Travel Aug 17, 2018

Motobu: History and nature do the talking

The Motobu Peninsula is, at least to the casual guest, an earthly Utopia. How many of us, spellbound by nature, have dreamed of withdrawing to a rural idyll like this?

Food & Drink Jul 21, 2018

Kitchens of longevity: The culinary secrets of age-old Okinawa

Okinawa is one of the world’s “Blue Zones,” areas where people live particularly long and healthy lives. Observing the processes and procedures behind Okinawan yakuzen medicinal cooking offers some delicious hints.

Books May 19, 2018

Mount Fuji is the gift to writers that keeps on giving

"Mountain/Home: New Translations from Japan" shows Mount Fuji from a variety of literary angles in this comprehensive anthology of translations.

Travel Apr 27, 2018

A feast for the senses: Ashikaga offers travelers more than just wisteria

In Tochigi Prefecture, the Ashikaga Flower Park is home to an abundance of wisteria, a plant that has been celebrated across the centuries in Japanese literature.

Art Mar 11, 2018

Picturing Okinawa: The black and white of cultural identity

Tracing the history of Okinawa as it is represented in the differing genres of experimental, documentary and portrait photography, inevitably leads to the abiding themes of identity, ethnicity and political posture. Located on the outer periphery of the nation, Okinawa, a garrison island where people ...

Books Feb 17, 2018

Darkness aside, beauty exists in Tanizaki's shadows

The darker spaces, as Tanizaki seems to infer, decelerate time; the absence of light heightens our perception of what little exists.

Travel Feb 16, 2018

Fire, ash and a bicycle ride around the volcanic Sakurajima Island

Active Kagoshima Prefecture volcano a hot destination for cycle tourists, best viewed from the safety of Sengan-en, an Edo Period circuit garden.

Travel Jan 5, 2018

Finding a little historical perspective in Iwate's Hiraizumi

World Heritage site steeped in history remains largely free of tourists.

Books / Reviews Dec 30, 2017

This no garden variety book on Zen practice

The over-application of the term Zen to describe everything from interior design to restaurant menus pored over by celebrities and fashionistas to the expression a "Zen moment" can be tiresome. Zen Gardens and Temples of Kyoto, by John Dougill, Photography by John Einarsen.144 pages TUTTLE PUBLISHING, ...

Travel Nov 10, 2017

Taking a spiritual journey into the mystic on hallowed Mount Koya

Even with its convenience stores, souvenir outlets, tour buses and boutique coffee shops, Mount Koya might be modestly alluded to as a Japanese Lhasa. There is no living being, of course, who embodies the doctrines of a religious order such as the Dalai Lama, ...