100 Things We’ve Learned in 100 Days
1. While it’s probably true all around the world, breasts are literally worshipped in Japan – the Jison-in temple in Wakayama is covered in boobs. 2. If you tell a Japanese person something unexpected, an involuntary noise will escape from them: “Eiiiiiiigghh!” If you tell them something truly extraordinary, it will become deeper and longer: ...
A History of Violence
It’s not all cartoon pufferfish in Shimonoseki. It’s position on the western tip of Honshu has meant that it’s seen more than its fair share of extraordinary events over the years. Battle of Dan-no-Ura, 1185 There’s an old piece of Scottish wisdom that says it is impossible to push your grandmother from large public ...
Tale of Two Castles
According to our copy of the Lonely Planet, there’s a school of thought that believes that America deliberately left Pearl Harbour, Hawaii, open to attack in order to draw the country into the Second World War. Obviously as uneducated travel volunteers we’ve no idea if that’s true, but it’s an interesting perspective – and one ...
Isolation and The Last Samurai
At the start of the 17th century, with the commencement of the Edo Period, Japan decided it didn’t want foreign friends any more. Citing moral decline, the arrival of alien religions and the wicked vices of the wider world, it closed its doors and entered a period of self-isolation known as Sakoku. In the bustling ...
Something Old, Something New
It’s gives a person perspective, does the Travel Volunteer Project. Perspective with which to look across the country and decide what you do and don’t like; what you do and don’t find impressive. For example, having been in Matsumoto, Kochi and Matsuyama castles – one quarter of Japan’s remaining original castles – I can say ...
Five, Seven, Five
My home town of Ayr isn’t known for much, although, over the years, we’ve had one or two famous denizens. The bloke who invented tarmac, for one; a tan-and-white cow for another. By far and away the most famous, though, is Robert Burns, Scotland’s national poet. Ring any bells? Maybe not, but if nothing else, ...
One in a Dozen
When you grow up in the UK, castles are exciting for the first 10 years of your life. Until then you can run around fantasising about King Arthur, Merlin and chums, fending off hoards of villains from the ramparts. Then your adolescence approaches, the joy goes out of you, and you start to resent days ...
TwiTrip – Nagoya
So for those who missed it, here’s a quick round-up of what we did today on our TwiTrip around Nagoya. All day we darted around the city, checking out suggestions tweeted to us by our Twitter followers. 10am – Made our way over to Nagoya Castle, as suggested by @InsideJapan. It was a brilliantly sunny ...
Raw Temptation
We had half an idea about Nagano before arriving in Japan. The monkeys, the legendary snow, the world class ski-runs… None of that was a surprise. The unbelievable autumn colours were a bonus; as was the hospitality of the people we met along the way. People like talented snow-fanatic Yasu of the Tabi Tabi Lodge ...
How Much Wood Would A Woodchuck Chuck?
I’ve always admired Japanese products. More often than not, they’ve got an elegance to them, a tactility that makes them a pleasure to use. I remember the first day I saw a Sony Playstation. It had been imported to a shop in my home town early, of the European release. The graphics were, of course, ...