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Oh, the things I wish I’d known when I was young. Take the ingredients for a basic bake pictured at the top of this post. They look simple enough but for me they represent small lessons learned over decades. Mise en Place I enjoy the calmness of preparing and laying out all the ingredients for… Continue reading Zen and the Art of Casserole Assembly

I’m filled with questions when I look at a map of a place I have never visited. How do I chunk up a manageable journey through this place? How do I get there? Which areas do I visit? Where are the hiking trails? Where are the trailheads? How do I get around? How do I… Continue reading My Kagoshima: Chunking the Map

Earlier this month, I found myself airside at Japan’s Fukuoka Airport. 13 minutes earlier I was boarding the subway downtown. In those 13 minutes I rode the train two stations to the airport, walked up two levels to Departures, and cleared Security. I had almost an hour before boarding the plane, plenty time for a… Continue reading Streamlining Flying

Whether it’s investments or stuff, I’m a buy-and-hold kind of person. I’d had my handheld GPS (a Garmin, function-key-driven GPSMAP 6OCSx) 8 years when I lost it on a trip in January 2015. I was not ready to replace it because it still performed well relative to current units. But now I had no GPS. I… Continue reading Travel Gear: Buying the Wrong GPS

Hakata (Fukuoka), Monday through Saturday: 08:53 People start to assemble outside the steel roller shutter door. 08:55 Voices behind the shutter make a declaration in unison. 08:59 An electric motor whirs as the shutter slowly rises. The scene slowly reveals itself: an office with about 30 workers in business attire. Three are standing at the… Continue reading Behind the Steel Door

I can add Hita train station, northern Kyushu, Japan, to my “delighted” list. By any standards, it’s a small station. A single train track enters town, and a single track leaves town. At Hita station, the track fans out into multiple tracks, more than enough to handle the three platforms and the boarding of an… Continue reading Hita Station

Painting of Buddhist hell, Daihonzan Naritasan Temple, Kurume, Japan.  The things you learn when you travel. I had no idea there was a Buddhist hell. I first caught a whiff of it this week in Unzenonsen, Kyushu, Japan. Hydrogen sulphide, boiling water bubbling out the ground, steam. It was Buddhist monks, back in 701 AD, who… Continue reading Animatronic Hell

As the floor plan shows, the lower levels of big Japanese resort hotels have something for everyone. Last week, in Kirishima, Kyushu, Japan, I walked through the hotel’s amusement area dressed in a yukata, clutching a towel, heading for the stairs to the outdoors hot springs.   People were laughing and joking and drinking. Their… Continue reading Channeling Eva Gabor in Kirishima