My recent summer was mostly spent in Asia, with the longest time spent in Japan. Since it was boiling hot down in central Japan, I made an unexpected change in my plans and went up to Hokkaido, to see a
Blue Pond Aoiike : Biei Hokkaido
A nice weekend or daytrip from Sapporo towards the east of Hokkaido is the Furano-Biei area with some gorgeous natural scenery and local culture. One of the examples for a fascinating natural phenomenon is the over-commercialized Blue Pond near Biei. It’s
Visions of Sapporo : Japan
I spent most of the summer in the city of Sapporo in the northern Hokkaido province of Japan. I did not expect to, but the hot and humid ~35c weather down in central Japan left me no choice. I knew
Visions of Nagoya : Japan
While living in Asia Japan was one of my favorite travel destinations. My few visits to Tokyo and Kyoto and the surrounding areas were very memorable and so after living Asia I wondered whether I’ll ever be able to make
Tokyo love motels
I received a few questions the other week from folks traveling to Tokyo asking me about recommendations for affordable places to stay. I already wrote a post about it, but that was from a trip over 7 years ago, so
Hakone mountain train and cable car : Japan
I’ve been asked questions about my visit to the lovely Hakone, a wonderful getaway trip from Tokyo, and when looking back to share some of the adventures from my trip I realized that I didn’t mention the way to get
Bamboo Forest & gorgeous walks : Arashiyama Kyoto
Arashiyama was the last area I visited in Kyoto and it was a glorious beautiful day, filled with gorgeous scenic views, mountain wild monkeys, enchanting bamboo forests and magical hidden temples. You can probably spend a whole day there slowly
Ginkaku-ji temple path : Ancient Kyoto walks
Lots to see and do in Kyoto, and by the end of the first day you’ll probably already feel a bit over-templed. Some temples are very impressive, and some more humble, some are Zen, some Buddhist, and if you’re a
Iwatayama Monkey Park Arashiyama : Kyoto
On my last day in Kyoto, feeling a bit of temple overload I was hoping to try something a bit different and the Arashimaya area was just the thing. One of the highlights in the area is a monkey park,
Shrines of Fushimi Inari Temple : Kyoto
Fushimi Inari is one of the nicest temples to visit in Kyoto, one of the must TODOs on your temple run. In the first post, we hiked up the Inari mountain through the thousands of orange torii orange gates of
