Plenty of Nothing

By Appointment to the Taisho Emperor

Although Crown Prince Yoshihito became Emperor in 1912, his enthronement did not occur until November 1915, on which occasion Gekkeikan supplied the sake. Source.

Horse Archery

Today is Health and Sports Day in Japan. There's a lot of track and field going on, but also horse archery if you look carefully. This man found some in an Aomori park in 2014.

Autumn Leaves by Yokoyama Taikan

Source.

Rice Field Osamu Tezuka Fan Art

Somewhre near Hirosaki. Source.

Shimazu Nariakira

This daguerreotype of Shimazu Nariakira, the daimyo of the Satsuma domain, was taken by Ichiki Shirō on September 17th, 1857, and is held to be the oldest surviving photographic image made by a Japanese person.

Hirosaki Apple Park

I have an orchard. I have a statue. Apple Park. Source.

Make an Origami Venus Climate Orbiter

Go here for instructions on how to fold Japan's Venus probe Akatsuki.

Shōsōin and Nishi-no-Shōsōin

Source. Shōsō-in is an 8th-century storehouse located on the grounds of the Tōdai-ji Buddhist temple in Nara, the ancient capital of Japan. It has somehow survived 13 centuries despite its being built of wood and full of treasure. Nishi-no-Shōsō-in is a replica in Miyazaki, built in 1996 by Sumitomo Mitsui Construction Co. Ltd, using 8th-century techniques.

Source.

The Garden of Motive Power

Toyota has converted an old textile mill in Nagoya into the Toyota Commemorative Museum of Industry and Technology. There are trucks and machines to see. In the middle of the site is an unremarkable courtyard named The Garden of Motive Power because the power plant used to stand there. It's not much to look at. But who wouldn't want to spend at least part of each day in The Garden of Motive Power?

Karuizawa

The past few weeks the place name Karuizawa has cropped up. Turns out it's a small resort town in the hills of Nagano that became popular after it was recommended by the 19th-Century Canadian missionary A.C. Shaw, who built a chapel there. You can see why he liked it, it looks so much like Canadian Cottage Country. I've seen the name mentioned in an anecdote about Yasunari Kawabata in Donald Keene's memoirs, and in a short story by Banana Yoshimoto, and looking back through the files, in volume seven of Genshiken. In every instance the place is connected to sexual desire in some way, which would explain why it's a popular place to get married.