Walking down the street, a woman, low to the ground, caught our eye. She gestured for me to come over. Without a word, she pointed to a...

Pa is a funny guy. Not in the humorous sense so much. Although he does tell a good joke from time to time. And he sees the irony in...

Nagasaki is a small city, easy to walk around. Not quite quaint, but it has an old town feel. Young families, kids coming home from...

Images and Text from our visit to the Atomic Bomb Museum 庞壚(夕 The Ruins at Dusk 松添博 Hiroshi Matsuzoe Nagasaki, where the curtain of...

We’ve been staying at Mom’s House, a little place down the beach from Shimonakano Fishing Port. There’s not much at the port, which is...

Kyushu Island to the west, is a mountainous area ill suited for growing rice. But centuries ago, farmers became artisans after...

It’s said that the Three Pillars of Zen are Teaching, Practice and Enlightenment. For Lao-tze, the Great Treasures as he called them,...

What we knew of Mt Aso was sketchy at best, but there was sufficient sun when we left Kurokawa that we were confident we’d get to see it...

The rain that began as we descended from the Shrine, followed us all the way to Kurokawa and Hostel Aso Base. Through the night it...

Pa and I enjoyed our stay in Beppu. How could we not. The mountains, the sea, the good food and friendly people, the leisurely walks. ...

Today is Kodomo - Children’s Day - the last of Golden Week’s four holidays. I’m thinking first and foremost of my children and my...

It’s early, just our tenth day and still much to see. But some impressions have been made. Japan, like the rest of the world has been...

Phil sent me a photo. I like it. I like it for the colors, and that I’m in the land of the Rising Sun. But mostly I like it because Phil...

We’re staying at the Guest House Rojiura. Nothing special, but it’s clean, the shower’s hot, and the price is right. It’s on a quiet...

Leaving the familiar, you take a left, then a right, because that’s where the river is, and the bridge, with its threshold to a different...

It’s Golden Week, four holidays in one week. It started Saturday with the birthday of the late Emperor Showa Hirohito, followed by...

Pa and I were tired when we arrived Friday afternoon, but a very pleasant woman greeted us in English with a Japanese accent, and one...

We’re on the afternoon bus to Hita, a city of 65,000, 72km southeast of Fukuoka. Locals call it the "Kyoto of Kyushu,” a smaller version...

Pa was always a walker. Up to the day he closed his practice, he walked almost every morning from the big house on Penn Avenue to his...

Stepping off the plane at Fukuoka International, it felt a little different. Pa noticed it too. Quieter for sure, and orderly. There...