I made it to the flight no worries, but would have never expected what happened next. While waiting for the plane to board, an American sitting next to me in the lobby asked me what I was carrying, pointing to my dijeridoo. So we started talking and found out we were both going to have […]

China is a land of mystery as much to those who live there as it is for those of us traveling through. Barbaric from the onset yet so refined, China, is discovered in the little pockets of civility stashed away like veins of gold in a dark mine. With the raw interpretation of our five […]

In keeping with what has turned out to be somewhat of an island fetish, my trip down south to Kyushu, the southern most island of the main Japanese islands, I also visited Kagoshima, a small island even further south! The main purpose of the trip was to see another friend from college teaching English in […]

A community center in Kuwana that we teach English at felt it necessary to take us English teachers out to lunch. It was a great meal of Udon noodles or Soba noodles accompanied by the usual array of Japanese side dishes: Tempura, Tsukemono (crunchy pickles), Miso soup, Sashimi (raw fish), Sushi rolls (raw fish rolled […]

The island of Sadogashima, just off the coast of Niigata City in the Sea of Japan proved to be an amazing discovery, one of Japans many treasures. Of greatest interest to me were the traditions that I only got a glimpse of through the trinkets at the souvenir shops. Some very interesting artwork and craftsmanship […]

Jumping right back into things when I got back to Japan, I got word of the big festival hapening in Nagoya, and was off like a shot. There were plenty of traditional Japanese displays, including various battle re-enactments, which were amazing. But along with that came the western influence of the marching brass band, uni-cycles, […]

I made sure to postpone my departure from Japan, because everybody said this was a festival not to be missed. How right they were. Each of the townships in the city of Kuwana has a huge cart/carrage of some sort that carries a big drum like the one I’m beating on in the photo shown […]

Hokkaido is the northern most of the main islands which comprise Japan. And Natalie and I went to the northern tip of Hokkaido. We were hoping for clear enough weather to see Russia for the first time, but the relatively close island of Sakhalin remained elusive. Getting there took us about 33 hours all up. […]

We arrived at the base of Mt. Fuji around 10am Monday morning and easily found the cabin. We then drove up the mountain to 5th station on the Subaru-line. This is a very popular take off point for Fuji-san climbers, it’s also a very popular tourist stop. There are stacks of shops with all kinds […]