Tag Archives: Japan

Lake Akan calls

Ni juu ni! ‘Did he say twenty-two? I’ve got all nine numbers then. I think I’ve won the top prize… Does that mean I’ve won the Nintendo Switch?!’ Here we were, my brother Stephen and me, 5,532 miles from home at a Japanese village fete, about to call ‘bingo!’.  We had found ourselves almost byContinue reading “Lake Akan calls”

The art of my travels

Wandering their halls and atriums and corridors. Glancing sideways at priceless art as I make my way to new exhibitions. Plonking myself down in front of an epic triptych or scrunching myself into the corner of a small darkened room to watch a new video art installation. Learning a hundred things I didn’t know whenContinue reading “The art of my travels”

Postcard from…a Japanese heatwave

Longer read 31° degrees Celsius. 88° degrees Fahrenheit. 70% humidity. Welcome to Kyoto in July. Or, to be specific, Kyoto in July 2018. In Japan’s ravishing old capital, and across most of Japan, a heatwave was sweeping through, the worst since records began. And there I was, on holiday with my brother. I’d had bigContinue reading “Postcard from…a Japanese heatwave”

Travel hack: beat the heat

The news continues to stream out of Japan of the unprecedented heatwave, and it makes for sombre reading. The longest and deadliest heatwave since the 19th Century! I visited this wonderful country in the first half of July, knowing it would be hot, but astounded by just how all-consuming and furious the heat was. IContinue reading “Travel hack: beat the heat”

Happy travels!

The midnight fever of fireworks out of the way for another year, it’s time to focus on forgetting those rubbish resolutions and plan for the important stuff instead – where you’ll be travelling. What do I have planned? I’ll be hoping for snow, glorious snow in early February as I visit my brother Stephen inContinue reading “Happy travels!”