Category: travel
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Las Vegas to Palm Springs
A couple of years ago I found myself with three days to kill in Southern California, so I rented a car and circled around – passing through the Coachella Valley and Palm Springs along the way. It seemed like a nice little town, but I didn’t really have time to stick around – instead I…
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Japan on a Budget: Beppu and Aso-San
My last must-see stop in Kyushu was the area around Aso-San, a massive volcano in the middle of the island. To get from Aoshima (via Miyazaki) to there involves passing through Beppu – take a limited express up via Oita. Beppu: All about the Onsen I’ll be absolutely honest: if you don’t like onsen*, you…
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Japan on a Budget: Aoshima
From Kagoshima I decided to head around Kyushu anticlockwise, with the first stop being Miyazaki and, just to the south of that city, Aoshima. There’s no Shinkansen access to the east of the island, but ‘Kirishima’ Tokkyu express trains run across in a couple of hours. Miyazaki City I was only passing through Miyazaki, but…
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Japan on a Budget: Kagoshima and Sakurajima
If getting from Nagasaki to Kumamoto proved a bit tricky, getting from Kumamoto to Kagoshima is a breeze: jump on the Kyushu Shinkansen and head south – it terminates at Kagoshimachuo station, right in the city (Kagoshima Eki is to the northwest). I arrived in town early in the morning to find shopkeepers still busy…
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Japan on a Budget: Kumamoto
If you’re traveling around Kyushu, you’re likely to pass through Kumamoto more than once. Which is fine, as it’s a really pleasant city in which to while away a few hours or days. Transport and Trains Kumamoto is on the Kyushu Shinkansen line, roughly half-way down the island and so between Hakata in the north…
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Japan on a Budget: Fukuoka
A few years back I traveled around the Kansai area, and last year I headed North from Tokyo to visit the Tohoku region. This year, something a bit different – sidestepping Tokyo altogether, I decided to visit the south-western island of Kyushu. In the end I managed to almost entirely circle the island, taking in…
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Japan on a Budget: Fukushima-ken
Aizuwakamatsu, Fukushima-ken Three years ago, most people probably hadn’t heard of Fukushima. Today everybody has heard of it, but very few people are visiting. This is a great shame, for many reasons. The name itself is something of a problem. Fukushima is the prefecture, a city within it, and also the namesake of the nuclear…
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Japan on a Budget: Hirosaki and Aomori
Inside the Hakkoda-Maru Aomori-ken sits at the very top of Honshu. Getting there on the train is as easy as you could hope: Shin-Aomori is the current terminus of the Tohoku Shinkansen, so you can leap on a Hayate service from Tokyo or, like me, catch it from Morioka, where the Akita mini-shinkansen line meets…