An outsider artist is here in Akan, Hokkaido. Shigechan made his private paradise on the east side of the northern country in 2010. He created unique characters like a gourd man, floating frog heads, peanut men and so on. His name is Shigenari Onishi who was born and raised in Tsubetu, Hokkaido and studied at the School of Visual Arts New York in 1971...
It exists under Route 16, which is the most famous and most congested beltway in the metropolitan area. I went there in the summer of 2011. It is a huge underground canal that can keep rainwater from overflowing the rivers around Kasukabe when heavy rain is falling. Kasukabe citizens were having a lot...
When I watched some late-night talk show, I saw an owl that could transform himself to be plump or slender. It was so cute that I wanted to take pictures of his transformation. The next weekend, I was in the Kakegawa Kachoen Park to meet him. He is a northern white-faced owl and he spread his wings when he met another smaller owl to...
There are so many stone collectors in the world. However, few people know the matchless stone collector, Mr. Syouji Hayama. He picked up so many human-faced stones all around Chichibu. He found a volleyball-sized human-faced stone beside a river and named it “the son of God”. After picking up this stone, Mr. Hayama had plenty of lucky events in...
As you know, the big izakaya restaurant chain, Yourou-no-taki group, has so many Japanese-style pubs all around Japan. The founder of this huge company, Toukichirou Kinoshita (this is his second name and his real name is Tomikatsu Yamanta), constructed a magnificent fortress as his vacation home in Shiga, Nagano where he was born and raised. This is The Shinsyu...
This is the orthodox fake art museum in Naruto, Tokushima. What does the “orthodox fake” museum mean? All exhibits in this museum are reproductions on porcelain plates. You shouldn’t look down on them because they display imitations. The quality of each work is extremely high. I’ve traveled North America and Europe to appreciate...
There are two places in Japan where we can enjoy the majestic scenery of the Giant Moai Statues in a single row. One is at Sun Messe Nichinan in Miyazaki and the other is here at the Takino Cemetery in Sapporo, Hokkaido. I’ve been to both places and appreciated the platoon of huge replica statues. The northern Moais are the better of the two because of their...
As you know, there is a huge Japanese castle built by Hideyoshi Toyotomi in the center of Osaka City. It’s called “Osaka-Jo”. But few people know that a barbershop owner made his own castle in Higashi-Osaka. The name of the castle is “Kosaka-Jo” because it is in the Kosaka area of Higashi-Osaka. I’ve visited...
You can see the most beautiful garbage disposal site on Maishima Island, Osaka. There are so many people who go to Universal Studios Japan near the plant, but only a few enthusiasts visit the site. The plant was designed by Mr. Hundertwasser, an Austrian artist, and architect, and the exterior is like a fancy mosque. When I visited there...
Ushiku-Daibutsu – The World’s Tallest Giant Buddha It holds the world record- the bronze buddha in Ushiku, Ibaraki. It took seven years to build Ushiku Giant Buddha, the world’s tallest statue from 1992; but now in 2020, there are several statues taller than Ushiku in the world. However, it is still the tallest in Japan. I visited it three times or...