People Power
Today we left Osaka city centre and headed to the east of the sprawl. This area has drawn artistic souls from around Japan – and even further afield – to come and create. While their trades aren’t related to each other at all, each of them has a irrepressible creative spirit that we couldn’t help ...
50 Things We’ve Learned in 50 Days
Today was unfortunately a bit of a wash out in Wakayama prefecture. The seasonal gloom made pictures pretty hard and created a strangely flat feeling to mark what has been an amazing 50 days so far. So rather than try to scrape butter over too much bread with what happened today, we thought we’d bring ...
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 ...
Haute Hakone
First of all I should make it clear: I don’t have to write this. I mean, no one has told me to write it, and I’d probably ignore them if they did. Secondly, you need to know about Gora Kadan, which might sound like a second division Romanian football team, but is in fact a ...
The Grape Escape
Travelling south in Japan at this time of year is like travelling back through time. This morning we made our way down from Matsumoto, to cross into Yamanashi prefecture and land in Kofu. The trees are still green, some of the rice hasn’t been harvested and it’s a good deal warmer than it had been ...
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 ...
A Dyeing Art and Miso Healthy
From the neon modernity of Tokyo and its surrounds, we couldn’t have ended up anywhere much more different than sleepy Chichibu. There are traditional buildings on every other corner, the air is crisp and clean, and we are surrounded by mountains. We have jumped out of the fire and into a cool pine-scented bath. It’s ...
Edible Art
Much of this post will strike native Japanese readers as being as obvious as the basic laws of gravity or the news that fire is hot. But then most people who visit the country aren’t native – nor are they particularly knowledgeable before they arrive. So you’ll forgive us, please, if we sound like wide-eyed ...
We Say No To Natto
hyperbole 1. an obvious and intentional exaggeration. 2. an extravagant statement or figure of speech not intended to be taken literally. As we’ve travelled around Japan, we’ve been treated to loads of local speciality dishes. The “Genghis Khan” in Hokkaido, the thick-cut beef tongue in Miyagi, the boiled “platinum” bacon (shabu-shabu) in Iwate… The list is getting ...
Man Vs Noodles
There are a few stories about the origins of the tradition of wanko soba. The one we were told in Hanamaki was that a travelling lord stopped in at a house and demanded something to eat. The poor local served him a small bowl of plain, cold noodles in the hope that he wouldn’t eat ...
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