Passing through Shikoku on the Shimanami Kaido bike path back in 2015, before it was famous, on a private trip with a family of three on a one month journey across Kyushu, Shikoku and Southern Honshu.
It is traditional to visit the shrine first thing of the new year. Many people line up at midnight, we waited until the morning when the hot-spring was open.
This is in the morning after I cleared the snow off of the car the night before. I have shoveled our roof twice now. I have never had to do that even once until the end of January.
Backpacking in the Noto Peninsula. Starting from our base in Nagano, across to the Japan sea, catch a train to Noto Peninsula, and end with a bus to Shirakawago before heading home.
Najyomon history museum and park takes you back to the Jyomon period of Japan, the earliest period in Japanese history.
A life in the country / chicken post. One of the chooks, Punky, had been missing, but we found her nesting someplace strange again last night, so no longer missing. It is interesting to note the differences between the two birds. Pyo was raised by us, in our house. Punky was raised in a small…
Obon is like christmas or thanksgiving, when families get together. Those who are lucky enough to have relatives living in the countryside go there to experience a Norman Rockwell Obon and the population of our area more than doubles, while places like Tokyo are a relative ghost-town. We have no family to “come home” to…
Making mochi rice and fishing on the Japan Sea coast. The ride to get there is a bit challenging, but the reward is worth it. Our assistant Yukari is especially excited about the fish she managed to catch, which were prepared by our inn-keepers that night after they hosted our sticky rice mochi pounding party.