hmmn

Photo by Dirk. Last weekend we went up to Minakami, an onsen, or hot spring, town nestled in the mountains of northern Gunma, with three other families, all friends. The town itself, with the Tone River running through it and snow-capped mountains rising up in the background, was probably quite picturesque in its day, but [...]

Since I began my journey more or less with Ozu, it was a nice feeling to complete a circle of sorts and end my trip (more or less) by making a visit to the Seishunkan in Matsusaka (Mie prefecture). seishun means youth and the seishunkan is a museum dedicated to the period of the great [...]

.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; } .flickr-yourcomment { } .flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; } .flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } Given that part of the purpose of this trip was to get away from all the various goings on around New Years time, it’s highly ironic — or just stupid — [...]

.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; } .flickr-yourcomment { } .flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; } .flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } Headed home tomorrow, which is a good thing. Took this tonight from Kobe’s Odaiba-like shopping complex at the port, which does have in its favor compared to its bigger Tokyo sister [...]

.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; } .flickr-yourcomment { } .flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; } .flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } Naoko warned me that I probably wouldn’t be overly impressed with Kobe’s “foreigner houses” and other attendant vestiges of European presence, and indeed she was right. It does seem to be [...]

.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; } .flickr-yourcomment { } .flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; } .flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } I hate arriving into a city at night, so hard to get one’s bearings, get a lay of the land. Of course the nice thing about Japan is that no matter [...]