Sado island has a great cultural history which you can encounter on almost every corner. You can experience natural beauty and its rich and evocative past. If you plan to come in the third week of August, you will feel the eternal drumbeat of the earth celebration festival headlined by the world-f..
Snow Country has a rich food culture. It grows some of the best rice in Japan, and brews some of the most famous sake. The pickles are also highly regarded, as preserving food to last through the six winter months was a vital skill. Living off the la..
Heading up the lifts at the Hatsukaishi side of Ishiuchi Maruyama Ski Resort, across the slopes from the Twin Towers builiding, you can see into a couple of the restaurants that line the slope. This year there is a new one open fo..
Yet another discovery of a great restaurant that I have driven past hundreds of times and never knew about! Ramen Tenshin is a tiny little restaurant on the main street of Ishiuchi, though if you did not know it was there, you could be forgiven for m..
Before I came to Japan, one of my biggest worries was about lodging. Even two weeks before my arrival, I still hadn't found a roof under which I could sleep, so when I received a link for the Anpesou Guesthouse from my Japanese teacher, I was mor..
Back in the winter I wrote a story on the Sagamiko light show and mentioned I had reservations for Myoko this summer. We finally made the trip to APA Myoko Pine Valley Resort in Niigata Prefecture. The weather was very uncertain and the predic..
Want to get some skiing done, but don't want to spend the entire weekend getting there? Kagura Ski Resort located on Mount Naeba in Niigata Prefecture is the perfect answer. The trip is roughly two hours from Tokyo via car and shinkansen. Ve..
When I arrived in Niigata Prefecture, Japan, the stories I used to read about the famous Daimyo Uesugi Kenshin and samurai Naoe Kanetsugu , both from Echigo province, nowadays known as Niigata, came straight to my mind. Since I am a kid, I have alwa..
What makes Japanese fireworks different from all the others around the world? For one, they reflect Japan’s culture. All have themes and the crowds really get into the mood. You see blue mats everywhere and special food tents wherever the peopl..
The idea of big stones painted with mournful eyes and a gaze that petrifies -- to welcome and usher visitors to a rock festival venue, in my view, is a charming and an arresting idea. As I descended the slow-moving bus (at about 9.00 pm) that ..
