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
Category: East Asia
A Level Path
Walked a level path through extensive marshland surrounded by mountains in Nikko National Park. After yesterday’s tough trail, I went easy on myself today.
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.
Should I Press This Button?
In my experience, Japanese hotels are always clean, comfortable, and safe. Usually they are great value. Sometimes they come with a twist. I’ve stayed in a bicycle hotel, an art hotel, but, until this trip, I had never stayed in a hotel modeled on a nursing home. I stayed at this nursing home-themed hotel in…… Continue reading Should I Press This Button?
Nikko
Walked for hours around an area of temples, shrines, and woodland paths on a hillside near Nikko, two hours north of Tokyo.
A Somber Place
Rode a Sendai city bus past fields where homes had once stood, to an elementary school that is now a museum. The 2011 tsunami crashed through the second floor of the school, but the children had been sent to the top floors and roof where they were safe.
Michinoku Coastal Trail
Hiked for two days along part of the 700 km Michinoku (Pacific) Coastal Trail in Sanriku Fukko (reconstruction) National Park. People stay away because of the destructive 2011 earthquake and tsunami, and the disabled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.
Undersea Bullet Train
Rode this beauty through the 33.5-mile Seikan undersea tunnel from Hokkaido to Honshu.
Hill of the Buddha
Visited The Hill of the Buddha in a cemetery south of Sapporo. Architect Tadao Ando surrounded a stone Buddha, below the head, with a lavender-covered hill. Ando’s concrete is gorgeous: I’d joyfully live in a home with concrete floors, walls, and ceilings
Daisetsuzan National Park
Hiked through Fall colors above the tree line in central Hokkaido’s Daisetsuzan National Park.