I took this photo of smoke cloud rising above the cloud line over Sakurajima from my hotel balcony on the last day of my Christamas holiday in Kagoshima in 2011.
![sakurajima](https://davidhurleyinjapan.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/Sakurajima-1024x680.jpg)
The next two photos were taken during a day trip to Miyajima Island in November 2011.
![Itsukushima shrine gate](https://davidhurleyinjapan.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/toriinov2011-680x1024.jpg)
This photo was taken in a cave at Daishoin Temple, Miyajima, where 88 altars are set up for the 88 temples on Shikoku Island.
![Daishoin Temple Miyajima](https://davidhurleyinjapan.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/miyajnov2011-680x1024.jpg)
The Obon festival in August is a time when the spirits of the dead are said to return. These lanterns are set up in graveyards to greet the ancestral spirits. This is a photograph of some obon lanterns outside my local DIY store in August 2011.
![](https://davidhurleyinjapan.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/daikitorou-680x1024.jpg)
A typical scene at our local shrine, Shoria Jinja’s summer festival. There was also a kagura performance at Shiora Jinja – it was going on behind me as I took this photo.
![Shioya shrine festival](https://davidhurleyinjapan.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/2011matsuri-1024x680.jpg)
Shioya shrine festival stalls, summer 2011.
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