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This bronze statue of Buddha is housed in the main building at Todai-ji, which is itself the largest wooden building in the world. When the temple was first built in the 700s, it required the labor of more than two million people and nearly bankrupted Japan. I love the faded reds and turquoise of the [...]
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This is the last of three posts on traveling in Japan on a budget. In previous posts, I wrote about the cost of a trip to Japan and the Shanghai-Osaka Ferry. Dan and I set off for Japan last month armed with very little in the way of research under our belts. We had a [...]
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This is the second of three posts on traveling in Japan on a budget. Yesterday, I wrote about the overall costs of a Japan trip. Come back tomorrow for part three, on the cost-effectiveness of the Japan Rail Pass. To be honest, when I began thinking about where I would go this winter, Japan was [...]
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This is the first of three posts on traveling in Japan on a budget. Come back tomorrow and Wednesday for parts two and three. One of my biggest concerns before leaving for Japan last month was how much it would cost. The country is famously expensive, and since I make my living teaching in China, [...]
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After two weeks of all cities, all the time, it was a bit of a relief to arrive in Takayama, a small town* in the Japanese Alps. We’d seen Japan’s hypermodern side on display in Tokyo and learned about its 20th century history in Hiroshima. In Takayama, we would get in touch with its rural [...]
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Kiyomizu Temple was our first stop in Kyoto, due mostly to its status as a World Heritage Site (I’m traveling with a collector) and its proximity to our hostel. It turned out to be an ideal introduction to the city. Kyoto is famous among tourists for its temples, shrines, and gardens, and quaint streets like [...]
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Japan is full of wonderful things, many food-related — among them, okonomiyaki pancakes, conveyor belt sushi and convenience-store food of the highest order. But nothing screamed out to be written about here until last night, when we discovered Kyoto’s truly weird “Sweets Paradise.” We were trolling the streets of Kyoto in search of something sweet [...]
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Travel stories and advice from an independent traveler and expat in China. Full bio
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