I took a long walk down Route 1 back when I lived in Chigasaki, Japan, and on my walk I found a large torii gate standing along the highway, seemingly by itself. At the time, I thought this was…
Farewells from Chiran
What drives men to willingly drive an aircraft into a ship and what goes through the mind of a person scheduled for death and seemingly embraces the opportunity? There are stories from pilots of many nations flying damaged aircraft and…
Himeji – Japan’s Premier Castle
If you have ever spent any time reading about Japan, or even just looked at a tourism guide about the country, you have likely seen the beautiful bright white Japanese castle that often adorns Japan’s promotional literature. That…
Hikone Castle – One of Japan’s Finest Castles
If you’ve ever traveled around Japan you know that they love their castles. Almost every old castle town has either rebuilt their castles, preserved the grounds as a park, or, in rare cases, preserved their castle through the centuries. …
The Zen Retreat of Saijoji Temple.
As I was going through my pictures deciding on this week’s article, I stumbled across some older pictures from shortly after I had gotten my first DSLR camera. As I got more into photography, I started taking my camera…
First and Last Target: Yawata Steel Works
Many places in Japan suffered repeat bombings in World War II but one had the dubious distinction of being the first and among the last hit by B-29s. On the night of June 15/16, 1944, the then-Imperial Steel Works gained…
Kawasaki’s Premier Folk Museum – Nihon Minkaen
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…
Shaking the Heavens from Below: Ozushima Kaiten Memorial Museum
The sky was clear of enemy aircraft on the morning of Nov. 20, 1944 at Ulithi, the American anchorage and resupply base that kept the fleet moving towards victory over Tokyo in the latter part of the Pacific War. Fleet…
A Recent History of Japanese Aviation: The Hamamatsu JASDF Museum
Some time ago, shortly after we started this blog, I wrote about the underwhelming castle in Hamamatsu. As I mentioned then, there is a lot more to see in Hamamatsu, and things that are more worth seeing. One of those…
Bansei: The Phantom Kamikaze Peace Museum
Today people come to Minami Satsuma’s Fukiage Sand Dune for fun and relaxation. At 50 kilometers long, it’s one of Japan’s three biggest dunes and every year hosts a competition that does for sand what Hokkaido does for snow. That’s…