During my summer stay at the scenic Hokkaido region in the northern part of Japan, I was based in Sapporo and made occasional trips to see some of the area. In a trip to the Niseko area I made a

Visions of Furano : Hokkaido
While spending the summer in Sapporo in Hokkadio, at the northern region of Japan, I made a number of daytrips to explore a bit of the mountainous region of Furano. I started off with the blue pond and Biei and then

Moerenuma Park : Sapporo
Sapporo has a number of public parks all over the city, but the one I liked the most, by far, was the Moerenuma Park. It’s a bit off the beaten track in already rural Sapporo, but it’s well worth it. Aside from

Mining Village Houtong : Taiwan
Houtong in Ruifang an hour from Taipei close to Jiufen and Keelung offers funky attractions. The former mining colony now mainly attracts the Taiwanese tourists for its “cat village“, where cats basically roam around in large numbers as if they’re

Sapporo & Asahi beer factories : Hokkaido
I spent most of the last summer in Japan, and most of that was spent in Sapporo of the northern region of Hokkaido. Hokkaido is famous for its natural scenery, skiing in the winter, and the relatively cooler chilled out

Mount Niseko-Annupuri cable car : Hokkaido
More cable cars in Hokkaido? you got it. A quick daytrip from Sapporo, where I spent most of the last summer, is the lovely Niseko area, well known as a great ski resort. Since I love cable cars and just can’t

Mount Moiwayama ropeway & observation deck : Sapporo
I spent most of the last summer in the city of Sapporo in Hokkaido, the northern region of Japan. Aside from the wonderful cultural adventure of visiting Japan and the lovely scenic beauty of the region there was one thing

Nightmarket tour in Taipei
One of the greatest things to do in Taipei is to visit one of the many crazy night markets. Sure, there are night markets in other countries, but nothing comes close to the intensity of the Taiwanese night markets. It’s

Hokkaido University Campus : Sapporo
I planned to do this summer roaming through southern Japan following a conference, but once I was there it became clear this was a flawed plan. At temperatures of ~36c, there’s very little that you can do in terms of

Where’s Waldo & Upside Down House: Huashan 1914 Taipei
In my recent visit to Taipei I went back to the newly renovated Huashan 1914 Taipei area to see a few of the funky exhibitions taking place. One new attraction is the very engaging Upside Down House, a house that was