My wife couldn’t resist snapping this photo of a gaggle of kindergarten-age schoolgirls looking like they’re on a field trip.  かわいい！ If memory serves this was on the platform at the strangely Swiss-themed Gora station, part of the “Hakone...

OK, so, like me you’ve finally decided that its about damn time you pull the trigger and make this trip happen.  Where do you start? You start scouring the internet, pick up a few guidebooks, read other people’s trip accounts (like this one) but its...

On Mt. Takao, you’ll see these signs every so often along the trails… Signs on Mt. Takao What’s it say? (You can probably guess the top...

If, like me, you grew up in America, you’re used to one thing: Big Frickin Cars(tm), and an endless sea of hulking pickup trucks and SUVs. The situation is quite the opposite in Japan, as pretty much everything on four wheels is considerably...

It doesn’t take long as you walk around, well, pretty much anywhere in Japan in July, to notice the many, many bushes filled with blue or purple flowers. These gorgeous plants are Hydrangeas, if you didn’t know. And yes, they are everywhere. Native...