Bringing it to a new level...

My legs stretched out in front of me, at least as far as they could in the cramped space of a JR train.  A long day of wandering around Wakayama city had had left me pretty tuckered out and in order to balance the scales I had treated myself to a nice long soak in [...]

Blessed silence: a story of no tourists

‘Amanokuchi-whatsa,’ the word stumbled out of my mouth like a handful of scrabble letters. ‘What the heck is that?’ ‘Kochidaniamadaji. It’s a temple up in the mountains past Sanzenin. Trust me Mike, you gotta go there,’ Joe assured me. I looked at him a bit incredulously, ‘Go there? How [...]

Fire and water

‘What kind of camera do you have again?’ Tom asked giving me a hand up.  ‘A digital Rebel XT, why?’  ‘Well, the body isn’t water sealed but you should be okay, probably.  Just give it a few days to dry out.’  Everyone around was staring and those closest to us were asking, daijoubu (are you [...]

Give a hoot, don't pollute

Can anyone please tell me where I can find a trash bin in this country? It’s been about 20 minutes of searching and I still have my empty chocolate milk carton and donut wrappers in hand. I’m not in the countryside; I’m actually in a major city with plenty of stores and restaurants [...]