[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]I’ve arrived in the most southerly islands of Japan now, Okinawa, about 400 miles south of Kagoshima. Okinawa had a rather peaceful local populous that had somehow avoided the civil war years that Japan had endured. That ended when Japan invaded in the 1600s and easily conquered the islands. It bears some similarity to Hawai’i, […]

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text] On the last day of my Japan Rail Pass, I traveled from Kyoto to my most southerly stop on the main islands of Japan, the city of Kagoshima on Kyūshū Island. Though it is over 900 km., it was a smooth, fast 4 hours by train. It is noticably warmer down here, a high […]

Japan is not a small country! It is as long from end to end as from the Canadian border north of Seattle, WA to the Mexican border, about 1800 km. In just 5 weeks for Hokkaidō, Honshū and Kyūshū Islands, I will only get to see bits of it. A start. My beginning to explore […]

[vc_row 0=””][vc_column][vc_column_text 0=””] After departing Seoul, I flew up north to the northerly Japanese island of Hokkaidō. My goal is to sample numerous onsen (hot springs) and do some hiking, traveling by train and bus. Many of our family have visited Japan, or at least have heard much about it, so it seems a bit […]

[vc_row][vc_column 0=””][vc_column_text] Korea is much in the news recently. I have stopped over in Seoul a few times, and came to like it (see Seoul October 2016). I scheduled in two weeks here in order to go beyond Seoul and get to know the area beyond a bit better. It is easy to forget how […]