© 2011 Daniel. All rights reserved.
After leaving Aomori I headed north on the Hakuchō limited express through the Seikan tunnel to Hokkaido. It took another 2 limited express trains and a total of 7 hours to reach Asahikawa, to meet up with my travel partners – … Continue reading
© 2011 Daniel. All rights reserved.
The Aomori Nebuta Matsuri is an annual festival held every year in Aomori City, Aomori Prefecture (you may notice a pattern with prefectural capital names). The festival takes place over a week in early August and is famous for its illuminated floats, … Continue reading
© 2011 Daniel. All rights reserved.
After moving out of my (very) humble abode in Himeji, the first major part of my pre-return holiday was the Fuji Rock Festival - a 3 day long music festival that actually takes place in Naeba, in Niigata prefecture as opposed … Continue reading
© 2011 Daniel. All rights reserved.
Kyoto’s Gion Matsuri is one of the best known summer festivals in Japan. Centered around the Gion district, it supposedly lasts a month, but most of the action occurs around the middle of July. Being that it was likely one of the … Continue reading
© 2011 Daniel. All rights reserved.
Heading to the famed sand dunes of Tottori is something I had been planning to do before I even got to Japan. The dunes are just outside Tottori City in Tottori Prefecture (Imaginative naming schemes, eh?), which borders Hyogo to … Continue reading
© 2011 Daniel. All rights reserved.
It’s summer time in Japan, which means not only intense humidity (still way preferable to the oppressive winter) and the constant sound of cicadas, but also lots of Japanese festivals to attend. A couple of weeks ago was the Yukata … Continue reading
© 2011 Daniel. All rights reserved.
It seems as I get further away from winter and closer to the end of my time here I am getting busier and busier by the week. This past weekend kicked off with a brilliant pub quiz (which our team … Continue reading
© 2011 Daniel. All rights reserved.
Those who have known me for a while will probably be aware that I am not the most careful person in the world with my money. I am not sure where this comes from, the rest of my family has … Continue reading
© 2011 Daniel. All rights reserved.
Our final day of our holiday (and perhaps my last extensive trip in Japan for some time) was spent on Naoshima, an island in the Seto Inland Sea, famous for its art installations and Tadao Ando buildings. The island itself … Continue reading
© 2011 Daniel. All rights reserved.
After our jaunt around Ehime it was time for us to leave – we had booked a Kei car for two days to explore the Iya Valley and the surrounding area. This involved quite an enjoyable 3 hour drive East, … Continue reading
© 2011 Daniel. All rights reserved.
We arrived in Matsuyama on the Friday night after our journey along the Shimanami Kaidō. That night we had a well deserved (and absolutely gigantic) okonomiyaki each and then headed to our hotel to rest for hiking the next day. … Continue reading
© 2011 Daniel. All rights reserved.
For the Golden Week holidays this year Adam and I decided we would use this as a chance to head to Shikoku (where we hoped there would be as many domestic tourists), to do some hiking and checking out some … Continue reading
