A *miko* collecting the shrine’s morning donations.

Beautiful purple flowers! You may call them hydrangea, ajisai, or mophead. Er…what? These are such gorgeous flowers. They bloom all summer, but mainly around July. You probably know them as hydrangea,

The rice is growing and the sky is still a bit angry looking—gonna rain again soon. A typical rainy season scene. A few posts ago for one of my SBI giveaways, I asked if you like rainy weather. Me? I love

For today’s Beautiful Japan: The symbol of Japan, Mount Fuji. It has such a huge reputation, but it’s easy for us to see why: it is such a beautiful mountain. Now I can’t see this mountain

Welcome all. Ready for another Beautiful Japan shot? Here we go! In past photos we've looked at a shrine lion, which is typically thought to be the symbol of the Buddha, or his teachings anyways. Here

Welcome all. Ready for another Beautiful Japan shot? Here we go! I know rains coming in the photo because moments after taking the shot it all let loose and I got very wet. I don't mind getting wet in

Sing, sing, sing, sing Everybody's born to sing La dee da, ho, ho, ho Now you're singing with the swing —Louis Prima, Sing sing sing (cf) er....wrong kind of singing. My bad. This is a singing bowl used

I was visiting the shrine. I liked how the sky looked here and thought it made a nice scene. Luckily I had my camera with me, as I often do, so I snapped a photo. Shrines are wonderful places in Japan

Can you guess what this is? When folks think Japan, probably one of the images that comes to mind is some kind of zen image of nothing but stark black and whites. A monochrome people going about their

In today's post, an introduction to the Japanese goddess of Autumn, Tatsutahime. Also a beautiful autumn photo from Kourankei showing off her work. I've posted photos from Kourankei before. It is a valley

One of the best ways to spend a nice autumn day. Relaxing under the maple leaves in autumn is always a nice idea. Boy, those Japanese maples are really something. In this park pretty much every tree is

Everyday they get a little redder. It is getting pretty chilly out there the past few days, but it seems like the colder it gets, the lovelier the maple leaves get. Sunny weather is predicted for next

As we slip further and further into autumn, the beauty of the season continues to reveal itself. I don't know how much this little moss garden is really hiding, but it does always seem to me like few people

Hello, beautiful and amazing Steem readers. I hope you are all having a wonderful day! Thank you once again for clicking into one of my posts. Today we have a very special collection of Beautiful Japan

Just another foggy morning. Another foggy morning with the beautiful autumn leaves! Welcome to the beautiful Korankei Valley in Toyota City. This is one of the best places to see the changing leaves in

The end has come for this poor little guy. But even in death, there is beauty. The deep red jumped out at me against the greenish yellow of the moss. I love the moss that grows everywhere in Japan. And

Autumn leaves and traditional arch bridges. It doesn't get much better than this. The colored autumn leaves are called kouyou (紅葉)(KO-YO, with both vowels held double the normal length.) This is actually

秋風や藻に鳴虫のいくそばく autumn wind— singing in the duckweed how many insects? —Issa I don't know how many insects there were, nor is that stuff floating in the pond duckweed—rather, it's fallen leaves—but the autumn

To rest at a Japanese castle in autumn, surrounded by both the beauty of nature and the incredible history of the area. Few things compare to this! This is the inner moat wall to Okazaki Castle. The main

The autumn colors are coming... This isn't to jump the gun. Here in the eastern half of Aichi prefecture, the autumn colors really won't come out completely until December. But in places a little more