Shirakawa-Mura is an area in North Gifu prefecture, which borders Toyama, and is the home to some unique thatched houses, which are, of course, a World Heritage Site. The houses were nice and the town was very quaint. However, the best bit…the best bit was the drive there! Over rolling mountains and around beautiful green…
Category: Travel / holidays
And Mountain (Toyama)
Dan and I decided to spend our first Christmas after three years in Japan. Partly a decision fuelled by funding, but also we had been lucky enough to get an Airbnb voucher to use in Japan after a failed holiday in the summer. This meant we had £350 to spend on accommodation anywhere in Japan…the…
Team LAB / LAN
Dan and I have always called ourselves Team LAN. Get it? It’s and easy one. So when we arrived in Tokyo looking for treats to enjoy of course the *almost the same name* art event by Team LAB called out to us. Plus it is based on Audio Visual tech and, well, you know Dan……
Oita; Cooking in Hell
In June we took a day trip to Oita to enjoy cooking over natural steam and bathing in the infamous Oita hot springs. This was a trip organised by the lovely Noriko and taken with her daughter, Hinako, her brother, and Joe and Kate. The day started out with a visit to a shrine in…
Walking on Air
During our Golden Week holiday 2018, we visited a famous walking bridge in Miyazaki Prefecture. The bridge, Aya Suspension Bridge, sits at 150 metres above the valley and river below. The bridge is 250 metres across and you walk from one side, swaying side to side, to the other. Such fun! The view, I am…
Lush Miyazaki
After a few days of natural beauty in Aso during Golden Week 2018, we decided to hit the road and head to Miyazaki. We had an airbnb booked in the city, and were excited for real walls and city sights for a few days. The drive down showed Miyazaki prefecture to be beautiful, with lush…
Life on Mars
Mount Aso would make the perfect location for filming of a space adventure. It was as close as I could imagine walking on Mars would be, with nothing green, but a sea of reds, whites, blacks, golds, and browns. In our quest to get as up close and personal with the volcano as safely possible,…
Aso
Our Golden Week adventures in 2018 took us to the Aso area of Kyushu. To save some pennies and enjoy this beautiful part of natural Japan we decided to camp, just like Golden Week 2017. The differences was this year we had hired a car from Shimonoseki, and so we packed our futons and camped…
Okayama Super GT and Jeans for Days
At the start of April, we took a long weekend trip to Okayama to enjoy the Japanese car racing, Super GT 300 and 500. The Japanese are crazy for this series, which features mainly Japanese cars and drivers. Our trip started on the Friday morning. We hopped on the Shinkansen and sped our way up…
Taroko, Day Two.
Day two in Taroko was breathtaking. We took a bus right up through the gorge into the national park. It was a winding 45 minute journey through some of the most dramatic scenery I have ever seen. Our plan was simple, bus up to the top of the main trail through the gorge and the…