Shrines and Temples

The season of summer festivals has come to an end, and it is gradually getting cooler in Nagoya: autumn is finally here. Autumn is one of the most beautiful seasons for a visit to Japan, and depending on whom you ask, even better than spring! While September, the official start of autumn can still be...Read More

The Japanese have a peculiar relationship to religion. Most people identify as both Shinto and Buddhist, or nothing at all. Still following rituals of either, depending on the occasion. Weddings are often Shinto, burials almost exclusively Buddhist. They also like to sprinkle in Christian holidays for good measure. Because of this very inclusive mindset, anyone...Read More

Atsuta Shrine, also called, Atsuta-san or Atsuta-sama, is the second most important Shinto shrine in Japan, after the Ise Grand Shrine. The venerated sun goddess Amaterasu is enshrined here as well as being home to the sacred sword Kusanagi-no-tsurugi which is one of the three Japanese imperial treasures. Legend has it that Amaterasu gave the...Read More

For regular people taking tea is just heating water and putting some tea into a cup. But for Japanese people, this simply isn’t enough.  A higher reason is needed and the simple process of tea in a cup is made rather more complicated by adding ceremony, rules, and a whole procedure to the otherwise simple...Read More

You know, most people that come to Japan don’t stop by Nagoya because they have heard from “who knows” that there is nothing interesting to do (even to kill time).  Like almost everything in this world, we assure you that if you don’t see it with your own eyes you won’t believe it. You will...Read More