Over my spring break I learned several lessons, the most important being that there are two Fuji stations on opposite sides of the mountain, and they are very much not the same. I was so caught up planning my trip to Hong Kong that I probably spent a total of an hour preparing for my trip to the Fuji area after. With only one day to rest in between my four days...
The second half of my break was spent in Shizuoka, near Mt. Fuji. Coincidentally one of my students was in the area to visit her hometown Fujinomiya at the same time and graciously invited me to spend the day with her and her family (husband, sister, and ten-year-old son). I’d never heard of Fujinomiya before but I’m so glad that I had the chance to visit...
I spent the first four days of my Golden Week (spring break in Japan) traveling around Hong Kong and Macau. I don’t know how much longer I’ll be in Asia so I want to travel both in and outside of Japan as much as possible. Hong Kong While I’ve been able to get in touch with my Japanese side during my time here I figured it was time to check out my...
On Monday, a couple foodie friends and I embarked on a food tour of Nagoya on foot, wandering to restaurants serving up Nagoya’s finest. Our Nagoya food tour included: miso katsu at Yabaton, dessert at Cafe Molly, and hitsumabushi at Shirakawa. Yabaton Honten- Yaba-cho The first stop on our tour was Yabaton, one of the most popular restaurants serving...
Here in Aichi, blossoming plum trees mark the beginning of spring. We had a rather late start and short season this year but I was able to visit two places: the Nagoya Agricultural Center in Nagoya and Bairin Park in Gifu. Bamboo to the left, plum blossoms to the right I had to look up the difference between plum and cherry trees since I’m not much of a...
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...