Asian Attitudes on Foreigners

China, I thought, preferred to keep visitors out; many Southeast Asian countries invited foreigners in, with ambiguous wink and smile; Japan smilingly greeted visitors at the door and appeared to admit them without ever really doing

…

Japanese Pizza

Pizza in Japan is treated much like most other foreign concepts: it’s kind of the same but brow-beaten to fit Japanese cultural kookiness. It certainly looks like pizza, but closer examination shows the Japanese are the Jackson Pollacks of pizza …

Japanese Rice Field Art

Most of these photos are from Inakadate in Aomori Prfecture. They’ve been creating images in the rice fields since 1993 and several other places have taken the practice up.

Check out the time-lapse video at the end showing 2008′s paddy …

Zatōichi, Blind Swordsman

Zatōichi (座頭市) is the long running character who is the archetypical blind Japanese swordsman. 25 films were made showcasing his extraordinary ability from 1962 – 1974, with a 26th added in 1989. In everyone he is played by actor Shintaro …

Beppu’s Hihōkan Sex Museum

Beppu, Japan has been called the Las Vegas of Japan. I’m not sure it has many more pachinko parlors or snack bars than any other moderately sized Japanese city, but tourists do come in droves to soak in the many …

Niji no Misaki Matsuri

More pictures and video will be posted as they become available.

A Facebook group for the even can be found here.

Following my 5 days hiking on Yakushima, I journeyed into Kumamoto Prefecture to soak in some tunes …

Yakushima

You can find all the photos featured here and more in my Yakushima Flickr Set.

Yakushima, only 27 km in diameter, is an amazing hiking destination. My trip was filled with thousand year old giant cedar trees, waterfalls, and …

Golden Week Travels

The week after next is Golden Week here in Japan and constitutes a series of national holidays in close proximity to each other. For many, this is the longest vacation period of the year and a very popular time to …

Ōkue-san Hike

The weekend was action-packed as I traveled down to Miyazaki-ken for a taste of the beach and a two day hiking trip.

On Friday, Matteo and I drove down to one of the finer surfing spots in Japan near Hyuga. …

Conveyor Belt Sushi (回転寿司)

Easily my favorite place to eat is my local kaiten zushi, or conveyor belt sushi. Its quite a novel yet simple concept. You sit at counters and tables and the food rolls by on little plates at 8 centimeters …