I was in Japan from September 10, 2000 to January 13, 2001 as part of my sabbatical. Here is a selection of the photos I took while there. You can read about my adventures in great detail at japantext2001.htm.

Here I am resting in a rickshaw that is on display in the Edo-Tokyo Museum in Ryogoku. The museum in right behind the arena where they have sumo wrestling tournaments.

In September, shortly after arriving, I attended a sumo tournament at the Kokugikan (sumo wrestling arena) in Ryogoku, Tokyo.

I also toured the Diet, which is what the Japanese call their parliament.

Who says there are no men in Japan tall enough for me! This statue of Ultraman, a Japanese cartoon character, is in Front of TBS (Tokyo Broadcasting Service) headquarters in the Akasaka area of Tokyo.

Here I am in the Chiba Missionary Headquarters of Seicho-no-Ie, a Japanese New Thought group. I participated in a spiritual development seminar there in October, 2000. Seicho-no-Ie's philosophy is a lot like Religious Science, the New Thought denomination I am a member of in Calgary.

In November a couple of friends arrived from Calgary and I spent a few days showing them around Tokyo and environs. This is me in front of Nijubashi, the bridge that leads to the Emperor's palace in central Tokyo.

I took one of my friends to Nikko, home of Toshogu, a shrine to the memory of Tokugawa Ieyasu, the man who united Japan around 1600AD after a long civil war. The stable has a carving of the three monkeys "Hear no evil, speak no evil, see no evil". Here I am speaking no evil and seeing no evil--but peaking!

The seven most dangerous people in Japan! This wanted poster in Kappabashi, a restaurant suply wholesaling area in northeast Tokyo was an irresistible background.

My international a capella singing debut! This talent show was part of another Seicho-no-Ie spiritual development seminar I attended a retreat centre in Uji near Kyoto in December, 2000.

The Seicho-no-Ie seminar in Uji was for senior citizens, so it included some traditional activities like making mochi, "dumplings" of mashed glutinous rice that the Japanese use a lot of in New Year's dishes. I volunteered to use the kine (mallet) to crush the still-steaming cooked glutinous rice into mush.

After the seminar in Uji I went to visit friends in a suburb or Kobe. We went hiking up a mountain to visit this famous 100-metre waterfall caled Tentaki (=heaven waterfalls).

Here is another shot of Tentaki using a slower shutter speed.

Want to see me completely naked from head to toe? Here I am in the rotemburo (outdoor hot spring) at Kurogawa Onsen in Hyogo Prefecture near Kobe in December. We were relaxing after the hike to see Tentaki.

When we got back to the city where my friends live we visited a small restaurant run by the daughter and son-in-law of some other friends. One of them brought a Tsugaru shamisen, which is kind of like a three-stringed banjo played with a pick like a windshield ice scraper. Here I am posing with it.

Another day we visited Murotsu, a small fishing village. These are some of the boats moored at the dock.

Murotsu's specialty is shitabirame, sole dried into a jerky-like treat. You can see it drying in the cages in the background.

During the period when Japan was cut off from the West (roughly 1640-1850), the daimyo, or nobles, were required by the shogun to spend alternate years in Edo (now Tokyo) and their home territories. These processions of commuting nobles led to well-developed travel routes. Murotsu was on the route from the far south of Japan, and so it had several "hotels" to accommodate the nobles and their retinues. A couple are now museums, like this one where I am hamming it up in the kitchen.

For lunch I had tempura.

We also visited a park to see the autumn leaves.

On the seashore we stopped and bought some fresh raw oysters. Here I am eating one that has been lightly microwaved.

Japan is mostly a very safe country, but I managed to find a few perils, like a ferocious tanuki…

…a fearsome dragon…

…a hungry koma-inu (guardian dog at a shrine)…

…not to mention a towering inferno…

…and a perilous path.

On New Year's Eve I went to a small Buddhist temple and got to participate in the bell-ringing ceremony they have at midnight to usher in the New Year.

This is my New Year's card (nengasho). All KFC restaurants in Japan have a fiberglass statue of Colonel Sanders out front. For Christmas they dress them in Santa suits. Here I am sneaking a kiss…("I saw Teri kissing Santa Claus…")

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