Oahu is famous for dolphin watching. It is an activity where you jump into the sea and see the dolphins up close, and it turned out to be better than I expected. Since the dolphins come in near the shore early…
Having come all the way to Gunma, there was no way I was skipping the hot springs. There is Ikaho Onsen near the Mizusawa udon place, but I went to Kusatsu Onsen, the most famous one in Gunma. There were so ma…
As some of you probably know, the manga Initial D is set on Mt. Haruna in Gunma. In the manga it appears under the name Mt. Akina. It is such a famous spot that I had always wanted to visit at least once, and …
Deep in the mountains of Yamanashi, a prefecture relatively close to Tokyo, sits the Hakushu Distillery. It takes about four hours by train, and after years of telling myself I should go someday, I finally mad…
There was plenty I wanted to buy at the Ashibinaa outlet mall, but it is a small place, and after about two hours there is nothing left to see. Looking around for sights nearby, I heard there was a Peace Memor…
The Ashibinaa Outlet Mall in Okinawa is near the airport. It was right before heading home anyway, and going somewhere far from the airport did not make much sense, so I headed to the outlet. Roughly what it …
From the second day after we arrived in Okinawa, my travel companion came down with a cold and was out of action. That meant a big reshuffle of the itinerary. So here are some photos I took while just wanderin…
Get off at Incheon Station, walk a little, and you come to a fish market held right on the pier. Those in the know know about it and everyone else has no idea, but here you can buy blue crabs fresh off the boa…
At the end of August, near the tail end of summer but still in the thick of the heat, Asakusa holds its samba carnival every year. Honestly, events like this happen all over Japan, so I am used to them and ski…
I had no plans to go to Comiket this year, but that day happened to be really hot, and since I had not ridden my bike once since buying a bike lock recently, I figured it was time to break it in, so in the mor…
I tend to end up with regular reasons to go to Shizuoka, and this time it was for fireworks. The Bentenjima fireworks in Shizuoka were said to be held for the last time this year, and I was asked to be sure to…
On a bright weekend I headed to Toshimaen to see Iron Man 3. Not only is there a 3D IMAX theater, there was also a place I wanted to stop by on the way. Parlor Ekoda, a bakery in Ekoda, is one of the top baker…