Tag Archives: Fuji City

Fuji City, Japan Tourism, Shizuoka Prefecture, Tourism

Kinomoto Shrine (木之元神社) in Yoshiwara, Fuji City!

September 17, 2015 dragonlife 1 Comment

If you come out the south exit of Yoshiwara/吉原 Station between Fuji/富士 Station and Higasi Tago no Ura/東田子の浦 Station walk to your left on the main street and after 5 minutes you will find yourself at the bottom of a typical small rural Shinto Shrine!

It is only a short way upstairs!

The torii/鳥居, sacred gate!

Kinomoto Shrine plaque!

The small roofed concrete hand-washing basin!

A short paved way to the shrine!

The left lion guard with its mouth shut!

The right lion guard with its open mouth!

A venerable stone lantern!

The “haiden/worshipers’ hall”!

The sacred rice straw garland, the bell rope and the money offerings box!

The whole shrine is well maintained!

Side view!

Another small shrine called Fushimi Inari Daimyoujin! The Goddess Inari looks after rice growers in particular!

The Honden/sacred hall closed to the public!

The roof decorations indicate that the shrine God is actually a Goddess!

Good-bye, Kinomoto Shrine!

RECOMMENDED RELATED WEBSITES

So Good Sushi Restaurant in Nice France
Navigating Nagoya by Paige, Shop with Intent by Debbie, BULA KANA in Fiji, Kraemer’s Culinary blog by Frank Kraemer in New York,Tokyo Food File by Robbie Swinnerton, Green Tea Club by Satoshi Nihonyanagi in Shizuoka!, Mind Some by Tina in Taiwan, Le Manger by Camille Oger (French), The Indian Tourist, Masala Herb by Helene Dsouza in Goa, India, Mummy I Can Cook! by Shu Han in London, Pie
rre.Cuisine, Francescannotwrite, My White Kitchen, Foodhoe, Chucks Eats, Things that Fizz & Stuff, Five Euro Food by Charles,Red Shallot Kitchen by Priscilla,With a Glass, Nami | Just One Cookbook, Peach Farm Studio, Clumsyfingers by Xethia, PepperBento, Hapabento, Kitchen Cow, Lunch In A Box, Susan at Arkonlite, Vegan Lunch Box; Tokyo Tom Baker, Daily Food Porn/Osaka, Only Nature Food Porn, Happy Little Bento, J-Mama’s Kitchen, Cook, Eat, Play, Repeat, Bento Lunch Blog (German), Adventures In Bento, Anna The Red’s Bento Factory, Ohayo Bento

Must-see tasting websites:

-Sake: Ichi For The Michi by Rebekah Wilson-Lye in Tokyo, Tokyo Through The Drinking Glass, Tokyo Foodcast, Urban Sake, Sake World
-Wine: Palate To Pen, Warren Bobrow, Cellar Tours, Ancient Fire Wines Blog
-Beer: Another Pint, Please!, Beering In Good Mind: All about Craft Beer in Kansai by Nevitt Reagan!
ABRACADABREW, Magical Craftbeer from Japan
-Whisky: Nonjatta: All about whisky in Japan by Stefan Van Eycken
-Japanese Pottery to enjoy your favourite drinks: Yellin Yakimono Gallery

Non gastronomy must-see sites by Shizuoka Residents

HIGHOCTANE/HAIOKU by Nick Itoh in Shizuoka City

Festivals, Fuji City, Uncategorized, Yoshiwara Gion

Yoshiwara Gion Matsuri – Fuji City

June 15, 2014 dragonlife Leave a comment

A must-see by Tokyobling’s Blog!

Tokyobling's Blog

A couple of weekends ago I visited the massively fun Yoshiwara Gion Matsuri, in Shizuoka prefecture’s Fuji City. Like last year’s festival it was huge fun, from morning to midnight and I enjoyed ever second of it. I took these photos near the end of it, following the wonderfully decorated dashi, each crewed and representing a specific neighborhood in the city. Here’s the dashi of Sumiyoshicho and some of it’s very cool looking crew. These dashi are the pride of their neighborhoods and the people take great care of them, making sure they are in top notch condition for the annual festival. I heard somewhere that a typical prize for one of these is about 300 000 USD! Later on, walking down the street I came upon a dashi-seriai (山車競り合い), which roughly translates as “dashi showdown”! I think there were 5 or 6 of them, all drawn up in a…

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Festivals, Fuji City, Yoshiwara Gion

Yoshiwara Gion Festival Beauties

June 15, 2014 dragonlife Leave a comment

Fantastic Pictures by Tokyobling’s Blog

Tokyobling's Blog

You might remember my post on the Three Bauties of Yoshiwara from last year: some exceptionally photogenic and devoted festival participants from the Yoshiwara Gion festival in Shizuoka prefecture’s Fuji City. Well, this year’s festival there were even more of them, and as energetic as ever! All of the dashi (mobile festival wagons or platforms) are wonderfully decked out and crewed by the most energetic members of their respective neighborhoods, but the dashi of the Rokkenchou (六軒町) neighborhood is just outstanding! It’s not all thanks to the beauties though, behind and below them there is a whole battery of drummers and flutists, not to mention the guy on the roof helping to navigate the wagon, or the men, women and kids in front that pulls it and help making sure that no stray tourists (or photographers) fall under the heavy wheels of the wagon! With young people like this, the…

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Festivals, Fuji City, Yoshiwara Gion

Yoshiwara Gion – Shizuoka Prefecture

June 15, 2014 dragonlife Leave a comment

Superb Report by Tokyobling’s Blog!

Tokyobling's Blog

Today is the grande finale of the lovely Yoshiwara Gion Matsuri in Shizuoka Prefecture’s Fuji City. On the final day the main omikoshi of the local shrine will be handed over from neighborhood to neighborhood and afterwards the dashi parade starts up on the Yoshiwara main street as the different neighborhoods does their best to outperform the other’s in a friendly battle!

If you are in Shizuoka Prefecture today there really is no excuse to miss this once in a year event!

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静岡県, 観光, Fuji City, Japan, Japanese Culture, Kura, Photography, Shizuoka, Shizuoka Prefecture, Tourism, Yaizu City

Kura: Japanese Traditional Warehouses in Shizuoka Prefecture 10

February 13, 2014 dragonlife Leave a comment

Partly stone-built kura in Yoshiwara, Fuji City!

“Kura” (in Japanese 蔵 or 倉) means “warehouse” or “Storehouse”.
In traditional Japan, especially during the Edo Era, as most of buildings and urba/village structures were made of wood, fires were the bane of society by and large.
However well-protected a fire would consume a house or buildings and all its properties within minutes.
Hence a special building or warehouse was needed to protect goods and properties against such a catastrophe.
But erecting a storehouse solely made of concrete, stones and some metal cost a vast amount of silver and gold and only rich merchants and nobility could afford them. Even castles could not be built entirely of stone then.

This very old kura I discovered along the street leading to Bishamonten Myouhouji Shrine/Temple in Yoshiwara, Fuji City, has the particularity to have walls covered with chiseled stone slabs, an unusual occurence in our Prefecture!

Although the iron window and door curtains are very old it is still used as demonstrated by the recent water drain pipes!

Another unusual feature: a very small window not leading to the actual inside of the kura but into its foundation!

Looking at it from the side it is practically double-walled.
Very solid, indeed!

I discovered this small-sized cocncrete block kura south of Yaizu City JR Station!

It certainly looks old but the concrete blocks would denote its date just after WWII!

It is still used as a warehouse. After all Yaizu City is a trading and fishing port city!

RECOMMENDED RELATED WEBSITES

So Good Sushi Restaurant in Nice France
Navigating Nagoya by Paige, Shop with Intent by Debbie, BULA KANA in Fiji, Kraemer’s Culinary blog by Frank Kraemer in New York,Tokyo Food File by Robbie Swinnerton, Green Tea Club by Satoshi Nihonyanagi in Shizuoka!, Mind Some by Tina in Taiwan, Le Manger by Camille Oger (French), The Indian Tourist, Masala Herb by Helene Dsouza in Goa, India, Mummy I Can Cook! by Shu Han in London, Pierre.Cuisine, Francescannotwrite, My White Kitchen, Foodhoe, Chucks Eats, Things that Fizz & Stuff, Five Euro Food by Charles,Red Shallot Kitchen by Priscilla,With a Glass, Nami | Just One Cookbook, Peach Farm Studio, Clumsyfingers by Xethia, PepperBento, Hapabento, Kitchen Cow, Lunch In A Box, Susan at Arkonlite, Vegan Lunch Box; Tokyo Tom Baker, Daily Food Porn/Osaka, Only Nature Food Porn, Happy Little Bento, J-Mama’s Kitchen, Cook, Eat, Play, Repeat, Bento Lunch Blog (German), Adventures In Bento, Anna The Red’s Bento Factory, Ohayo Bento,

Must-see tasting websites:

Non gastronomy must-see sites by Shizuoka Residents

HIGHOCTANE/HAIOKU by Nick Itoh in Shizuoka City

静岡県, 観光, Festivals, Fuji City, Japan, Japanese Culture, Japanese Festivals, Photography, Shizuoka, Shizuoka Prefecture, Tourism

Daruma Festival at Bishamonten Myohouji Temple in Yoshiwara, Fuji City!-富士市吉原で毘沙門天大祭!

February 10, 2014 dragonlife Leave a comment

Every year one of the three biggest Daruma Doll Festival is held in Yoshiwara, Fuji City!
This year it was held a bit earlier than usual on February 6=8th.
Daruma Dolls are hollow, round, Japanese traditional dolls modeled after Bodhidharma, the founder of the Zen sect of Buddhism. These dolls, though typically red and depicting a bearded man (Dharma), vary greatly in color and design depending on region and artist. Though considered omocha, meaning toys, Daruma have a design that is rich in symbolism and is regarded more as a talisman of good luck to the Japanese. Daruma dolls are seen as a symbol of perseverance and good luck, making them a popular gift of encouragement.
These are changed every year, making for a profitable business.
Read more information about Daruma dolls THERE!

Once you get off Yoshiwara JR Sation, next to Fuji JR Station take the exit on the left.
You will know you are on the right path when you see the flag sign!

Like in any festival in Japan you its importance by the length of road access lined up with all kinds of stands and shops!
They were many that day!
Actually if you had all shops leading to the Temple and the shops inside it, you’ll find around 600 of them offering their wares for three days to about 180,000 visitors to this Festival held since the Edo Era!

Okonomiyaki!

Takoyaki!

Taiyaki!

Goldfish scooping pond!

Hiroshima-style Okonmiyaki!

Going bananas!

More takyaki!

Snow crab!

Grilled ayu trouts!

Yakisoba!

Ball-catching pond!

Candied strawberries!

Dried shirasu and sakuraebi!

Yakitori!

Finally reached the stairs of Bishamaonten Shrine/毘沙門天!
Actually the grounds are teh locale to both the shrine and a big Buddhist Temple called Myohouji/妙法寺!

A monument offered by Izu Nagaoka Village!

The torii/Shrine entrance gate!

A solid crowd!

In Japan, even in such a crowd, it is not difficult to move around!

The daruma at last!

Their owners will paint the pupils of their eyes back home!

Can you see the monkey darumas on the left?

The whole place has become red!

Medium-sized darumas!

There were also farmers peddling flowers and bonsai trees!

These darumas seemed to be burning!

An inviting cat!

There were quite a few food stands on the premises, too!

This year is the Year of the Horse!

There were quite a few people around the dragon shrine!

The enormous Myouhouji Temple in the background!

Imposing roofs!

Back to the screaming dragons!

What were these people doing below the dragons around the incense burrning bowl?

They were imprgnating themselves with the sacred incense smoke!

A double Mount Fuji?

Postcard snow-capped Mount Fuji!

It was then time to go back!

A last colorful photo of daruma dolls!

A colorful tiger coat!

Hang on, still one more picture to take…

Mini darumas!

RECOMMENDED RELATED WEBSITES

So Good Sushi Restaurant in Nice France
Navigating Nagoya by Paige, Shop with Intent by Debbie, BULA KANA in Fiji, Kraemer’s Culinary blog by Frank Kraemer in New York,Tokyo Food File by Robbie Swinnerton, Green Tea Club by Satoshi Nihonyanagi in Shizuoka!, Mind Some by Tina in Taiwan, Le Manger by Camille Oger (French), The Indian Tourist, Masala Herb by Helene Dsouza in Goa, India, Mummy I Can Cook! by Shu Han in London, Pierre.Cuisine, Francescannotwrite, My White Kitchen, Foodhoe, Chucks Eats, Things that Fizz & Stuff, Five Euro Food by Charles,Red Shallot Kitchen by Priscilla,With a Glass, Nami | Just One Cookbook, Peach Farm Studio, Clumsyfingers by Xethia, PepperBento, Hapabento, Kitchen Cow, Lunch In A Box, Susan at Arkonlite, Vegan Lunch Box; Tokyo Tom Baker, Daily Food Porn/Osaka, Only Nature Food Porn, Happy Little Bento, J-Mama’s Kitchen, Cook, Eat, Play, Repeat, Bento Lunch Blog (German), Adventures In Bento, Anna The Red’s Bento Factory, Ohayo Bento,

Must-see tasting websites:

Non gastronomy must-see sites by Shizuoka Residents

HIGHOCTANE/HAIOKU by Nick Itoh in Shizuoka City

Design, Environment, 静岡県, 観光, Fuji City, Japan, Japanese Culture, Manhole covers, Photography, Shizuoka, Shizuoka Prefecture, Tourism

Manhole Covers in Shizuoka Prefecture 24: Yoshiwara (now merged to Fuji City)

February 7, 2014 dragonlife Leave a comment

kaguyahime/The Bamboo Cutter Daughter, considered by many as the most beautiful manhole cover in Japan!

The same. It is framed in yellow on the road to help firement find it at night as this is a fire hydrant manhole cover.
It is located in the middle of a narrow street at the bottom of Bishamonten Myoyouji Temple.
Apparently there is only one sample!
It was made when before Yoshiwara was merged with Fuji City as demonstrated by the crest!