Tellink Traveller SIM: a review
Disclosure: The following is a sponsored post in that I received a free SIM card with credit from Tellink in return for reviewing it. All opinions are, as always, my own. Those of us who…
Search Results for: japan
A Free View of Tokyo from Tokyo City Hall
The classic destination for a big view of Tokyo is Tokyo Tower, which looks like a cross between a communication mast and the Eiffel Tower. What stopped me from visiting it was the cost: ¥1200 (€8…
Eagle Creek Backpack Review
For the two solo trips I took this year—one to Guadeloupe, Martinique, New York and Spain, and one to Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan and South Korea—I needed a very specific kind of luggage. The problem…
A Tourist to the DMZ
I’d read about visiting the DMZ a number of times before I arrived in Seoul. DMZ stands for the Demilitarized Zone between North and South Korea, which is anything but demilitarized. It’s a wide strip…
Two Seoul Neighborhoods: Ikseon-dong & Bukchon Hanok Village
Two Seoul Neighborhoods: Buckchon Hanok Village contains many hanoks, but it has a completely different feel to it than Ikseon-dong Hanok Area.
Suwon’s Palace and Fortress
Suwon, South Korea, a city with more than a million inhabitants, is a separate city from Seoul, but it’s been swallowed up in the post-Korean War urban sprawl, so that it’s in the same metro…
Seoul Tower Without a Date
Seoul Tower, perched on Namsan Mountain above Seoul, is visible everywhere, looking like some sort of 70’s version of the future. Built back in the 70’s for radio and television, it was and still is a…
Six (!) Seoul Palaces
Seoul is home to six different royal palaces, each built by or for a different king. Beautifully crafted and opulent, some are more intact and authentic than others. Authentic? The five older ones all include…
5 Tokyo Gardens
I’m not particularly into gardens. I enjoy them, but don’t enjoy gardening. I visited a few gardens in Tokyo partly because I was curious about Japanese gardens in particular, and also curious as to how…
Takayama Hida Folk Village
If you read this blog at all regularly, you’ll know that I particularly enjoy visiting historic buildings: the more authentic the better. That’s why one of my goals in visiting Takayama, Japan, was to see…
Strolling Yanaka in Tokyo
Tokyo is best known for its big-city-ness: huge, new, shiny, crowded, and exciting. I found it overwhelming in terms of noise and crowds, and also in terms of choices: where to go, what to do,…
What to do in Himeji on a day trip from Kyoto: Himeji Castle and Engyoji Temple
As I stepped off the train for my Himeji day trip from Kyoto, I said to myself, “I’ll look for the tourist information office first and ask how to get to the castle.” (Yes, traveling…
Is Kanazawa worth a Visit?
Kanazawa hit the travel sections in March 2015 with the opening of a new shinkansen (bullet train) line going there from Tokyo. It cut the travel time to less than two and half hours, which makes…
Singapore, the Old and the New
NEW Singapore After my visit to Pulau Ubin in Singapore, I spent most of the rest of my very short stay visiting with my foster daughter, Krislyn, and her Singapore family. But Krislyn and I needed…
A day trip to Hiroshima
I had mixed feelings about visiting Hiroshima and initially decided not to. I know a lot about the atomic bomb attacks on Japan. Back in the early 90s, I attended a three-week intensive workshop for…
What to see in Nikko, a breathtaking World Heritage site
Nikko, Japan, nestled in the mountains north of Tokyo, is a small town, but is home to an incomparable assemblage of UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Sprinkled around a national park forest above Nikko town is a collection…
An over-packing update
Before my recent solo trip, I posted about my plans to travel with just one small 35-liter suitcase. It was a convertible one: it had wheels, but could also be used as a backpack. I chose…
The pros and cons of solo travel
“What? You’re going all by yourself?” This is the usual response I get when I tell people about the solo trip I’m planning this April. In a tone of voice that says they think I’m…
On not being a VIP in Rome
We were in Rome yesterday and the day before, but apparently so were representatives of the G8 nations and other VIPs. Sights/sites closed or opened arbitrarily to accommodate their whistle-stop visits. A note from 2020:…