Category: Honshu

Blue Tarps in a Park

The homeless at [Tokyo’s] Ueno Park were up early Monday, with hundreds of the park dwellers quietly disassembling their tents and packing their belongings onto carts soon after dawn.Pushing carts laden with their possessions, they plodded toward a small empty plot hidden by bushes and trees.Around 9:40 a.m., about two hours after completing the evacuation,…… Continue reading Blue Tarps in a Park

A Crosswalk in Nagano

One Monday afternoon in April 2016 I got to see something which, once seen, has been impossible to un-see. I’m standing at a crosswalk in Nagano, Japan, reading a ditty on the back of a man’s shirt: Indian Boys,Indian Boys,Oh how I love those Indian Boys The image of an American Indian dreamcatcher tells me…… Continue reading A Crosswalk in Nagano

Snapshots: 1,000 Miles by Train to Tokyo

September 2018. I had spent the previous week exploring the three national parks in eastern Hokkaido. It was now time to figure out how to chunk a journey to Tokyo over the next 10 days. I had flown to eastern Hokkaido, Japan’s northernmost main island. The journey back to Tokyo would be slower. Armed with…… Continue reading Snapshots: 1,000 Miles by Train to Tokyo

TOTO Demonstration Showroom

On my way to Haneda HND for my flight home, popped into TOTO’s Tokyo “demonstration showroom,” occupying two floors high up in a Tokyo tower. For good, practical reasons, most Japanese have TOTO’s washlets in their homes; we’re having them in our new home

Mount Toyama

Hiked a gnarly trail: extensive tree roots, scree, erosion, fallen trees, 2,300 feet gain in two hours, no switchbacks. Walking down was even harder than the climb. A guy, older than me, was doing this with camping gear. Mount Toyama (7,230 feet), Nikko National Park.

Nikko

Walked for hours around an area of temples, shrines, and woodland paths on a hillside near Nikko, two hours north of Tokyo.