Category Archives: Japan

We’ve spent the last two days in Nara with the Takemoto Family – David’s host family from his school days in Japan as an exchange student. Last night, all the family came to visit and we had a great night, … Continue reading →

This afternoon we drove to the little town of Toritaka where tradtional dolls are displayed through the month of March. The dolls are bought when a girl is born and displayed each year on the 3rd of March for the … Continue reading →

Today we travelled to Nara to spend the week with David’s host family. Our first stop was a little sushi restaurant to lunch.

Our day started with a trip tp the Kiyomizu-dera Temple, which is one of Kyoto’s stand out attractions. It is built on the side of a hill and is set on lots of high pillars. It was first built in … Continue reading →

We went back to the BBQ restaurant for dinner tonight. Great Japanese atmosphere and one third of the price of the hotel restaurant. We’re back in our room with a cake for desert that we bought at the little cake … Continue reading →

We have really enjoyed being in Kyoto. There is just so much to see and it is very historic. We have been trying to think of all the world heritage sites in Australia and we came up- with a list … Continue reading →

Kyoto is probably the most historically cultured city in Japan. It has dozens of temples, many of which are world heritage sites, and some of which date back as far as the eleventh century. Our first site of great note … Continue reading →

We travelled almost 700 km today from Nagasaki to the little town of Himeji. Himeji is famous for having one of the few original castles in Japan – a World Heritage Site. We arrived at about 2.00 pm and found … Continue reading →

I thought of our friend Bob Whetstone when we came across this piece of street art near one of the team stations in Nagasaki. Every statue I have ever seen of Captain Cook has a seagull sitting on his head, … Continue reading →

Glover Gardens were quite surprising. They are located in an area of Nagasaki known as Ishibashi (Stone Bridge) and on a steep hill overlooking the Mitsubishi Heavy Industries shipyard. Thomas Glover was a scot who arrived in Japan as a … Continue reading →