NEWS OF TRAVEL JAPAN

There is a tea brand called “Kaga-bohcha”, the Japanese stem tea in Kanazawa (that is the same as “Kaga”). You may know it as the tea frappe chino of Starbucks. Its characteristics is its aroma, and the color of the tea is brown and the taste isn’t tannic.There is one of their cafeterias in Higashi-chaya-gai in Kanazawa. Higashi-chaya-gai is a popular sightseeing spot. Both sides along a central street have all traditional Japanese buildings. The front face of each building has a few beautiful big windows which are covered with art-craft grid patterns made by thin wooden sticks. The central street is made by flagstones. And over there behind the edge of the street is a hill covered with green leaves, you can’t see anything modern here and over there. Just upon entering into the town you shall feel that you are standing on a place of a different dimension. You may feel exited whether you can experience something you never have. The tea café of the maker of the Japanese stem tea is on a ...

Sumiyoshi Shrine is located in the south of Osaka City. Its history is very long and the form of the architecture is particular. There are four main houses for praying and the form of the houses is called “Sumiyoshi-tsukuri”. The shrine is called the guarding-god of Osaka, in addition, it has other names, the god of good voyage, the god of purification(“harae”), the god of a safe birth, the god of Japanese poetry(“waka”) etc. In fact, the shrine enshrines four gods, Sokotutu-no-ono-mikoto, Nakatutu-no-ono-mikoto, Uwatutu-no-ono-mikoto, and Jingu Empress, and each of the four gods have a house.Three mikotos are noted in an ancient history-book, “Kojiki”, as they were born in the sea when Izanagi-no-mikoto underwent a purification after coming back from the world of death. then three mikotos are gods of voyage and god of purification. Jingu Empress is the god of safe birth, it was already written in this blog. However, the reason why it was named the god of Japanese poetry isn’t reveal...