Arima is a beautiful and quaint little mountainside town located behind Mt. Rokko. Only being a stone’s throw from Osaka and Kobe, it is a hidden oasis for Japanese people wanting to get away for a quiet, relaxing weekend. It’s an insolated place tucked away in the luminous landscape of the great outdoors and is…
Japan’s skiing has been kept a secret from the international market for years by the locals and Antipodeans in the know, and for good reason. The powder here is renowned for being particularly light and is eloquently named ‘champagne powder’. As soon as I got back from a week of powder in Hakuba over New…
The Kobe Prefectural Museum of Art is a modern and contemporary art museum located in the heart of Kobe just minutes away from Sannomiya Station. It was built in 1995, and was part of the rebuilding project following the Great Hanshin Earthquake. It features over 8,000 works of art from Hyogo artist and artists around…
I like my travelling. I like it when it’s cheap even more, and there’s something in my brain that tells me I should only use nenkyuu if I’m leaving the country. On top of that, I don’t like going away if there isn’t already a national holiday involved in some way, just for that extra…
If you are looking for somewhere slightly off the beaten track for your momiji-viewing pleasure, how about heading out to Kougenji in Aogaki, Tamba. Access – maps and other information available on the temple’s website http://kougenji-tanba.or.jp/ (Japanese only) Photos by Clint Denison, Sasayama-shi, 2007-2012
ç ¥å³°é«˜åŽŸ(Tonomine Highlands, Kamikawa, Hyogo) So I went to the Tonomine highlands (where the movie Norwegian Wood was filmed, based on Murakami Haruki’s famous book) for a moon viewing party. There was dancing, and taiko (two of the performers were JETs) food, etc. Good times basically! Here are a few pictures. There is also a spring festival held on…
About this time last year, I’d been hearing stories of this epic bike ride called the ‘Shimanami Kaido’, seven bridges that span between the islands from Onomichi in Hiroshima Prefecture to Imabari in Ehime Prefecture. After further research I found out that the first bridge (if you start in Onomichi) is usually bypassed as it…
If you’re anything like me, by the time spring rolls around you’ll be itching to get outside to pay homage to the return of the warmer weather. One of my favourite Japan holidays to date was one such outing. Hiking through the vast ancient forests that escaped the ravages of the Second World War in…
In April, when the snow has melted away, there is one place you can count on for a mountain of snow. The Northern Japanese alps are the steepest and considered by some to be the most beautiful in Japan. The Alpine Route, as its highest point, has an altitude of 2500 metres. The route can…