Travel

Last Day in Japan: We came home from the Fuji trip rather tired and spent the end of the day resting. The next morning, Sue had only half a day before she had to go to the airport, so we decided to go to a garden that was walking distance. This was the Shinjuku Gyoen

We climbed Mount Fuji. For weeks now I have been feeling anxious because of the Fuji trip. I knew it would be demanding and I also knew I hadn’t done the hiking practice I was supposed to.  But your biggest challenges are always the ones you don’t anticipate and on this trip the biggest challenge

Shopping Day in Tokyo: Sue and I got up this morning intent on two things: seeing the fashion district and going to Shibuya Crossing, not just to see the Hatchiko statue, but also to see all the people walking across the intersection. It is said that as many as half a million people walk across

Tokyo is Fabulous. And we’re surrounded by it. What a city should be, but never is in reality, that is my first impression of downtown Tokyo. When we land in Tokyo we have no trouble getting our bags and decide to send them to our hotel using bag courier service, available at a counter across

Our last day in Okinawa was shisa day. We were visiting Yomitan Pottery Village after breakfast to engage ourselves in another art class: the class in making a shisa. As noted above, the Okinawan shisa is a relative of the Chinese lion dog protector spirit. These shisas stand outside of doorways and on the roofs

Walking Around Okinawa — I made my 10,000 steps today, but I didn’t go quite as fast as yesterday. Sue seems to feel we are moving too fast. Possibly we have begun to emulate days of her childhood, when sightseeing would involve going on tremendously ambitious on-foot expeditions, and pushing forward, using public transit, all

It is a perfect day in Naha, Okinawa. We are doing a workshop in Bingata printing. The workshop is at the Shuri Dyeing and Weaving Museum Suikara. The museum is on a hilly street, and we sit in a textile classroom with high ceilings and windows, watching the textiles teacher get out the painting materials

Flying to Japan Over the middle of the Pacific, 32,000 feet in the air, the sea is a blue mat far below, the clouds a dotted carpet of white puffballs. In that moment, not sure whether it is day or night (the windows have gone blue; instead of shades, in this new plane they darken

Leaving on a Japan Trip   Now perhaps leaving on a Japan trip is too vague…I actually don’t usually go to Japan so it should be leaving on the Japan trip but I don’t like to say that because to me it sounds scarier. Sitting on my porch in Fort Collins on Sunday morning, I