My father was a railroad man. In his day, those who chose that life treated the traveler with utmost care. Even after my father left,...

It’s the start of the rainy season. It, and whatever is left of Typhoon Mawar when it reaches the mainland, likely means wet weather...

It rained all day, a good “stay at home day” as Liam says. A day to sort through photos and put them in albums. There were several I...

I spent the morning at Hōnen-in, a small Temple a short way up the mountain slope on the eastern edge of Kyoto. A friend told me it...

Having set it aside for a couple of days, I decided to revisit Deep Kyoto Walks. Rather than consult the Table of Contents, I went...

About an hour south of Kyoto Station on the Kintetsu Line is Nara, the last stop. Small in comparison to Japan’s major cities, people...

Kyoto Station, traffic central for all of Kyoto and the surrounding area, is a 30 minute walk from Hibari Hostel by the most direct route...

Last evening, just before shutting things down for the night, Yusuke told me a priest was coming in the morning. “He’s going to exercise....

I was thinking of Pa this morning. Wondered how his team is doing and whether his eye is as good as ever. He says he hit over 400 last...

I started the day intending to follow the plan devised the day before. Select a random chapter from Deep Kyoto Walks. Do a cursory read....

It was odd at first, traveling without Pa, on the train to Kyoto without him to compare notes. But - and I don’t want Pa to know this -...

Pa has Spring Fever and he’s gone home. I knew it would happen - baseball, family reunions, and all. “Not for long”, he assured me. ...

Beginning with Nepal, there have been shrines everywhere Pa and I have visited - Buddhist, Hindu, Taoist, and now Shinto. But there’s...

We’re back in Beppu for a couple of days, wanting to experience its “onsens” - its hot springs. Beppu, with more than 2,500, is Japan’s...

Walking down the street, a woman, low to the ground, caught our eye. She gestured for me to come over. Without a word, she pointed to a...

Pa is a funny guy. Not in the humorous sense so much. Although he does tell a good joke from time to time. And he sees the irony in...

Nagasaki is a small city, easy to walk around. Not quite quaint, but it has an old town feel. Young families, kids coming home from...

Images and Text from our visit to the Atomic Bomb Museum 庞壚(夕 The Ruins at Dusk 松添博 Hiroshi Matsuzoe Nagasaki, where the curtain of...

We’ve been staying at Mom’s House, a little place down the beach from Shimonakano Fishing Port. There’s not much at the port, which is...

Kyushu Island to the west, is a mountainous area ill suited for growing rice. But centuries ago, farmers became artisans after...