I was in Nagasaki earlier this month to see my daughter performing with her Cheerleading group at their university festival. While I was there I had the opportunity to visit a few shrines and temples and the one that most impressed me was Sōfukuji (崇福寺), a temple that was built for the [Read more…]
Last Tuesday was a national holiday (Labour Thanksgiving Day) in Japan and so I took the opportunity to go for a stroll up Mount Mitaki, one of the hidden gems on the outskirts of Hiroshima. The peak of Mount Mitaki is only around 350 metres high so it’s not too [Read more…]
This article about my experience of mahjong in Japan was first published on a now defunct blog back in 2001. From quite early on in my life I had wanted to learn to play mahjong. The teeming variety and exotic charm of the tiles fascinated me. When I accepted a [Read more…]
Tengu are mythical Japanese demon-gods (yokei) who live in remote forests and mountains of Japan. A typical Tengu has a red face with a long, somewhat obscene red nose. Tengu usually have bushy eyebrows and beards as well. The characters that make up the work Tengu mean “heaven” + “dog” [Read more…]
I am planning to spend three weeks in Devon in August. For two of those weeks my daughter will be attending an English language course at a summer school in Teignmouth and I shall revert, for the first time in a decade, to my old accustomed bachelor freedom. How to [Read more…]
Wednesday 21st July 1982 Our first day of “hitchhiking” turns into a three mile walk along the Loire to Amboise in the midday sun, with Boff telling me that he had a feeling that “something” would happen. It was somehow connected to the fact that he had been there before. [Read more…]
Tuesday 20th July 1982 At the campsite in Écommoy The previous day’s entry broke off in the late afternoon after we had arrived with Boff’s parents at “a pleasant camp site” in Écommoy in the north of France. Boff and I were playing table football in a bar when we [Read more…]
In the summer of 1982 Hurl and Boff, two 19 year old English lads, set off from the Weald of Kent on a hitchhiking tour of France, Switzerland, West Germany, Luxembourg, Belgium and Holland. Hurl, the literary one, kept a diary and photographed the trip. Boff, the artistic one, sketched [Read more…]
Title: Day Trip to Mihara Location: Hiroshima Prefecture Link out: Click here Description: A day trip to Mihara to visit Tim Buthod, go to a festival and various izakaya and bars… Date: 2012-05-26 The bullet train station at Mihara is built on the ruins of Mihara castle. On our way [Read more…]
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