Without a shred of a doubt, 2011 stands out to me — in a way that hopefully will never be surpassed — as the most catastrophic I have ever known. March 11′s magnitude-9 Great East Japan Earthquake, followed by a monstrous tsunami and then ...

The first thing a good beach does is immediately make you want to take your watch off. But what makes a really great beach is when you do that — and then kick off your shoes as well. That’s exactly what I did when ...

In the days of the Ryukyu Kingdom, from the 14th to 19th centuries, Chinese envoys would come to Shuri Castle on the island of Okinawa to officiate at the coronation of the Ryukyu kings. When their ships were spotted from the 227-meter peak of ...

How would you like to spend a fun Sunday partying on a grave surrounded by hundreds of other tombs in a huge cemetery? Well, if you happen to be in Okinawa in April, shortly after the vernal equinox, you’ll find thousands of families doing ...

In 1969, I was living at Hapuna Beach on the Big Island of Hawaii. I was 25 years old and had recently taken a leave-of-absence from Southern Illinois University, where I’d been a PhD candidate and an instructor in the English department. As I’d ...

Pick up a newspaper in Japan these days and you’ll almost always find a story in it about the state of bluefin tuna somewhere in the world. Just a few recent headlines have included: “Fishing industry being eaten alive”; “Tuna shortage has Japan fearing ...

A mong the highlights of any visit to Ibaraki Prefecture could well be Kita-Ibaraki in its far northeast — specifically the towns of Otsu-ko and Hirakata-ko, which offer perhaps the best opportunity in the nation to sample the great winter seafood delicacy of anko ...

Whether tourist or resident, anyone looking for a short trip out of Tokyo, but still within the surrounding Kanto region, has plenty of varied options. There’s the mountain resort of Nikko in Tochigi Prefecture, the medicinal hot-spring town of Kusatsu in Gunma, the scenic ...

Last, but not least, on this Ibaraki travel itinerary is Mito, the prefectural capital. Known to those who watch Japanese television as the home of Mito Komon, the leading character in Japan’s eponymous and longest-running TV series, which has been aired continuously since 1969, ...

Start with an image. A man walking down a street in Tokyo. Steep, like San Francisco. Maybe Daikanyama. As the man walks toward Shibuya, two men follow in the shadows. Why? They want to kill him! Thus was born John Rain, assassin for hire, ...