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…
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…
In comments on my previous post, people seemed interested in “Yozakura” or night hanami. Viewing cherry blossoms at night can be a nice evening outing and also a good contrast to cherry blossom viewing in the daytime. There are tons of places, and if you stay in a hotel, I’m sure the staff can guide…
UPDATE (FEB 4, 2011): tenki.jp has reduced it’s annual Japan cherry blossom forecast for 2011, a screenshot of which is below. It looks like Tokyo is on the line for blooming in March, and we are looking at the turn of the month for most of Japan. Fukuoka, Kochi, and warmer climates seem to have…
Yet again I had to buy airline tickets to travel internationally starting and ending in Japan. Faced with two main options, JTB and H.I.S., again, I gave both of them a chance for my business. I’ll tell my story here, then end with some advice I’d like to give people about buying airline tickets in…
This is an update to a previous post about using credit cards and atm cards in Japan. I have recently gone around Japan with some friends, and although most places I go take credit cards (Visa and Mastercard are the most widely accepted), I have recently been to a few family restaurant chains, and less…