Drive to Nagano and Jigokudani Yaen-Koen – Snow Monkey Park
An overnight trip from Tokyo to Nagano city, and a visit to see the snow monkeys
Category: Short Trips
I bought a car
After a long deliberation, I decided to buy a car. This was a big choice for me because although I was once very much a lover of cars, during my recent stint of 17 years of living continuously abroad in Asia, I was quite happy not owning a car. It was very consistent with my […]
Day trip to Chiba – Nokogori-yama
I took a short day-trip from Tokyo to Chiba Prefecture and climbed Nogori-yama
New Akao hotel in Atami – Bubble Era Retro Goodness
A short review of the New Akao Hotel in Atami
Two day trip to Kanazawa and Shirakawa-go
If you have not heard of Shirakawa-go, it is Gifu prefecture, just inland from Kanazawa which is on the Sea of Japan side. The village of Shirakwawa Declared a UNESCO world heritage site in 1995, they are famous for their traditional gassho-zukuri farmhouses, some of which are more than 250 years old. Knowing that this […]
Short Trip to Tochigi
I took this trip from 26 to 27 February and did it in a live blog format entirely on my phone to try it as an experiment. I was able to update every 30 minutes as I went, and I found it a useful way to help capture the sights for my audience. My first […]
Short Trip to Yamanashi
Another two-day, one night trip out of Tokyo for around ¥10,000. A great trip to see the Southern Alps on a budget. I’ve always heard of Yamanashi as being a fruit paradise – indeed, it is an important place for the growing of many of the wonderful fruits in Japan – from grapes, peaches, persimmons, […]
Short Trip to Izu Penninsula
I took a short overnight trip to an easily accessible point along the Izu Peninsula in early February. It’s pretty much the off-season and I went on a Monday so I was expecting it to be relatively quiet. My objective was to do a quick trip and discover some interesting places beyond the resort hotels. […]