Held rain or shine on the 18th and 28th of every month throughout the year, this market is fun to browse even without an intention to buy. You never know what you might find. It is a complete mishmash of genuine antiques and complete junk, fine art and kitsch, the truly useful and the totally frivolous. Most dealers are seasoned veterans, so real deals can be hard to find, but the occasional gem does shine through. Popular with international visitors looking for out-of-the-ordinary souvenirs. Nearby is the Osu shopping arcade with its own singular atmosphere.

Each year at Osu-Kannon Temple in Nagoya, a street performers festival is held. It is called the "Osu Daido-Chonin Matsuri". Street performers from all over Japan descend upon Nagoya to entertain the masses.
You can enjoy many kinds of traditional and new street performances in the Osu area.
Oiran-dochuu is one of the most popular performances in this festival. Oiran is a high ranking courtesan in the Edo period.

On the third Saturday of October, Sento-kuyo-e, the largest event of the year, is held. During this event, yamabushi monks dress in traditional clothing and hold a memorial service for spirits of all the dead by offering chants, thousand of light of candles, flowers and incense. In front of the image of Dainichi-nyorai Budda stature, priests pray for prosperity of one's family and consume one's trouble.
A large bonfire is lit, hundreds of candles are placed on both sides of the path leading to the temple, and monks play the traditional horagai, or shell horn.

Nagoya, with its 2 million strong population holds the Nagoya matsuri each autumn. The Nagoya matsuri is the biggest festival held in Nagoya during autumn and its main attraction is a parade in which the three proud heroes of Nagoya, Oda Nobunaga, Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Tokugawa Ieyasu march at the head of 700 retainers. Oda Nobunaga heads the parade and is celebrated as both a warlord from the then Owari area and also as the man who laid the foundations necessary to unify the nation.

On the second day of the TTI Festival the daily activities continued. But in the evening there was a Samba Dancing show by some samba group, followed by the fire show performed by students and spectacular fireworks, which finished the Festival.

Every year in the middle of September there is a time for Annual Festival at Toyota Technological Institute (TTI) where I work now. Students are organizing all the events - from festival stalls, where they sell some snacks and other stuff, to the evening live concert. Below you will find some of the shots from that concert where one of the students of our lab was singing some crazy Japanese songs  

The Ise Jingu consists of two shrines: the Outer Shrine (Geku), which is dedicated to Toyouke, the kami of clothing, food and housing, and the Inner Shrine (Naiku), which enshrines Amaterasu, the Sun Goddess. They are Shinto's most sacred shrines.

Naiku and Geku are located several kilometers apart from each other at the foot of densely wooded hills. Unlike most other Shinto shrines, the Ise Shrines are built in a purely Japanese architecture style which shows no influence from the Asian mainland. Naiku is believed to have been established in the 3rd century and Geku in the 5th century.

Together with my friend Vit we conquered the highest point of Japan - Mt. Fuji (3776 m.). We started our trip from Nagoya after the lunch, reached the Fujinomiya 5th Station (2400 m.) at 6p.m. and then were climbing all night long. We were on the top by the sunrize, however it was all covered with thick clouds. And then after couple of hours of nice weather we went down from the other side of the mountain to the Kawaguchiko 5th Station accompanied by a heavy rain.

This Sunday as the weather was more or less fine we (me, Chuck, Vit and his friend Yaya) headed for our next adventure. This time we took train from Nagoya (Jingumae) to Kowa, then bus from Kowa to Morosaki... ferry from Morosaki to Irago... washed our feet in the waves of the Pacific... took another ferry across the Ise Wan (Ise bay) to the Toba city (in Mie prefecture)... visited the famous Pearl Island... and finally returned back home by train.
To say that we were tired by the end is to say nothing!  

Matsumoto Castle stands majestically amid the City of Matsumoto, situated 600 meters above sea level near the center of the Matsumoto Basin, and with a background of the 3,000-meter-high Japan Alps, which extends westerly. One of two old names of this town, Fuchu (provincial government) and Fukashi (basin) was taken as the name of a fort when it was constructed at this spot by a samurai in the early 16th century. The spot is said to have been selected especially because it was believed upon divination that the spot was auspicious and prosperously blessed by shijin (the four guardian animals: the tortoise, dragon, sparrow, and tiger). The Fukashi Castle was renamed by Ogasawara Sadayoshi in 1582. This historic castle is an original construction, and one of the 4 castles in Japan to be listed as national treasures - the others being Himeji, Inuyama, and Hikone.

This sunny Sunday me, Chuck and his Japanese friend/colleague Yumika were having a nice time walking around Nagoya.
First we visited a small local festival in Arimatsu, then went to Koshoji temple and finally had some fun in Sakae.

WARNING: Adults only gallery!  

But if to be serious... it's a really funny and unusual place which is definitely worth visiting!

The Takayama Festival (Takayama Matsuri) is ranked as one of Japan's three most beautiful festivals. It is held twice a year in spring and autumn in the old town of Takayama and attracts large numbers of spectators.
The Spring Festival (April 14-15) is the annual festival of the Hie Shrine in the southern half of Takayama's old town. While the shrine is also known as Sanno-sama, the spring festival is also called Sanno Festival.

Inuyama Matsuri started in the 17th century when the lord of Inuyama Castle encouraged the people in his domain to honor the deity of the shrine Haritsuna-jinja. The festival features 13 floats called yama. Each of these yama serves as a stage for a puppet performance. The yama gather in front of Haritsuna-jinja and put on shows one after another. Then they tour around the city of Inuyama, whose streets are lined with cherry trees in bloom. In the nighttime procession, 365 lanterns light up the floats, creating a mood of fantasy.

Big thanks to my good friend Chuck Phillips, who kindly provided me with some nice photos taken with his great new camera and gave his permission to publish them in this album   

These days sakura trees are already in their full bloom and all Japanese people are spending their weekends celebrating the beauty of nature. They go out to the parks and arrange picnics directly under the sakura trees.

Inuyama Castle is considered a National Treasure of Japan. It is one of four original castles remaining in Japan. All others are reconstructed.

The X-Mas is coming... All streets and shops are full of people, who are looking for X-Mas and New Year presents. I took this nice chance and joined them on last weekend together with my new Nikon D80. And here is what I saw through the "Nikkor 18-200mm VR" lense  

This day it was a holiday in Japan and I used this nice chance to capture all those lovely, bright, splendid colors of the autumn. As you will see from this collection the autumn in Japan is really one of the most wonderful seasons.

One day visit to Kyoto to see how this wonderful city looks like in autumn. This short visit brought new impressions, photos and friends.

With the help of simple digital camera (Canon PowerShot A95), bit of patience and nice software tools Photoshop and Photomatix I am glad to present my first attempts in HDR photography.

All photos from this collection are located at the address
http://japanamama.fotopic.net

To celebrate the cherry blossom we organized a small party, which finally became quite big   Fortunately the weather was fine, the evening was warm and we were sitting right under sakura. New friends, new impressions, new food to taste   ...and of course a good relaxation after hard work.

Short business trip to Tokyo

This collection is about my visit to Nagoya Castle: its beauty, nature around and some unexpected living beings  

First try to reach Expo site by bicycle.
Visiting the Seto area (transfer from the main site by gondola road)

NOTE: Be carefull with loading full-size images. Some of them may exceed 1 Mb

Together with Tanaka-san we took our bicycles and went to Higashiyama garden... Crossing half of the city was not so difficult, it was exciting. unfortunately we arrived too late and had only 1 hour for visiting the garden. After that we climbed a hill to reach the Higashiyama Sky Tower - a 134 meter tower with an observation level at 110 meters.

ISML Reunion Party was organized to celebrate 10th anniversary of ISML lab. All former and present members were invited. Not all were able to come, but nevertheless it was great. Actual ISML members met those, who were paving the way for this lab from the very outset.

My first visit to the Expo'2005. It was only third day after opening.

Here you will see the beauty of japanese gardens - those near ordinary houses and some famous ones. I am always impressed by the art of japanese landscape-gardening

Flowers, plants, parks, gardens

Toyota Technological Institute. Information Storage Materials Laboratory.
All about my work in TTI, colleagues, friends, etc.