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April 28, 2024
 

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Hugh
For Hugh's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Jul 13, 2003
The Cumbrian sense of fair play
For most of the year, Appleby is a sleepy little English market-town in eastern Cumbria, not that far from the Scottish border. Surrounded by green fields spotted with sheep, Appleby is dominated by a castle that overlooks a gently sloping high street flanked by small shops. It has lots of benches with old men on them, smoking pipes and mumbling about who has just died and what the weather was like in 1953.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Jun 29, 2003
Catching the Paris underground
Call us weird, but we've always wanted to explore the sewers of Paris. Perhaps the urge was sparked by Victor Hugo's ghastly descriptions of the fetid underworld in "Les Miserables." Or maybe the image of the "Phantom of the Opera" was responsible: a masked maniac poling about in a gondola in his own dank and private kingdom.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Jun 15, 2003
Life, in 22 million forms, in a bottle
Goggling out of its jar with dead, bulbous eyes, stained a ghastly yellow by its embalming alcohol, is a mutated octopus. Just behind it is another octopus, also in a jar. To its left is a bottled shoal of sea bass.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Jun 1, 2003
The desert domain where the rhinos rule
Last of two parts We are in the Kunene wilderness region of northwest Namibia, with former F-1 star Ukyo Katayama, an NHK documentary team, a bunch of bloody-minded camels, several battered off-road vehicles, about 50 local tribesmen and Namibian wildlife artist Blythe Loutit, founder of The Save the Rhino Trust (SRT). We're looking for rhinos.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
May 18, 2003
The fall and rise of rhinoceros
First of two parts Some years ago, the English adventurer Benedict Allen made the first solo crossing of the notoriously inhospitable but hauntingly beautiful Sand Dune Sea and the Kunene wilderness area of Namibia, in southwest Africa.
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
May 4, 2003
A glimmer of what lies beneath
It used to be called the Street of Ink. Before that it was known as the River Fleet, mainly because that's what it was: the River Fleet. It even spent a period as London's Grand Canal -- something to rival the Venetian version, a grand urban waterway full of jostling pleasure boats and barges.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Apr 20, 2003
Look what the tide brought in
Venice Beach, Fla., and the sun is hot and strong. Most tourists are simply lounging on the sand turning various shades of furious red or "Baywatch" bronze. A few are chucking Frisbees or checking out the babes.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Apr 6, 2003
Like no other country on earth
"Bom . . . bash . . . bom . . . bash . . ." The savage thud of big drums echoed off the alley walls, shook the cobbles and rattled the wonky Belgian shutters.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Mar 16, 2003
Prison for some, refuge for others
Second of two parts Robben Island is more than a world-famous symbol of racial reconciliation. On the insistence of Nelson Mandela, who was imprisoned here for 18 years, Robben is also "a monument to [ecological] preservation."
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Mar 2, 2003
Robben Island's living ghosts
First of two parts The history of Robben Island is so dense with incident, tragedy, hope and despair that you can almost touch it. You can almost hear the ghosts and the slamming of prison doors.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Feb 16, 2003
The turbulent isles are tranquil at last
Last of two parts Despite its appearance of timeless peace and tranquillity, the Seychelles has a turbulent history. Originally discovered by the Dutch, this remote archipelago in the Indian Ocean rapidly became a haunt of pirates.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Feb 2, 2003
Sexuality takes a suggestive form in Eden
First of two parts The Vallee de Mai, on Praslin Island, the second-largest island in the Seychelles archipelago, is a heavenly spot. But for some, it is also a glimpse of hell or, as Milton put it, "Paradise Lost."
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Jan 19, 2003
Paradise retained
Palawan is variously cited as the Philippines' "last frontier," "the world's best-kept secret" and "a nature-lover's dream."
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Jan 5, 2003
From prison to grave -- via voodoo
There's more to Zanzibar than Zanzibar Island. There are the other Zanzibar islands!
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Dec 22, 2002
Historic Zanzibar, as exotic as it sounds
First of two parts Zanzibar! Just eight letters, but what a wealth of romance they sum up!
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Dec 22, 2002
Historic Zanzibar, as exotic as it sounds
First of two parts Zanzibar! Just eight letters, but what a wealth of romance they sum up!
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Dec 8, 2002
Swiftlets threatened by bowls of soup
Entering a Borneo emporium in 1922, American missionary Elizabeth Mershon noted that "many strange and evil-smelling articles greet the eye and the nose."
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Nov 19, 2002
Seeking spiritual succah in the Negev desert
The largest natural crater in the world has a past almost as awe-inspiring as its present.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Nov 5, 2002
Trapped in a cold tent by a strong wind outside
As readers may recall, our last Halloween horror story left us in Chobe national park, Botswana. Not the northern part of Chobe: the part with easy access, good roads, fantastic riverbank campsites and glorious views over the game-rich flood plain to the distant forests of Namibia. No. That would have been far too sensible.
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Oct 22, 2002
Bogged in Botswana's mudholes
It is traditional for this column to supply a Nature Travel horror story as close to Halloween as scheduling permits. Halloween is still some time away. But this one's most definitely a two-part column. So forgive us for starting early.
Town to block view of Mount Fuji in response to overtourism
The town government of Fujikawaguchiko, Yamanashi Prefecture, decided to set up a 2.5-meter-high screen to prevent tourists from taking pictures of Mount Fuji looming behind a convenience store.
In Japan, regional revitalization fails to halt population decline
Sakiyama elementary school in Tamba, Hyogo Prefecture, in March .Over the past decade, the government has directed efforts toward policies designed to give young people incentives to base themselves in rural areas.
Number of homeless in Japan hits record low
Homeless people sleep on the street in Tokyo's Shinjuku Ward in August 2021.
Ukraine is far from doomed
When comparing Ukraine’s military situation in 2024 to Europe’s in 1941, Russia’s defeat seems entirely possible.
Japan wants you to spend more with ‘luxury tourism’
Performers play a traditional drum unique to Wajima, Ishikawa Prefecture, in the prefectural capital of Kanazawa on March 16 to mark the extension of the Hokuriku Shinkansen line to Tsuruga Station in Fukui Prefecture.
Tokyo's Koto Ward by-election a race unlike any other
Natsumi Sakai, the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan’s candidate and one of four female candidates running in the by-election, touts her experience as a cancer survivor and midwife as having prepared her to tackle issues that women currently face.
Theaster Gates’ ambitious ‘Afro-Mingei’ brings Black Chicago to Tokyo
Theaster Gates' “A Heavenly Chord” lines up church pews before seven speakers and a Hammond B3 organ, a type of electric organ prevalent in Black American churches.
Japan wants you to spend more with ‘luxury tourism’
Performers play a traditional drum unique to Wajima, Ishikawa Prefecture, in the prefectural capital of Kanazawa on March 16 to mark the extension of the Hokuriku Shinkansen line to Tsuruga Station in Fukui Prefecture.
Casa del Cibo: A thriving jewel born from Tohoku’s harsh past
When chef Ryohei Ikemi moved to Hachinohe, Aomori Prefecture, and opened Casa del Cibo in 2011, it was the first proper Italian restaurant in the city.
Town to block view of Mount Fuji in response to overtourism
The town government of Fujikawaguchiko, Yamanashi Prefecture, decided to set up a 2.5-meter-high screen to prevent tourists from taking pictures of Mount Fuji looming behind a convenience store.

Podcast

From easily navigable train stations to the helpfulness of its municipal staff, Tokyo has earned high praise for its commitment to accessibility for disabled travelers.
[Rebroadcast] Japan is doing better on accessibility than you may think

Longform

Later this month, author Shogo Imamura will open Honmaru, a bookstore that allows other businesses to rent its shelves. It's part of a wave of ideas Japanese booksellers are trying to compete with online spaces.
The story isn't over for Japan's bookstores
By Alex K.T. Martin

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Leading Japan’s sustainability from Tokyo
Leading Japan’s sustainability from Tokyo

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