After leaving Aso we took a bus to Beppu where we checked into our hostel for the night. The next morning we were up early and on the onsen/hot spring trail ( Read more... )

After leaving Kumamoto, we headed to Aso, a small town with a large volcano as its main attraction. We stayed the night at the newly opened Aso Base Backpackers Hostel and I can't recommend it enough. It was beautiful inside and the couple who own it are very friendly. But the best part was the samurai suit in the corner of the common room that ( Read more... )

Here are some I missed in the last post...


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After a three hour video call with the family back home Christmas morning, I jumped on a train to the airport and caught a flight to Fukuoka with my friend and fellow ALT, Danielle. We got in, jumped on another train, and headed to Kumamoto. We stayed in a minshuku, or what is essentially a bed and breakfast. This one came recommended from the ( Read more... )

Three weeks ago I met my friend C in Shimoda for the weekend. We chose it because it was close to Tokyo (where she lives) and is on the coast. It's not on any must see list of Japan but it notable in that it's the port where Commodore Perry arrived in 1855 with his eight black ships and "suggested" that it would be nice if Japan were to end its ( Read more... )

I've now been to Kiyomizu-dera three times. It's not really that exciting but it really can't be left off any list of "Things to see while in Kyoto." So we went. This time I decided to spice it up by making sure that we were there for the Dragon Festival. This is my story and I'm sticking to it! (Although the truth might be that I had no idea ( Read more... )

There are two kinds of geisha sightings in Kyoto. You can see fake geisha and maiko (geisha apprentices) which are really tourists dressed up and then get their picture taken. And then there are real geisha sightings. If you see one in the middle of the afternoon wandering around a park or temple with a photographer...tourist. If you see one ( Read more... )

I've been to Kyoto twice before so I wasn't exactly thrilled when Kristin said she wanted to go there. Although really it was my fault because I did suggest it. But we did manage to see some things I hadn't seen before (and some things I had that I wanted to see again like Fushimi Inari.) One of them being a convent! That's right, because ( Read more... )

Instead of writing one long post about my trip last week, I'm just going to do the highlights in separate posts (and not necessarily in chronological order.) We spent two days in Kyoto, not nearly long enough, and visited several places I had already been before but despite that we still managed to find new things for me to see and experience ( Read more... )

At the beginning of this month I headed up to Kanazawa to see my friend Keely. Keely is awesome and one big reason why I am here in Japan. We met at Georgetown, where she was two years ahead of me. We had the same group of friends, were in the same sorority, and I was very sad to see her graduate but totally jealous when I found out she had ( Read more... )