Exploring Wartime Remains on Japan’s Rabbit Island
If any island served as inspiration for ABC’s LOST (aka the best television series of all time) it was surely Ōkunoshima. Featuring a golf course, pylons, old test laboratories and its very…
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The Sacred, Starving Deer of Miyajima
“…so please do not feed the deer,” the announcement played over a loudspeaker as soon as I walked out of the terminal. Wait – what!? There’s deer here? Thanks to…
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Hiroshima’s Peace Park in Black and White
I spent most of my visit to Hiroshima’s Peace Memorial Park sitting on a bench. This was partly due to the fact that I was supercalifragilisticexpialidociously hungover from the previous night’s festivities; after gatecrashing…
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In Pictures: Chiran’s Nebuta Festival
Every year on the third Saturday of July, Chiran holds its own, miniature, version of the famed Nebuta Festival that takes place in Aomori City. Large washi lanterns, decorated with…
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Kagoshima’s Kamikaze Town
“Why are you taking pictures of yourself?” Mark asked with one eyebrow raised as he turned around and saw my lens pointing into the window. “I’m getting bored, there’s nothing else here…
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Onda Festival: A Horse-Blessed Harvest
Here in the inaka, rice fields are woven into the scenery like squares on a patchwork quilt. The need for a calendar is obviated by their narrative of the seasons; glassy strips in early…
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Ookawara Gorge and the Firefly Festival
If ajisai is the quintessential flower of tsuyu season, the firefly must be it’s insect. Called hotaru in Japanese, these lightning bugs swarm around streams and rivers in the countryside from late May to…
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Ajisai and the Plum Rains
Due to the stubborn Mei-yu front, most of East Asia experiences a two-month rainy season. During June and July, the weeks become an endless parade of cloudy days, accompanied by debilitating humidity and,…
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Cape Noma
Have you ever seen a place that’s so beautiful it doesn’t seem real? That’s how I felt staring out the car window as Mark and I made our way down the coast to…
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Fukiagehama Sand Sculpture Festival
Fukiagehama beach is one of Japan’s three biggest sand dune systems. Bordered with pine forests, and facing the East China Sea, it’s also a beloved spot for both the residents of Minamisatsuma City,…
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Senganen Garden and the Cat Shrine
“This… is so wonderful that I don’t know how to express it,” said British diplomat Harry Smith Parkes of his sojourn at Senganen in 1866. “Anyone who visits there must be stricken by…
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