko here, but from my experience, the odds are pretty good!

Details after the jump! See more photos and read the rest of this entry »

Sleeping in Japan can quite often be an expensive thing and unlike the USA where hotels charge per room, in Japan it is often a price per person. I am going to run through a couple different options that are decent, cheaper alternatives to regular hotels in Japan. See the other places to stay.

Karaoke seems to be one of Japan’s national pastimes as almost all Japanese love to get a group together and sing the words the their favorite songs. Most people have their one song that they do so well you would swear they have practiced it over and over again (actually they have). Anyway, you are probably asking yourself what does karaoke have to do with sleeping? Well, in Japan, karaoke is done a little different than back home. It is not execution style where you go in front of the whole bar and blast out a song, but instead, you have a private room for just you and your friends. There are rooms to accommodate just a few people and, as you can see below, large rooms that can hold even 15-20 people or more.

Assuming you do not get the all-you-can-drink, it is often much cheaper staying a few hours in the karaoke place rather than dishing out for a hotel. On the other hand, if you get the all-you-can-drink plan it the night might pass by a little quicker