This update of Wayfarer Daves will be a bit different. I had planned on finishing off an article about the museum ship Hikawa Maru for this week’s update, but I found something else occupying my thoughts today. I hope…

This update of Wayfarer Daves will be a bit different. I had planned on finishing off an article about the museum ship Hikawa Maru for this week’s update, but I found something else occupying my thoughts today. I hope…
This series is about the Japanese home front in and around Sasebo, Japan during World War II. It is not a condemnation or critique of actions taken by either side during the war but rather a look at the civilian…
This series is about the Japanese home front in and around Sasebo, Japan during World War II. It is not a condemnation or critique of actions taken by either side during the war but rather a look at the civilian…
A couple months ago I wrote about the number of folk museums in Japan and old buildings that the Japanese have preserved from their history. The best of these folk museums that I have found so far is a…
We are traveling again for the New Year, so this week’s article is a brief look at something a friend of mine and I found hiking near Zushi, Kanagawa. An acquaintance who lives in the area told me there…
In Chiba prefecture, far from the traditional cultural centers of Tokyo, Kyoto, and Nara, there is a temple complex called Nihonji. The temple is located on the side of a sacred mountain amidst an old rock quarry and has…
By: Dave Hansche I’ve written about several castles on this blog thus far, but it has occurred to me that I have overlooked a large rebuilt castle in a pleasant city about an hour away. I’ve visited Odawara…
By: Dave Hansche If you haven’t read day one yet, you can find it here: http://www.wayfarerdaves.com/?p=615 When we left off, my co-blogging friend and I had just finished a rainy hike into Tsumago-juku, an old post town on the…
When Dave and I traveled around Japan for New Year, it was a trip full of superlatives. Almost everywhere we went was the most beautiful, oldest, biggest, or best in Japan. Todaiji, which I wrote about in my last article,…
The early and mid-700s was a hard time for early Japan, especially for the Imperial family. There were rebellions, famines, and outbreaks of disease. The Emperor Shomu, who reigned at the time, was forced to change the capital four…