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May 04, 2024
 

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JAPAN TRAVEL

Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Oct 10, 2015
Saitama's 'Little Edo' is big on Japan's colorful history
As my smartphone clock flashes from 11:59 a.m. to 12 p.m., I watch the visitors to Kawagoe, in Saitama Prefecture wipe the sweat from their foreheads and direct their attention toward a more primitive form of time keeping — the Toki no Kane (Bell of Time) tower in the middle of the town square.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Oct 3, 2015
Listening to the wind on Battleship Island
As if from a dream, the island floated over the sea like a terra-cotta dreadnought from a century ago. I'd arrived at Gunkanjima, or Battleship Island, and its profile was unmistakable from the deck of my ferry battling high waves and winds.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / BACKSTREET STORIES
Sep 26, 2015
Circumnavigating joys in Kaminoge
Decades ago, I strolled around the quiet neighborhood of Kaminoge in Setagaya Ward with professor Shuichi Kato, the scholar who convinced me to come study in Tokyo. I vividly recollect, on my first day in Japan, encountering the fragrance of tiny orange kinmokusei (fragrant olive) blossoms as Kato spoke passionately of Japanese art on our walk to the Gotoh Museum. Even then, I knew I'd recall the day with joy.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Sep 19, 2015
Kakunodate town: Looking back on historical charm
Despite the fact that we've arrived on a weekend, the parking lot along Kakunodate's river is relatively empty. From our spot under the shady branches, my friends Felicity and Nori and I haul our convenience-store-purchased picnic up to the edge of the walking path that hugs Hinokinai River. The cherry blossoms that make this riverside ramble one of the most renowned hanami destinations in northern Japan have long since deserted the numerous branches. However, the trees' coat of late season green is the perfect backdrop to our impromptu picnic in what is arguably Akita Prefecture's most beautiful town.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Aug 29, 2015
Okinawa: always worth returning to
The island of Okinawa shimmers beneath the wing of our plane, a dark green smudge on the azure seascape. I can't see it well, ensconced as I am in the aisle seat, already subconsciously distancing myself from this visit. But my daughter, on the other end of the row, peers out the window with wide eager eyes, hungry for a glimpse of her first home.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Aug 1, 2015
Arita fires up a love of pottery, both historical and contemporary
The streets of Arita's Uchiyama porcelain district are mostly deserted this overcast Sunday, a boon for me as I am looking anywhere but at the sidewalk in front of me. My eyes are drawn instead to the parade of restored buildings that front the street, a veritable "name that era" of architectural styles. The edifices here might date anywhere from the Edo Period (1603-1868) to the Taisho Era (1912-1926), but the porcelain vessels contained within have a heritage that stretches back centuries.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Jul 11, 2015
The ogres of Oga are not as frightening as they may appear
Although surely one of Japan's most scenic areas, the Oga Peninsula in Akita Prefecture is off the beaten track and retains an unhurried vibe, still relatively untouched by commercial tourism. Here, it is still possible to see small fishing hamlets as you drive round the coast, rewarded with stunning views at almost every twist in the road.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Jul 4, 2015
Nothing is too bright for Ikuchijima Island
Islands can quickly lose their charm when they become attached to land masses. This, mercifully, has not happened to Ikuchijima Island in Japan's Geiyo archipelago, a cluster of islets in the Seto Inland Sea that, despite its two connecting bridges, feels defiantly detached.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / BACKSTREET STORIES
Jun 27, 2015
The custodians of culture in Koishikawa
Exiting the Nanboku subway's Korakuen Station near Tokyo Dome, I gaze up at clouds resembling bunches of purple hydrangeas. Directly overhead, a roller coaster car swooshes by, its passengers shrieking, which is a good sign, because, despite its aquatic name, the Thunder Dolphin coaster doesn't run in rainy weather. Optimistic, I head west along Metropolitan Road 434, into the Koishikawa neighborhood.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Jun 20, 2015
Dive into the culture of Minamiboso
It is just after sunset and hundreds of people have gathered around the docking bays of Minamiboso on the southern edge of Chiba Prefecture. As men bang away on taiko drums, dozens of women emerge from a hilltop shrine. Dressed head-to-toe in white outfits and wearing goggles on their heads, they carry lit bamboo torches and walk, two-by-two, toward the docks. These are ama (female divers), and as they wade into the water to form a circle, onlookers watch in near silence — save for the sound of digital and analog shutters.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Jun 13, 2015
Above and below the Yamaguchi plains
Three meters above my head, the rectangular offering box of Motonosumi Inari Shrine seems impossibly out of my reach. For the 23rd time, I wind back my arm and attempt to lob my chosen donation between the narrow slats. For the 23rd time, the coin takes on a trajectory I'm certain I didn't intend ... and soars over the torii gate where the box balances and into the road.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Jun 6, 2015
War and peace on Okinawa's Iejima Island
Beside their coastlines, there are other insistent geographical features that identify islands. In Okinawa, there is the great escarpment of Tindahanata on Yonaguni-jima Island, while Ishigaki Island has the strangely occult form of Mount Maapee, shaped like a sorcerer's hat.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / BACKSTREET STORIES
May 30, 2015
Flora, fauna and fellows on the river
With summer's heat punching in early this year, I'm already angling for riverside relief. I trundle down to Ota Ward's Rokugodote, the southernmost train station in Tokyo's 23 wards, and a stone's throw from the Tamagawa (Tama River). The 138-km-long Tamagawa, which in this location divides Tokyo from Kawasaki, is bound to have some chill spots, I think.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
May 16, 2015
Cruising the waves of Japan's culture
As the great ship surges into Tokyo Bay I'm on the prow, hair streaming in the wind, like Kate Winslet in "Titanic." Wooded crags come into view, dotted with buildings and the odd factory chimney. The buildings are modern, not wooden houses, but the crags are still much the same as Commodore Matthew Perry must have seen when he sailed with his "Black Ships" toward what was then Edo Bay in 1853.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Apr 25, 2015
The temporal shift of Ainokura village
The tour conductor waved her flag furiously as she directed the bus driver into the last remaining slot in the parking lot that serves the village of Shirakawa-go.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Apr 18, 2015
Kochi doesn't need to fish for compliments
The fire is supposed to be searing my skipjack tuna, but I feel as if it's my cheeks that are cooking instead.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Mar 20, 2014
Certificate test starts for care workers as travel guides
A nonprofit organization of medical and nursing care workers has launched a certification exam for people who assist the elderly and physically disabled during their travels.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / BACKSTREET STORIES
Sep 28, 2013
Solitude is where you find it
Under cartoon-blue skies washed by early-autumn typhoons, I stand at Sendaizaka-ue (summit of Sendaizaka Slope) in Tokyo's Minato Ward. Sendaizaka was named for daimyo lords from Edo Period (1603-1867) Sendai, now in Miyagi Prefecture, who maintained a yashiki (suburban home) on the slope that today hosts the newly rebuilt Embassy of South Korea.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Sep 28, 2013
Stroll through 1,000 years of history in one Nikko garden
Even before seeing the great sights of Nikko, the visitor cannot fail to be impressed by the luxuriance of the area's moss. Towering cryptomeria trees, allowing filtered light to penetrate ground cover, provide ideal incubation zones and levels of exposure and protection for the flourishing of moss in this part of Tochigi Prefecture's damp summers and cold winters.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Sep 14, 2013
A swim with turtles (maybe)
For snorkelers, there's perhaps nothing better than hanging out underwater with a hawksbill sea turtle. Safer than sharks, they are graceful and beautiful, ancient and wise. But sightings are rare. Of my hundreds of snorkeling adventures, I've only seen turtles, from a distance, in Palau and Koh Tao in Thailand.
Biden calls ally Japan ‘xenophobic’ along with rivals China and Russia
U.S. President Joe Biden speaks in Syracuse, New York, on April 25.
Yen swings stir talk that Japan is in the FX market once again
An electronic screen in Tokyo displays the yen exchange rate against the U.S. dollar and the graph showing its recent swings, on Thursday.
Harajuku strives to reclaim its former glory — and surpass it
Laforet Harajuku, which celebrated its 45th anniversary last year, has been a witness to the district's evolution over the years.
Weak yen fattens tourist wallets in Japan
People visit the Ameya Yokocho market in Tokyo's Ueno district during the Golden Week holiday on Tuesday.
Japan's May 1 intervention may have cost ¥3.66 trillion, BOJ data suggests
An electronic screen displays a graph showing Japanese yen exchange rates surging against the dollar amid signs of intervention by authorities, in Tokyo on Thursday.
Kishida sets sights on energy and climate in South America trip
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will use a policy speech in Sao Paulo to set out his vision for ties between Japan and South America, almost 10 years after former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe advocated for stronger ties between the two in the same city.
Yellow sand allergy: A health issue made worse by climate change
A screenshot of the Meteorological Agency's satellite image of clouds and yellow sand (in pink) on Sunday.
Climate change, chalky grains and the risks for Japan’s rice farmers
A farmer plants seedlings in Satsumasendai, Kagoshima Prefecture. Japan’s self sufficiency rate for rice is nearly 100%, compared with 38% for food overall, on a calorie basis.
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.
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.

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