While the rest of the world drags itself out of bed at 4:00 a.m. to watch a bunch of guys haggle over tuna at Tsukiji Market, I am still fast asleep. After treating myself to a hot bath and an elegant Japanese breakfast, I will be ready to start my day. I’ll spend the day […]
Some women fall prey to Manolos, while others lose their heads (and 401K’s) to Chanel or Louis Vuitton. I’m just not that kind of girl. For me, it’s kitchen stuff – wasabi graters made of sharkskin, spoons and ladles, stoneware, katsuobushi shavers. Above all, carbon steel, given a final bump and grind, while you watch, […]
The vast majority of visitors to Miyajima remain on the island for only a few short hours, a day trip from Hiroshima. Not venturing past the torii gate, paying their respects at Itsukushima, they return to the ferry terminal, stopping along the way to shop on lively Omotesando street with its restaurants, food stalls, and […]
I overheard a tourist snipe, as she passed a group of fellow tourists waiting in a queue on the platform directly facing the famous orange torii, “how many pictures can you take of a wooden gate?” Every picture reveals a different torii as the tide rises or falls, or the light changes from morning to […]
Getting to Kurokawa, a tiny onsen town on the island of Kyushu, requires a leap of faith and, for someone who speaks baby Japanese and can read only romaji, an act of god. For me, it meant two Shinkansen, a local train, a “limousine” bus, and a taxi driver with a smart little cap and […]
After two weeks of running all over Japan, with more to follow, I chose to hang my yukata at an inn with private outdoor onsen, four of them, one in a cave, staying put to soak my feet but for hikes and walks through the countryside. My room also had its own indoor onsen. A […]
Todaiji, “Great Eastern Temple”, is one of Japan’s most famous and historically significant temples. Construction started in 728 AD and was completed in 752 AD. It served as the head temple of all provincial Buddhist temples of Japan until it grew so powerful that the capital had to be relocated from Nara to Nagaoka in […]
Ryōan-ji, a Zen temple located northwest of Kyoto, eponymous with its more famous rock garden, is truly one of the most serene places on earth. The temple garden is considered to be the finest example of a kare-sansui, or zen rock garden, in Japan. It’s my favorite garden in the world. The garden is best […]
Just when you think you might overdose on endless beauty, a short train ride on the JR Sagano line takes you from Kyoto to Arashiyama and yet more beauty. I think I am about to enter a beauty-induced coma. Arriving at Arashiyama station, it’s a short walk to Tenryu-ji Temple. Leaving the temple grounds by […]
The allies had originally planned to drop the first atomic bomb on Kyoto. Kyoto was spared by the personal intervention of Henry L. Stimson, United States Secretary of War. Stimson wished to save this cultural center in which he spent his honeymoon. There are over 1600 Buddhist temples and 400 Shinto shrines in Kyoto. It […]
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