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: ...
On Top of a Mountain, All Covered in Trees
Art collectors aren’t unique to Japan, nor are world class exhibitions of art. But one thing I’ve never encountered before is the desire to take these rare, extremely valuable items away from major cities and move them out to obscure, rural locations. That, I think, is quite peculiar to Japan. We first found this sort ...
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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 ...
There is a Light and it Never Goes Out
My grandfather was in it from the very start – he lied about his age so he could join up. His first missions came on the notorious North Atlantic convoys, when British ships would navigate icy North Sea to sneak past German forces and deliver supplies to the Soviets. My grandfather was 15 years old, ...
Bridge Over Troubled Water
Dizzy. I’m so dizzy, my head is spinning… But this whirlpool does end. A little too quickly, in fact. Forty-one metres below us in the Naruto Narrows dozens of little whirlpools are forming and collapsing, like a swarm of small hurricanes. They’re caused by a drop in water level that surges as the tide goes ...
Arty Farty
Another syndrome you should know about is that of The Wee Man. The key symptom is that the smaller-than-average person tends to compensate for their lack of feet and inches by being boisterous and uppity. Napoleon had it. So did Ghengis Khan. And so too does Kagawa, Japan’s smallest prefecture. While other, larger, prefectures are ...
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 ...
A Brief Word On Trainspotting
1964. Britain still hangs its citizens; America is violently swithering about the Civil Rights Act; Bob Dylan introduces The Beatles to cannabis. Meanwhile, Japan is getting ready for its first Olympics by unleashing the shinkansen, or what the world will come to know as the Bullet Train. While the rest of the world may as ...