Kickstarter - Postcards of Japan - from Hokkaido to Okinawa

Hello everyone,

after many months of inactivity and Corona I wanted to post something again.

I had started a Kickstarter campaign, because I normally travel to Japan every year and in 2020 I can't so I wanted to "give something back", creating that project to print postcards that I would like to offer for international shipping, giving the opportunity for some sort of inspirition for future travels or just for decoration.

Imagining someone would be inspired to travel to those places and using one of my cards to send it back home after exploring those spots themself is a nice idea.

The last hours have started and only a few are left to back my project.

If you like the idea of a poctcard pictures from Hokkaido to Okinawa, just follow this link: http://kck.st/36fwe3E, I am happy about every support.

Thank you and enjoy

Here's a small preview of some of those cards:

Good old Kyoto - Japan-Sunday

I was in Kyoto many times, the first time in the summer of 2015, it was a rainy day, I only went to Fushimi Inari Taisha, the Nintendo Headquarter and a book off, where I bought Pokémon red.
At Fushimi Inari they had blocked the way up to the top because of a typhoon.

But the following pictures are about my trip to Kyoto in Fall with my buddies

FUN FACT regarding Fushimi Inari Taisha and Nintendo: The "white fox" shrine is some sort of the Origin of Star Fox, the Fushimi Inari and its thousands of Tori inspired Shigeru Miyamoto to create the "torii" in Star Fox

Now enjoy pictures of our trip:

At the Kyoto JR station a few students with their teachers practiced their english skills, it was funny, the boy on the right was the best , he was quite enthusiastic and asked a few questions and reacted to our answers while the others only read their questions on the papers.

We started with the Kiyomizudera Temple in the East of Kyoto, we had planned a lot for that day, but our day began very late so we only were able to visit the Kiyomizudera temple and the Fushimi Inari Taisha.

 

And here's the entrance / Main gate of the Fushimi InariTaisha

This time I was at the top and prayed, but I didn't visit the bamboo forest this time, so there's something that you can look forward to in my next Kyoto entry.

Aaaaand that's it again.

Picture of the Day #14 - Kyoto Temple

Kyoto has hundrets of temples and shrines. Many of you might know the famous Kiyomizudera or the Fushimi Inari and other big ones.

But if you go straight forward to the well known ones you definitely will miss the small and "hidden" unknown ones, but they are very often worth visiting. Especially because there aren't those huge crowds of people you can enjoy the temples and shrines itself a lot better and also take pictures without or less persons.

When I went to the Kiyomizudera the first time ever, I passed this small temple, it's the 大谷本廟(Otani Hombyo Hongwanji)


I've been to Kyoto a few times, for example for the Hanami festival, the cherry blossom and to collect a few stamps for my shuincho, but I will talk about that later.

There are more Pictures of the Day and INSTAGRAM, too.

Now enjoy the temple:

Picture of the Day #13 - 47 Ronin

Today's Picture of the Day has been taken at the graveyard of the Sengaku-Ji. That's the temple where the 47 Ronin are burried.

The story of the 47 Ronin is about 47 Samurai and their Daimyo (Lord) who has been beheaded, because he has been drawing his sword at another Lord's fortress, which was a crime. Their Daimyo's death made them all stray Ronin.

To win their Lord's honor back they had to kill the their "enemy". After accomplishing this, they all were found guilty and beheaded, too, but they had reclaimed the honor of their master.

It's a story about honor and loyalty, as a gift for being that loyal, the 47 ronin were burried next to their master at Sengaku-Ji.

There are more Pictures of the Day and also my INSTAGRAM

Now enjoy the Picture:

What's a Shuincho - Japan-Sunday

Whenever you visit a shrine or temple you definitely need to buy your first Shuincho.
A shuincho is a book where you collect the unique stamps and kaligraphy writings of a buddhist temple or shinto shrine. It's a piece of culture and art, especially when one of the old masters is showing his kaligraphy skills .

Visiting the different shrines ands temples is a good deed because a stamp (normally, Meiji Jingu not) costs 300Yen which is some sort of donation.

Collecting those stamps is a kind of personal spiritual pilgrimage. There is nospecific shrine that you need to visit nor is there any order. You only have to keep in mind that not every temple offers a stamp and otherwise some of them offer more than one.

 

 

That was just a part of my stamps that I collected since 01.01.2016 when I bought my first "stamp book" at Zōjō-ji in Tokyo. the following are some of my favorites:

Left: Itsukushima Jinja on Miyajima Island in Hiroshima
Right: Gokoku Jinja next to the Hiroshima Castle

Beside the "normal" shuincho there's also a special one for doing the pilgrimage on Shikoku to 88 specific temples, I tried it in August 2015 but failed miserably...

Time to get your Shuincho, when you are in Japan.