Category Archives: Japan

The Ghost of Marugame Castle

Yumi playing the role of The Ghost of Marugame Castle, on Shikoku Island, Japan, a few weeks ago.

I’ve never heard of a Ghost of Marugame, but Yumi makes a pretty good one. . .

I am aware that some castle construction sites in Japan do have ghosts in the form of labourers who were tossed down into pits or well shafts as sacrifices, hundreds of years ago  . . .

yumi ghost marugame castle shikoku japan

yumi keys to marugame castle
Dang, I thought I left the keys to the castle in here somewhere. . .

Birds and Beasts Photographed in Japan

A collection of photos of birds and beasts from our trip to Japan a few weeks ago.

Yes, we’re the sort of folks who can walk along the moat by the Imperial Palace in Tokyo and go “wow, look a soft-shelled turtle!”


There were lots of these raptors all over the island of Shikoku

japan birds and beasts


Imperial Palace moat


Imperial Palace moat


When I look at this cat I see Toshiro Mifune from the Kurosawa classic film The Seven Samurai.

“Feed me and you won’t feel the edge of my blade!”


Cormorant at Inokashira Park in western Tokyo.


Jungle crows are impressive!


A, er, cocky little owl 🙂

Why So Many Posts With Same Dates?

Dear readers, you may be wondering why so many of my recent posts have the same date, even though they are obviously about places and things that happened days apart.

I plead laziness.

After a two-week trip to Japan, I simply don’t want to take the time to figure out where we were when. . .

And for some reason, my Nikon DSLR transfer software dumped about 1,700 photos into one folder instead of separating them by date, though my Canon pocket camera did create a folder per day.

Likely my bad working with Nikon Transfer, but there it is.

So as time allows, I’ll keep adding photos and commentary from the trip, and let the dates fall where they may. . .