Dreaming of Kyushu

This winter I’ll be back in Kyushu, the southernmost of Japan’s four main islands. I will have visited Kyushu three years in a row: 2013, 2014, and 2015. I go back for the gentle subtropical climate while Minnesota’s long winter refuses to budge. Kyushu is a manageable size, about one-sixth the area of Minnesota or…… Continue reading Dreaming of Kyushu

Travel Gear: Spectacle Case

You pay attention to every item that goes into your backpack if you’re going to carry it for 330 miles (about 530 kilometers). That was my state of mind when I planned a walk around the north of England with my partner. I scrutinized every item. Does it provide sufficient value? Can I find something…… Continue reading Travel Gear: Spectacle Case

Gas

It was breakfast at the Granvia Okayama Hotel. The tour group at the next table murmured in agreement as the colonel railed against typographical errors in the itinerary. I pegged him as “the colonel,” now a paper-pusher, close to retirement.  It was impossible to tune him out as he recalled his first encounter with the…… Continue reading Gas