Arashiyama’s Bamboo Forest
In the Arashiyama (嵐山) district of Kyoto, Japan, is the jaw-dropping Sagano Bamboo Grove. The forest was the setting of Japanese novelist and poet Lady Murasaki Shikibu’s acclaimed novel, "The Tale of Genji." There is a walking path that cuts through the bamboo grove and makes for a photogenic trek as light filters through the stalks. The bamboo in the grove is still used to manufacture cups, boxes, baskets and mats in the area.
To view more photos and videos of the bamboo forest, be sure to visit the 竹林の小径 (Kitasaga Bamboo Grove) location page.
A Pilgrimage to Mount Fuji (富士山)
Mount Fuji (富士山 or “Fuji-san”) stands 3,776.24 meters (12,389 feet), making it the tallest mountain in Japan and one of the country’s most recognizable symbols. The cone-shaped mountain is an active stratovolcano—a volcano built up by many layers of hardened lava, tephra, pumice and volcanic ash—and is located 100 kilometers (60 miles) west of Tokyo. Fuji-san last erupted in the early 1700s. Following the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami many feared Mount Fuji would erupt again.
Despite those recent concerns, Fujisan remains an international destination for tourism and mountain climbing. Hundreds of thousands of people make the 8-hour summit each year during peak season in July and August. Most climb the mountain at night in order to catch a glimpse of goraikō (御来光 or “arrival of light”), the special name for a sunrise on Fuji-san.
Visiting Japan’s Rabbit Island
The small island of Ōkunoshima (大久野島) in the Inland Sea of Japan is famous for two things: poison gas and bunnies. In 1925, the Imperial Japanese Army started a secret program to develop chemical weapons in defiance of the Geneva Protocol. They built a gas plant on the island four years later that made mustard gas. Ōkunoshima was chosen for its isolation and to keep the plant secret the island was even removed from some maps.
After the war, the poison was disposed of and the laboratory animals—rabbits—were set loose. Without any predators on the island, the bunny population exploded, and now the island is full of tame rabbits that visiting Instagrammers have captured with videos and photos.
Instagram on Okumoshima
Kaze Tachinu Trailer
Somehow I totally missed this new Studio Ghibli movie. It seems to be the first movie directed by Hayao Miyazaki in 5 years and its art style has some kind of new realism to it. The story sets somewhere between the Japanese Taisho and the Shouwa period, also thematizing the great Kanto earthquake of 1923. It looks great! Can’t wait to see it!