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Are Japanese temples on Mt Koya cashing in on the foreign tourism boom?

Oona McGee
Sep 16, 2026
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With more than 100 million yen in underreported income, questions are being raised over the morals of profiting from overseas tourists.

Japan
(accommodation • culture • inns • Japan travel • Japanese accommodation • Koyasan • Mt. Koya • news • overtourism • religion • ryokan • shrines • shukubo • temple accommodation • temple lodgings • temple stay • temples • tourism • travel • Wakayama)

Go to hell! …at a limited time historical art exhibit coming to Osaka

Master Blaster
Sep 7, 2026

It’ll be a hell of a good time.

Japan
(art • Buddhism • COK • culture • Descent into Hell • events • exhibitions • hell • jigoku • museums • mythology • Osaka • religion • shinto • Yomi)

Japan opens shrine for plush toys in Kyoto, offering memorial rites and a resting place for remains

Oona McGee
Jun 23, 2026

A heartwarming way to say thank you to the plush toys you have loved, and who have loved you in return.

Japan
(culture • Kyoto • news • nuigurumi • plush toys • plushies • religion • shinto • shrines • soft toys • toys)

Shinto shrine will bless your bike helmet and give you a sacred bike helmet stamp

Master Blaster
May 2, 2026

Pray to get ahead or to keep your head.

Japan
(bicycle helmets • bicycles • bicycling • COK • culture • cycling • Mie Prefecture • religion • safety • shinto • shrines)

J-horror classic Ring 2 airing on Japanese TV with Zen monk offering prayers every time someone dies

Casey Baseel
Dec 29, 2025

Japan’s most quirkily empathetic monk is back to keep bad mojo away from us as the year ends.

Japan
(funny • Horror • J-horror • monks • movies • religion • Ring • Ring 2 • Ringu • scary • weird)

A Japanese dating app matched our bachelorette with a Buddhist monk, and she learned some things

Casey Baseel
Dec 23, 2025

“I’ll be coming to the restaurant from work, so I apologize if I smell like incense.”

Japan
(Buddhism • dating • dating apps • monk • online dating • relationships • religion • romance • SNJO)

Japanese viewers unsure what to make of comedian’s shirtless apology to Turkish people

Master Blaster
Sep 18, 2025

Be careful when releasing potato chips, or this could happen to you too.

Japan
(apology • comedians • culture • Egashira 2:50 • food • kebab • pork • potato chips • religion • turkey • Turkiye • video)

Temple-heavy Kyoto presenting a unique challenge for travelers looking for Muslim prayer rooms

Casey Baseel
Sep 5, 2025

Kyoto City Tourism Association extends help to those looking for a place to pray the Islamic way.

Japan
(COK • Kyoto • Muslim prayer rooms • religion • shrines • society • temples • tourism • travel)

Foreign tourist steals offering and chugs booze in Japanese cemetery, sparking police investigation

Casey Baseel
Sep 2, 2025

People both living and dead in Japan have reason to be very angry at this moron.

Japan
(Buddhism • cemeteries • crime • culture • foreign tourists • graves • religion • society)

The Vatican now has an official anime-style mascot character【Video】

Casey Baseel
Oct 31, 2024

Luce is an attempt to form connections via “the pop culture so beloved by our young people.”

Europe, Japan
(anime • Christianity • Luce • manga • mascot characters • religion • Tokidoki • Vatican • weird)

Survey finds Japan to be least god-fearing nation in the world and it’s not even close

Master Blaster
Aug 21, 2024

Jesus is just… all right with Japan.

Global, Japan
(COK • culture • God • Jesus • religion • society • survey)

Japan’s smallest Toshogu Shrine: A tiny wonder with a big samurai connection

Oona McGee
Jul 10, 2024

An ancient palace still wields its magic in a residential backstreet hidden from tourists.

Japan
(Chiba • COK • cool • Funabashi • religion • samurai • secret Japan • shrines • smallest shrine • SNJO • Tokugawa • Tokugawa Ieyasu • Toshogu • tourism • tourist sites • travel)

Real Buddhist monk plays Super Mario Bros., recites prayers every time he kills an enemy【Video】

Casey Baseel
Jul 5, 2024

Have you ever stopped to think about the soul of a Goomba when you crush or burn its body?

Japan
(Buddhism • Buddhist monk • crazy • funny • monk • NES • nintendo • religion • Super Mario • Super Mario Bros. • video • video games • weird)

Tokyo’s beckoning cat temple asks foreign tourists to stop writing on the beckoning cats they buy

Casey Baseel
May 17, 2024

Gotokuji claims the figurines are “sacred.”

Japan
(beckoning cat • Buddhism • cats • COK • culture • ema • Gotokuji • manekineko • religion • temples • tourist manners • tourists)

Imitation crab meat shrine built in Kobe

Master Blaster
Apr 9, 2024

Here to remind us that “almost” can be a wonderful thing.

Japan
(crab • food • Hobo Kani • Hobo Kani Day • Hobo Kani Shrine • imitation crab • Kentetsu Delica • Omamori • religion • shrines)

Japanese Penis Festival shrine distances itself from penis mascot

SoraNews24
Mar 28, 2023

The one penis not welcome at Japan’s Kanamara Matsuri.

Japan
(cool • culture • fertility • festivals • Japanese mascots • Japanese religion • Kanamara Festival • Mascots • penis festival • religion • shrines • temples • travel • weird • wtf)

Millennium-old Japanese temple offering funeral service for broken record player needles

Casey Baseel
Jan 26, 2023

”Music Temple” wants to send audio equipment off with the respect it deserves.

Japan
(Buddhism • COK • cool • crazy • music • record players • religion • technology • temples • weird)

Buddhist metaverse “Teraverse” in development at Kyoto University, includes AI Buddha

Master Blaster
Sep 14, 2022

I guess you could call it a meta-metaverse.

Japan
(AI • AR • Buddhabot • Buddhism • Kyoto University • metaverse • religion • technology • Teraverse)

Flush your prayers down the toilet at this unique Japanese temple

Oona McGee
Sep 10, 2022

A new way to pray at the porcelain altar.

Japan
(Buddhism • buddhist • COK • culture • Gunma • Japanese squat toilets • Japanese toilets • religion • SNJO • squat toilets • Toilets • tradition • unusual • weird)

Holy noodles! Japanese restaurant serves up some very unusual udon

Oona McGee
Aug 25, 2022

Food for thought, in more ways than one.

Japan
(Buddhism • buddhist • COK • culture • food • Gunma • Heart Sutra • Japanese food • Noodles • religion • SNJO • sutras • taste test • tradition • udon • unusual • weird)

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