Gallery - Images of Japan: June 2023

A selection of images of life in Japan during June 2023. All of the photos were taken by the City-Cost editorial team. [Above] Ahead of the impending rainy season families made the best of some beautiful weather at the Showa no Mori nature area in the Chiba Prefecture, near Tokyo, in early June. It looked like plenty of dads were on duty to help out with the inexplicably popular pursuit among children in Japan of bug collecting. [Above] By Sunday June 11 the rainy season had officially arrived in all regions of Japan - save for Hokkaido where the rainy season doesn’t occur - according to the meteorological agency. These images were taken on the following Monday in Tokyo’s Katsushika City and then on the streets around Tokyo Skytree where the tsuyu rainy season was almost perfectly delivered - gray, endlessly damp, and sticky if not exactly warm. [Above] After an appointment in Tokyo’s Kayabacho district we slipped into the area’s steady stream of office workers who had managed to finish work at a reasonable time and were headed to nearby train stations and on to home. [Above] Rainy season is the time for the flowering hydrangea plants to shine. On a baking hot day in mid-June though some of them were wilting, along with this visitor to the Showa no Mori nature area in Chiba Prefecture, near Tokyo. [Above] In late July we visited the town of Makinohara in Shizuoka Prefecture, central Japan. These images were taken on a balmy morning after a night in the town’s Hazu district which rises above the beaches of Sagarasan. We slipped down from our accommodation tucked away in the hills and walked down to the beach to see if there were any weekday surfers taking advantage of empty waves. [Above] The calm and green precincts of Heidenji temple in the town of Makinohara, Shizuoka Prefecture. The temple and its well-tended grounds proved to be an unexpected treat housing treasures and interesting artifacts. If you’ve got the legs, you walk up the nearby hill to the smaller Namiki Fudo temple (below) where people once escaped a tsunami created by the Ansei earthquake in 1855. More images from life in Japan May April