One of the greatest things about traveling to Japan is the way baths are enjoyed. Aside from the awesomeness that is the bath in a person’s home, sometimes people enjoy a trip out to a public bath, or if they are lucky enough to live within a few hours of an onsen or hot spring,…
One of the greatesst places to visit in Japan is Hiroshima. There are beautiful sites, natural places to hike, historical monuments and museums, and great regional foods. One of Hiroshima’s greatest attractions is the Hiroshima Peace Memorial, called the “Genbaku Dome” in Japanese. Beginning August 6th, 2011 in Japan which is the evening of August…
The O-bon or Bon Festival in Japan is definitely something summer travelers to Japan want to have marked on their calendars. There are both good things about being in Japan, but also some things to be aware of if traveling around this time of year. Some things to be aware of: Many people in Japan…
After the Tohoku Earthquake, the Tsukiji Fish Market, a great place to see where your sushi and other foods get their start, and to gain a great appreciation for the way a fish auction works in Japan, was closed to tourists out of concerns for their safety. The market has banned visits from tourists in…
If you haven’t been to the new and definitely improved Japan Rail Osaka Station, a Japanese blogger has taken photos of some of the more interesting parts of the station, as well as some breathtaking shots from some of the higher points there. Fans of trains, trains stations, architecture, and Japan will enjoy these greatly……
If there is ONE place my friends who have visited Japan did not want to go when visiting Japan, it’s McDonald’s. Although I’m not a great fan of McDonald’s food, and too much of it tends to make me feel pretty bad, there are several reasons to go to McDonald’s in Japan. It occurred to…
One trip that I feel is worth the money if you are in Japan for any significant amount of time is a trip to Hokkaido. Hokkaido has wonderful hot springs, food, and natural wonders (yes, wonders!). The difficulty of a trip to Hokkaido is that everything is very spread out and it may be a…
I just read through a great article (in Japanese) that gives advice to people about how to take great pictures of the cherry blossoms at night. There is a lot of basic advice for using the white balance and experimenting with your cameras automatic settings, but the site also features some nice photos of cherry…
If you are lucky enough to be in the Kobe area for the cherry blossom season, there are hundreds (maybe thousands) of places you can go. Actually, I will be writing a lot about places outside of Kobe and toward the western side of the Kansai region here because some of the best places to…
I just wanted to post a quick message up here for people who have been reading the site. The majority of damage after the latest earthquake in Japan is in the Sendai and Fukushima area north of Tokyo. However, the aftershocks are continuing. I don’t want to give too much advice until we feel the…
This is coming from a lot of experience getting a lot of strange looks during many years living and faux pas-ing in Japan. 1. Don’t Think About Soup I’ve brought non-Japanese friends to a very nice Sento, or public bathhouse, and heard the inevitable reference to “sitting in an old guy soup”. “The only thing…
When you go to Japan to order sushi, you can go to one of the “kaiten” sushi places where the sushi goes around on a conveyer belt, and usually costs about 100 yen or so per plate (usually with two pieces of sushi per plate). This is a very cheap way to get your fill,…