Author Archives: Varya

Day 1 in Shokoku: An early morning ferry takes us across the inland sea to Takamatsu, a major city on the large island of Shikoku.  Attached to the mainland by… Read more »

Our last day was a ferry boat trip to the nearby island of Teshima which was reclaimed by the Benesse Foundation from an environmental disaster zone due to large scale… Read more »

I had spent a few days on Naoshima Island in the Inland Sea a number of years ago and was so impressed by the art and architecture that I wanted… Read more »

I discovered when doing research for this journey in Japan, that the Jojuin Garden, called the “Moon Garden” would be open to the public only from May 3-6 for Spring… Read more »

I had read several reports about the beautiful and interesting temples of the small town of Ohara located North of Kyoto and convinced the group to travel with me on… Read more »

Today’s guide, whose name is Tatsuo but whom we have been told to call “Ted”, is very enthusiastic about showing us some of the beauty of his traditional culture.  He… Read more »

One of the main reasons Bill wanted to return to Japan after our visit in 2018 was to have a tour around the Katsura Imperial Villa.  It requires advance reservations… Read more »

The labyrinthine Kyoto train station is confusing at the best of times.  After no or little sleep, it is a chaotic people-filled circus of movement and color.   But we… Read more »

After a splendid 4 day conference in Tokyo, I am now in Kyoto with 6 friends to explore this historic city filled with Japanese traditional culture before we head to… Read more »