🙏🏻 Friday 28.11, Kyushu University, Fukuoka. "Who Owns the Goddess? Pilgrimage-Tourism and Popular Devotion in Twenty-First-Century East Asia." Guest lecture (in English).

🪷 Friday 21.11, Tohoku University, Sendai. "Lady of the Whales: Comparing Maritime Kannon Worship in Vietnam and Japan." Presentation as part of the workshop "Kannon in Modern Ideology and Popular Practices", with Ayako Kimishima and Clinton Godart (bilingual).

🐋 Wednesday 19.11, Aoyama Gakuin University, Tokyo. 「現代社会における『鯨信仰』―ベトナムと日本の鯨祭祀をくらべて」. Guest lecture (in Japanese).

In Kraków for the #IAHR2025 conference. Started today with a city walk, Catholic Mass, and Polish folk dance performance. Looking forward to the conference! I will be on two panels: "Recentring fear in the study of religion" (Tu, 9am) and "Religion and heritage-making in Japan and beyond" (Th, 1pm).

I know. Two years ago, I was forced to use the UiO logo for Whales of Power social media accounts. They said that every single UiO-related social media account must use the same red logo. I guess the same happened with OSEH then.

I complied. I used the red logo... Just added a little whale to it. 😉

Hi @aarweb.bsky.social, maybe it's time to reconsider the locations of some of your future meetings if you want international AAR members to be able to attend. It's not safe for us to travel to the US anymore. Canada has good conference venues, I've heard.

I've made it to Tübingen! 13 hours from door to door. One bus, one underground, and three trains. Glimpses of London and Paris on the way. A comfortable and relaxed journey. Conclusion: travelling by train from southern England to southern Germany within a day is absolutely possible. It's also fun!

I've made it to Stuttgart. 10 minutes behind schedule, so I missed the local train, but that's no problem as another one is leaving soon. One more hour and I'll be in Tübingen, hopefully. And: I finished my PPT for tomorrow's conference (which I never manage on airplanes!). So now I can relax.

At Gare de l'Est, I took the TGV at 15.55 in the direction of Strasbourg-Stuttgart-Munich. It's a double-decker, very full today, but comfortable and fast. My only complaint is the poor quality of the WiFi. Other than that, I am really enjoying my trip so far. Stay tuned for updates! 🚅🇪🇺

The Eurostar left on time. I managed to get some work done on the train and ate my sandwich. I arrived at Gare du Nord at the scheduled time, then walked to nearby Gare de l'Est for my connection. I even had some time to spare so I walked around a bit - and saw some gorgeous Lego flowers. 💐

I got off the bus at Hillingdon in western London, where I took the underground (Metropolitan) to King's Cross-St Pancras. Very convenient! I arrived at St Pancras International 2 hours before my departure time (11.31am). It was crowded, but I found a place to sit with a power outlet. And coffee!

My journey started at 7am local time. For the first leg I didn't actually take the train, as my B&B was in the outskirts of Oxford; taking the Oxford Tube bus was more convenient. Some issues with traffic on the motorway, leading to a delay of 20 minutes, but as I had left early I had a good buffer.

Attending the Nobel Peace Prize Forum in the University of Oslo aula. Deeply moving testimonies by Nobel Peace Prize laureates Keiko Ogura and Masao Tomonaga. An important and timely reminder of the horrific nature of nuclear weapons and the need of global nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament.

Many thanks to Jason Webb and the Shinso Ito Center for Japanese Religions and Culture for inviting me to USC to present my research. And many thanks to everyone who attended today, in person and on Zoom, for the great questions.

Next: AAR, San Diego. I look forward to seeing some of you there!