This last weekend I had three days off so I took a short solo trip to Sapporo and Otaru, the capital of Japan’s northernmost prefecture Hokkaido and its nearby tourist port city, respectively. Sapporo is famous for its snow festival at the peak of winter, and the rest of Hokkaido is known for its beautiful, blooming late springs. The prefecture...
One year ago, I learned three things: exercising is dangerous, bad experiences make for good stories, and getting hit by a car is not a good enough excuse for missing out on good food. I love wandering around Japan on foot. Though the main streets have wider sidewalks, I appreciate the view the narrow, alley-like side streets offer and I often route my runs through...
In 2015, after 14 months of what seemed like sprinting through a marathon in a stress-inducing vacuum of a metropolis, a friend and I took advantage of a four-day weekend to disappear to Kumano Kodo and the countryside of Japan. Seiganto-ji Pagoda Kumano Kodo is an ancient pilgrimage route that people of all social classes and faiths walked along a thousand...
You may have heard of this furry destination by a variety of names: Usagi Shima, Okunoshima, Rabbit Island, or Bunny Island. Okunoshima (大久野島) is Japan’s famous rabbit island where these fluffy creatures have taken over the mostly uninhabited land. An Okunoshima rabbit looking for food Despite the island’s dark origins as a poisonous gas factory during...