Inside Nara’s Mall Museums
Nara is best known for the four-legged locals that roam freely around its 660-hectare park. But friendly deer aren’t the city’s only animal attraction. Visitors can also get up close…
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Goodbye, Japan!
After four years, the time has finally come to say goodbye to my life in Japan. In just a few days, I’ll be getting on a plane bound for Stars…
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Sun Messe: The Maoi of the East
In the Valparaíso Region of Chile, a group of statues equal in shape and size rise from a site known as Ahu Akivi and stare out into the Pacific Ocean.…
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Kumamoto Castle, Under Construction
“Please visit Kumamoto Castle,” my colleague urged when I told her we’d be driving through Kumamoto City on the way back from Nagasaki during the Golden Week holidays. The popular…
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Nagasaki Peace Park and the 26 Martyrs
Of all the things we had planned to do in Nagasaki, I was most curious to see the Peace Park. Established in 1955 to commemorate the atomic bombing on August…
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Glover Garden and Dejima Island
On top of Minami-yamate, a gorgeous hillside overlooking Nagasaki Harbour, sits Glover Garden (グラバー園), an open-air museum of the homes of former Western residents of the city, who settled there after…
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Inside Japan’s Dutch Theme Park
I’ve always dreamed of visiting the Netherlands, partly due to my Dutch ancestry but mostly because of my love of cheese and other edibles. So when Golden Week began approaching, an annual string of…
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Hitoyoshi Cherry Blossoms
On the first weekend of April, Austin and I were out hiking in the north of Nobeoka when all of a sudden it began to snow. Snow! In April! I…
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The “Little Kyoto” of Kumamoto
“Please visit Miyazaki again,” a sign reads at the entrance to the prefecture’s last tunnel burrowing through the Kyushu Mountain Range on Route 219. When you emerge on the other…
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Sumo on a Sunday
Two crouched rikishi look each other dead in the eye. In perfect symmetry, they rub their hands together, clap once, and then move their arms out slowly to their sides,…
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Hiking Mt. Kaimondake
AIR RESCUE POINT. The small, yellow sign caught my eye as I clambered over another giant boulder. Take note, I teased myself, this is where they’ll have to come to find…
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