The Children of the Volcano
Approximately 92,800 years ago: homo sapiens and Neanderthals coexist; Mammoths walk the Earth; people still use CDs; and the island of Kyushu is being ripped asunder by the eruption of Mount Aso. It had already been exploding on and off for two hundred thousand years, but this was the big one: the mountain unleashed such ...
Wishy Washi
Paper making first arrived in Japan hundreds of years ago. It wasn’t theirs when it arrived, but like so many things, it was distinctly Japanese by the time it was being exported. The heavy, stiff paper, known as washi (literally meaning “Japanese paper”) was used for everything from armour to Shinto garbs to origami. Today it’s ...
Training Days
Today is our 40th day as travel volunteers: if we were emigrating pets, or Jesus Christ, it’d be time to leave quarantine and come home for a bite to eat and a bit of a cuddle. But we’re neither, so we keep travelling. In fact, for two of those 40 days, we’ve been nothing but ...
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 ...
Face Painting
As with most ancient religious figures, there is some conjecture about the true history of Daruma, a devout monk whose practise of extreme mediation gave rise to Zen Buddhism. One colourful tale that says once, during a nine session of staring at a wall, he once fell asleep. On waking, he was so disgusted with ...
“Let’s become lost children together”
It’s 1995 and I am 12 years old. It is a very hot night in Scotland, which are as common as snowfall in Saudi Arabia. I am unable to sleep, so turn on the small television in the bedroom I share with my brother. There are four channels: the two from the BBC, which are ...
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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 ...