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April 28, 2024
 

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Hugh
For Hugh's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Mar 7, 2001
Climb rain forests to the clouds
If you've climbed Mount Kinabalu in Sabah Province, Malaysian Borneo, under the impression that you were heroically scaling the highest peak in Southeast Asia, I have bad news.
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Feb 21, 2001
Your Earth needs you! Volunteer now
In honor of the United Nations' decision to declare 2001 "The International Year of Volunteers," our last column devoted itself to an utterly shameless advertisement for the book "Kokusai Volunteer Guide: Inside International Voluntary Work," published by The Japan Times and written by Midori Paxton.
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Feb 7, 2001
Why not join the marine corps?
Welcome to the second week of the second month of the United Nations-designated "International Year of Volunteers." To mark this joyous occasion, we are pleased to announce the release of a book named "Kokusai Volunteer Guido," aka "Inside International Volunteer Work," published by The Japan Times and written by Midori Paxton.
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Jan 17, 2001
Botswana's delta a force of nature
The Okavango delta (or "the Delta" as it's known by those in the know) is not a swamp, at least not in the conventionally unpleasant sense of the word.
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Jan 3, 2001
Walking the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu
Approaching Machu Picchu on foot along Peru's 32-km Inca Trail might sound the stuff of legend. Or, better still, the stuff of Tin Tin. In all honesty, however, it can be more trial than trail.
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Dec 20, 2000
Walking along the edge of civilization
Done the Great Wall of China? Try the Great Wall of England. It's arguably the finest Roman monument north of the Alps.
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Dec 6, 2000
Mountain stairways to the sky gods
Time, mankind and Mother Nature have not been kind to the Seven Wonders of the World. Six are gone and most people probably couldn't even name them. According to the Philippines tourist people, however, there is an additional Wonder, and it is in remarkably good shape.
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Nov 29, 2000
Exploring deepest, darkest New Jersey
New York is New York, and Manhattan is, 24 hours a day, full throttle, unquestionably, Manhattan. What we wanted after two weeks of both was a place that was neither.
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Nov 1, 2000
Be sure to do the Galapagos in style
You can "do" the Galapagos right. Or you can "do" the Galapagos wrong.
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Oct 18, 2000
Ghost hunting in York
With Halloween just around the corner this column bravely steps beyond the boundary of nature travel and pops its toes into the chilling twilight realm of "supernature" travel.
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Oct 4, 2000
The parochial charm of Carmel
Rough Guide guidebooks are some of the best on the store shelf: thorough, entertaining and with excellent briefings on things historical, political and environmental. By and large we, and the Rough Guides, think alike.
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Sep 20, 2000
The flawed forests of Cuc Phuong
As many Americans have no doubt already forgotten, and as some will never forget, Vietnam was visited not just by their flag's red, white and blue but also by Agents Orange, White and Blue; toxic herbicides named after the color of their containers. A total of 72 million poisonous liters were dumped over 16 percent of the country in an attempt to deprive Victor Charlie of forest cover.
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Sep 6, 2000
Rolling along through Ngorongoro
The first minutes in Tanzania's famed Ngorongoro crater were neatly summed up by a small boy.
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Aug 30, 2000
Skin diving to save the world's coral reefs
Learn to scuba dive free, receive a complimentary education in tropical marine biology, and get to help save the threatened coral reefs of Southeast Asia and Central America at the same time?
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Aug 16, 2000
Of Rubber Ridley and his Gardens
The Gardens: That is how many locals refer to them. Just The Gardens. As if there were no other, as Bonnie Tinsley wrote in "Visions of Delight."
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Aug 2, 2000
Nature bites back in the Everglades
There isn't another river like it anywhere else in the world.
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Jul 19, 2000
Nabatean nights of the living dead
"It was truly a strange spectacle -- a city filled with tombs. One would be inclined to think that the former population had no employment which was not connected with death, and that they had all been surprised by death during the performance of some funeral amenities."
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Jul 5, 2000
Species hidden in the mist of Tikal
TIKAL, Guatemala -- Early morning, and thin mist licks around the feet of Tikal's towering Mayan temples. It is that haunted time, not quite light, not quite dark, when one feels that the odds of seeing a jaguar padding golden-eyed through the ruins are at their highest.
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Jun 21, 2000
Hawaii's fire island a travel hot spot
All the Hawaiian islands are the peaks of submarine volcanoes. Only one island, however, is still volcanically active -- the aptly named Big Island, largest in the 2,400-km-long archipelago and unquestionably the wildest of them all.
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Jun 7, 2000
Irrational tomatoes and criminal turnips
What do Abraham Lincoln, Dark Purple Beefsteak, a Giant Belgian and the Earl of Edgecombe have in common?
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.
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.
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.
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.
Top U.S. and China diplomats talk tough amid warnings of new ‘downward spiral’
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing on Friday
Kyotographie's strong 12th edition shines light into the margins
Yassine Alaoui Ismaili, who goes by Yoriyas, turned to photography, shooting motion while in motion himself, after an injury forced him to give up his career as a professional breakdancer.

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

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