It’s difficult to characterize Asakusa and Ueno in a single word. One that is often used to describe them, shitamachi, is often translated as “low city.” This term refers to the area’s less-than-heavenly elevation along the banks of the Sumida River. While these Tokyo neighborhoods were once the epicenter of entertainment, culture, and modernity, there’s…

For several centuries, Asakusa (located in northeastern Tokyo) served as the cultural – if not political – playground of the capital. This small fishing village was initially situated on the outskirts of the city. It originally grew up around Senso-ji Temple and the adjacent Asakusa Shrine, two houses of worship that were also founded by…

Kohama, a small island of just 436 inhabitants at last count, follows the classic small island layout of the Yaeyamas: a functional, largely uninhabited port, a circular road, and a village located smack-bang in the middle of the island – a sensible precaution against typhoons and inundations. Kohama village is a classic study in small…

 Where there are shrines, temples and other holy places in Asia, invariably there are markets. In this respect, Japan is no exception. Commerce flows, as it were, in through the temple gates and then out, a cordial division of profits that is to everyone’s satisfaction. You could sneak through the back streets of Dazaifu in…

“…from her balcony she looked down on the city of Kobe. Michiko’s house was built on a hill. It looked over the town to the port with its cranes and the smoking chimneys of a steel works. Beyond this jumble was the sea…. She was far from the rice fields of memory here.” Michiko’s House,…

It is a little-known fact that the Thermophis baileyi (perhaps more commonly known as the hot spring snake) gets its warmth and energy not from the sun, but from slithering in and out of the thermal waters near Lhasa, Tibet. I’ve often imagined what it would be like to be one of these snakes, pondering…

The man on a bicycle at the end of the lane, singing shima uta  (island songs), bows as deeply as he thinks, gives me a spirited greeting and, speeding past, resumes his melody. Smiles here in Okinawa are generally of the unforced variety and greetings a daily commonality. Eye contact elicits at the very minimum…

For several years after WWII, in the days before New Caledonia and Hawaii became de rigueur and affordable, Beppu, along with Miyazaki to the south, was one of Japan’s most popular and exotic honeymoon spots. Even the exceptionally well-traveled writer Yukio Mishima and his bride Yoko spent part of their honeymoon there. The city is…

The wandering performers, charcoal-makers and peddlers that once traversed the eastern coast of the Izu Peninsula have long since vanished, but much else has remained remarkably unchanged. Along a seaboard corridor more suggestive of a rustic country route than a vector for north-south passenger traffic, cedars and other trees line slopes and gorges leading to…

Miyakojima is the largest island of the Miyako Islands in Okinawa Prefecture. From a business perspective, it is known for its production of brown sugar made from sugarcane grown there, but the island is also a hot tourist destination. Just under an hour away from the main island of Okinawa and boasting beautiful white beaches,…