Category Archives: Tradition

On Demonic Umbrellas and Japanese Banking

Posted on October 26, 2011 by Eryk Salvaggio

In Japan, many ATMs work from 9 to 5 and get weekends and holidays off. That’s better than most humans get. And the reason, I suspect, has more to do with ghosts than any bank is willing to admit.

Posted in Culture Shock, Shinto, Shrines, Thinking, Tradition, Weird | Tagged banking, ghosts, halloween, japan, monsters, travel | 8 Comments

On Seasons, or: On Poets Taking Over the Japanese Meteorological Service

Posted on October 19, 2011 by Eryk Salvaggio

“Life starts all over again when it gets crisp in the fall.” – The Great Gatsby There’s a central body in Japan that declares the coming and going of rain. That means that there is a weather bureaucracy, and someone stamps … Continue reading →

Posted in Thinking, Tradition, Uncategorized, Zen | Tagged haiku, japan, poetry, seasons, weather, zen | 6 Comments

On Onsen, or Bathing With Friends and Coworkers

Posted on August 24, 2011 by Eryk Salvaggio

I was naked except for a green smock, flashing some leg and God-knows-what-else to two older women with shovels as I stepped into a small dirt hole in the center of a Japanese bath house. Lying on my back with … Continue reading →

Posted in Fun, Tradition | Tagged baths, beppu, japan, onsen | 7 Comments

On Obon: Japan’s Homecoming Game, with Ghosts.

Posted on August 10, 2011 by Eryk Salvaggio

There’s an old Buddhist story about a monk named Mahamaudgalyayana – let’s call him Mokuren, for short – who was doing alright, as monks go, and had finally developed the skill of peering into the world of the dead.

Posted in Fun, Shrines, Thinking, Tradition, Uncategorized, Zen | Tagged ancestor worship, buddha, buddhism, holidays, hungry ghosts, japan, japanese holidays, obon, world holidays | 8 Comments

On Using a Japanese Toilet

Posted on June 29, 2011 by Eryk Salvaggio

I still don’t know what “standby mode” means for a toilet.

Posted in Culture Shock, Tradition, Uncategorized, Weird | Tagged bathroom, high brow discourse, history, japanese, squat toilets, western toilets in japan | 10 Comments

On Kappa

Posted on June 8, 2011 by Eryk Salvaggio

It takes time for new places to seep into my dreams. When I’ve left a place, my dreams take me back instead of forward. Places go first – the familiar coffee shops, restaurants and bookstores stop serving as backdrops. People … Continue reading →

Posted in Tradition, Uncategorized, Video, Weird | 5 Comments