Japan

Location Description

Sub-locations

99 photos

The Tokyo Sky Tree...
Tokyo Sky Tree.
Market in front of the Asakusa Temple. I bought some...
Part of the Asakusa temple complex. The wooden statue at...
I was dumb enough to pay 100 yen to have my fortune...
Bummer!
The smoke from this fire is supposed to heal sick parts...
The most elaborate setup I have ever seen to trim a 15...
Uh oh, that would not be good.
Making walnut and red bean snacks.
You can get them in the shape of a duck or the Asakusa...
Finished product.
Tokyo Sky Tree model. Catherine, I sort of wanted to get...
Packaged omiyage and/or meibutsu.
Two toed sandal compatible shoes. Awesome. I wonder how...
Harajuku, getting towards sunset. Not good photography...
I saw no fewer than three Lotterias in Harajuku.
Shinjuku at night. This is just a few blocks from the...
Bustling Shinjuku around 7pm on a Friday.
Lost in Translation Hotel. I was out of time to visit...
On the bus to Matsumoto in Nagano Prefecture.
Many of the mountains in this region are at least 10,000...
Cass posses with a carved woodland critter.
After arriving in Matsumoto, the inn keepers picked us...
Cass, Sara and Jennie biking in Japan.
Cass, Sarah and Jennie again.
Cass, riding along side the river through Matsumoto.
They have Bob's Big Boy in places besides truck stops on...
Jennie, who is also from Connecticut.
Sara on her awesome Japanese bicycle. It seemed that...
How Japanese.
Apparently the regional specialty in Nagano is soba....
I liked this spice container.
My lunch. Closest thing to vegetarian: raw horse meat.
Matsumoto Castle!
A little bit closer.
John at Matsumoto Castle.
Stupid swan for messing up the perfectly reflective water.
Another view of the castle.
This castle was built from wood in the 16th century and...
Inside the castle: a plan of the village and moats that...
Gunpowder comes to Japan.
Samurai outfit.
Tools for making bullet casings.
View of Matsumoto town from Level 3 (of 6) inside...
On the 6th floor... 22 meters above the ground, in a...
Mt. Johnen. Sweet.
Carved wooden fish on the roof.
Where the Samurai master of the castle slept. I think...
There are two sorts of windows on the lower floors......
Matsumoto castle!
Fall colors.
Here is some history on the castle and surrounding town....
Castle with snow capped peaks in the distance.
Sara and Cass in downtown Matsumoto.
Breakfast at our inn. I guess I never took any pictures...
Yogurt with fresh fruit.
Miso soup.
The miso soup had mushrooms the inn keeper had foraged...
We met two Canadians at breakfast and then the inn...
We had been planning to hike in the surrounding...
On the way to the wasabi farm, we passed a shrine in the woods.
Actually we passed several shrines. These salmon-colored...
Cass and Sara demonstrate.
Road to the wasabi farm
It was at about this time we realized we probably should...
One of the clear-flowing rivers of Hotaka
Japan has vending machines everywhere.
A menagerie of anthropomorphized foods greet me at the...
John at the wasabi farm, with a wasabi ice cream cone.
Wasabi needs very clean fresh water to grow, and lots of...
Cass's imitation of statues series part two.
Wasabi!
Sara (in the salmon colored vest) on a bridge over the...
Lots of wasabi.
I'm not sure why none is growing on the right.
It turns out Jennie, Sara and Cass all wore Google...
Japanese maple turning fall colored.
We paid 1000 yen to take a wasabi cooking class. Here...
Jennie and Sara.
John, slicing some wasabi root.
This involved a lot of chopping. The root is at the...
Jennie, Sara and Cass.
All done with chopping. Ready for the next step.
Next we mixed the wasabi root and stems in with...
Cass at lunch on the wasabi farm with wasabi peas and a...
My potato wasabi croquette donburi with miso soup and...
Wasabi shrimp sticks for sale in the gift shop.
Cass at the wasabi ice cream cone stand. It was actually...
In Hotaka the manhole covers are painted.
On the walk back to the train, we stopped at a glass...
This looks fun.
Finished products for sale. I didn't think I'd get these...
Sara and Jennie watch the glass blowers.
While we were inside the glass blowing studio, it...
Walking back to the train station.
The symbol of Nagano Prefecture Chamber of Commerce. All...
Kawaii, as the locals say.
The United States is severely culturally deprived in the...