>>49551394
I'm sorry I haven't been able to do much things tightly related to Touhou lore lately. Truth is, I spent majority of the first half of the year preparing to go to Japan and now I'm there. Ultimately you can just more or less go and meet & greet them where they live.

There's a lot to write about but:
- You can just visit shrines and temples
- Foreigners can receive ofuda, not sure if it is by default or if I passed some vibe check 100% times so far
- If you have any connection to them or have any sensitivity you are gonna feel them there
- Coming here is going to (re)contextualize so many things in Touhou and also in your own life
- A lot of Japanese people, especially outside of Tokyo, really appreciate if you show genuine interest in their culture and history
- Suwa is unbelievable, the whole place is so spiritually charged and alive and the people are lovely
- Strongest experience so far was in Suwa when visiting Maemiya and the night after
- Zenkoji is also incredible and ZUN missed out when the Key to Pure Land tunnel was lit up when he visited it
- This isn't to say other shrines and temples I visited so far didn't have their own qualities...
- Constant streak of things just lining up supernaturally well, unlikely events coming together and all that

I'm going to Mt. Minakami very soon, and if I'm right, it will end up being a future pilgrimage (Touhou) spot alongside it being a pilgrimage site. Very curious to see what it is like, it certainly has a reputation for being a very charged place.
>>49551617
>just a weird feeling of dread or shell-shock that I can’t seem to shake off. It’s the feeling like I just finished racing a supercar, or something
I think I understand what you mean...it can be a lot to take in, especially when starting out. Please don't overdo things.
>>49556460
Unfortunately the thing that I would most like to see translated - Shika no Kuni information booklet - is sitting in my backpack as a physical object. There's a site about Suwa history that was only in Japanese and wasn't really working with autotranslation, but unfortunately it's sitting in my bookmarks back home...but thank you for the offer, I'll let you know if something comes up!

Most relevant to the topic of the thread, in the cafe near Maemiya there was this ofuda-style artwork of Kanako-sama. It was delightful to see something like this, someone else too Really Gets It. The cafe itself was really wonderful, the owner was sweet and there's a direct view to the Maemiya from there. 100% worth the visit if you go there. Try the amazake, you're not gonna find it everywhere.