386 of Travellerspoint's best photos taken in Japan Show as stream
Tokyo, Japan
Kyoto, Japan
Fushimi Inari-Taisha
Okonomiyaki is a Japanese style omelette containing your choice of vegetables, chicken/squid/pork etc served with soy sauce/Japanese pickles and topped with dried fish shavings - it is very filling. Takoyaki is a ball-shaped Japanese snack made of a wheat flour-based batter and cooked in a special moulded pan. It is typically filled with minced or diced octopus (tako), tempura scraps (tenkasu), pickled ginger, and green onion. Takoyaki are brushed with takoyaki sauce (similar to Worcestershire sauce) and mayonnaise, and then sprinkled with green laver (aonori) and shavings of dried bonito.
This the Sanja Matsuri, where the locals carry their mikoshi, portable but very heavy shrines, to the Asakusa Temple, Tokyo. I loved seeing the enthusiasm as everyone joined in to lug in around a hundred shrines. But this particular one attracted more interest, followers and photographers than most. The clue to why, is the man you can see waiting for it; his tattoos indicate he is Yakusa, the Japanese mafia. So I had to wonder whether, in this instance, the prime motivation was devotion or duty?
We were in Japan and heard about this festival where they plant out thousands of moss phlox, so we went along to see it. It looked stunning, with Mount Fuji in the background. I had to get down low to get the flowers in the foreground like this, but I liked the effect. what the camera doesn't capture is the sound of hundreds of very excited Japanese people oohing and giggling at the sight of Fuji-san and the phlox
We have a great range of accommodation in Japan to suit any budget
