PHILIPPINES | Friday, 31 Oct 2014 | Views [494]
READERS, BE WARNED! IF YOU AREN'T INTERESTED in birds and birding feel free to skip ahead until December at the earliest. We are in the Philippines, about as different from clean, quiet, affluent and courteous Japan as can be. We haven't ... Read more >
PHILIPPINES | Wednesday, 29 Oct 2014 | Photo Gallery
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JAPAN | Monday, 27 Oct 2014 | Views [490]
BIG CITIES AREN'T OUR THING. AND TOKYO IS A BIG CITY, both in population and sprawl. We aren’t “foodies,” don’t shop and never, never sing karaoke. But there are a few things we wanted to see and we made a date ... Read more >
JAPAN | Saturday, 25 Oct 2014 | Views [585]
I ALWAYS IMAGINED MT. FUJI LOOMING above Tokyo like Vesuvius over Naples when, in fact, it is 50 miles or so from central Tokyo. We didn’t exactly want to climb it, just get a peek at one of Japan’s icons and Lonely Planet mentioned ... Read more >
JAPAN | Friday, 24 Oct 2014 | Photo Gallery
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JAPAN | Wednesday, 22 Oct 2014 | Views [790]
THE SILK WORM, THAT IS. The Tomioka Silk Mill, the newest UNESCO World Heritage Site, marks the beginning of Japan’s Industrial Revolution. We traveled from Nagano to Takasaki, then on to Tomioka to learn how silk is made. Silk ... Read more >
JAPAN | Tuesday, 21 Oct 2014 | Views [485]
IT WAS A GOOD DAY FOR TRAVEL. Rain streaked across the windows as the train trudged along the coast, through seaside tunnels and up into the hills towards Nagano. Another local, and we had the carriage nearly to ourselves.
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JAPAN | Sunday, 19 Oct 2014 | Views [678]
THE RICE WAS ALREADY HARVESTED AND STORED, possibly expedited by the typhoon threat, and stubbly fields were all that remained. The trees are showing the faintest hint of autumn, pastels of pink, ocher and saffron. Goldenrod and the flowers ... Read more >
JAPAN | Saturday, 18 Oct 2014 | Photo Gallery
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JAPAN | Wednesday, 15 Oct 2014 | Views [498]
HIROSHIMA ISN'T JUST ABOUT THE BOMB, though it is hard to escape it. While we were on our way to visit the World Heritage site on the island of Miyajima, an elderly couple boarded the tram, thanking us appreciatively with much bowing when we offered ... Read more >
JAPAN | Monday, 13 Oct 2014 | Views [573]
JAPAN IS A MAGNET FOR NATURAL DISASTERS. Earthquakes, volcanoes, tsunamis and typhoons — Japan has them all. So when we learned that “Super-typhoon” Vong Fong, the second such storm in two weeks, was headed our way, we ... Read more >
JAPAN | Sunday, 12 Oct 2014 | Views [605]
EVERYONE KNOWS THE STORY, how on the morning of 6 August, 1945 the United States dropped an atomic bomb on the sleepy city of Hiroshima, effectively ending World War II and changing the world forever. We baby boomers, the “duck and cover”... Read more >
JAPAN | Saturday, 11 Oct 2014 | Photo Gallery
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JAPAN | Saturday, 11 Oct 2014 | Views [1516]
WHEN YOU HAVE TIRED OF BUDDHIST/SHINTO TEMPLES and shrines there are actual Japanese castles to visit. These aren’t the wanna-be castles of Ireland or the fairytale castles of the Rhine, but walled fortresses in the Japanese style, complete ... Read more >
JAPAN | Thursday, 9 Oct 2014 | Views [548]
BEFORE KYOTO (AND LONG BEFORE TOKYO) — way back in 710 — Nara was Japan’s capital. And while its reign lasted only 75 years, Kodai-ji Temple is a standing reminder of Nara’s glory days.
Stone lanterns ... Read more >
JAPAN | Tuesday, 7 Oct 2014 | Views [590]
ARRIVING IN KYOTO, STEEPED AS IT IS IN HISTORY and tradition, from Mongolia, where life goes on much as it has for centuries, was a huge transition. Visiting Mongolia is a look back at the land of Chingis Khan while being in Japan is peeking into ... Read more >
JAPAN | Sunday, 5 Oct 2014 | Photo Gallery
Kyoto and Around
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MONGOLIA | Thursday, 2 Oct 2014 | Views [631]
THE FOG WAS SO HEAVY YESTERDAY MORNING that we couldn’t see to the outhouse. The planned transect walk was cancelled — you can’t count what you can’t see — and we crowded around the kitchen stove drinking tea and ... Read more >
MONGOLIA | Tuesday, 30 Sep 2014 | Views [757]
RAINDROPS ARE SPATTERING ON THE ROOF OF THE GER while a haunting melody drifts from Zorigoo’s two-string horsehead fiddle from next door. We've opted out of this afternoon’s radio-tracking exercise, blaming the cold rain. Tracking ... Read more >
MONGOLIA | Monday, 29 Sep 2014 | Views [742]
CAPTURING ARGALI WAS AS UNPREDICTABLE as the weather. After Tuesday’s beginners luck we were skunked on Wednesday so we packed up the nets and moved to a different location as the first raindrops pocked the Gobi dust. We collected and ... Read more >
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