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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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“Butts’ Historical Guide to Lewisham, Ladywell, Lee, Blackheath and Eltham”
The British Library today released over one million images into the Flickr Commons. Among them, the cover of this book, from 1878. It’s a kind of general guide to the Lewisham-Lee-Blackheath-Eltham area, taking in the shops, streets, churches and notable past residents, and if you live in the area it’s quite fascinating to read of…
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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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When bad news makes money, making up bad news is good business
The other day a message scrolled past in my Twitter feed: Which made me think: if the sea off Fukushima really were boiling, I’m pretty sure we would have heard about it. Except if there were some sort of amazing cover-up, in which case why would NHK (which is, essentially, the Japanese BBC) be showing…