We took a short family trip a few weeks back, to the Hyatt Ziva Rose Hall in Jamaica. It was a good trip, relatively short distance for us, and a quick break for family time and more importantly away from work, etc. We’ve never been on a cruise, and have never done an all-inclusive before, […]
Read the rest of this article at Review: Hyatt Ziva Rose Hall, Montego Bay Jamaica.
2019 is nearing its end, and along with it an entire decade. As I have done in past years, here is a review of my 2019 in travel. This year was somewhat unusual, with zero trips to Europe, the Middle East or Africa. That makes for quite a gap in my travel map. See below […]
Read the rest of this article at My 2019 in Travel: Top of the World and Beyond.
A throwback to last summer, I head out for a Squamish ride with the advanced crew at NSRide. We head down the double black "Yer Sister" and have fun questioning whether we should do some of the moves in the wet!
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Public Japan – Why Japan Works 公の日本の良さ [AdSense-A] Much of Japan is messy. Its cityscapes are hard on the eye and not by any stretch attractive. Its institutions can be maddeningly officious and unbending. Work for many is endless hours of meetings, obsession with small detail, and hierarchical drudgery. Patriarchy is the gas that powers the nation. Its national politics functions poorly on many levels (the same party has ruled Japan for all but two years since 1955). And yet Japan is on a day-to-day basis a very pleasant, well-run place to live. Public Safety Disorganized crime in Japan is rare and decreasing, thanks mainly to the declining number of young men. Young women can take public transportation and then walk home from a station at all hours. In 2017, there were 306 murders in the entire country (pop. 127 million people). The American city of Philadelphia (pop., 1.5 million) endured 315 homicides in the same year – and it is not the by a long stretch the most violent city in the United States. There are creeps in Japan, there are the criminally insane, and there is of course organized crime – the yakuza – but for the average […]
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There’s nothing like skating in a beautiful European city for a blast of wintry fun, especially with a gløgg, glühwein or chocolat chaud to warm up with afterwards
The Maritime Museum in Greenwich has opened an ice rink this year for the first time. It’s outside the Queen’s House and gives a great view through the Royal Naval College to the Thames, creating a scenic skating experience. It’s less pricey than competing museum ice rinks, and less busy, too – no need to book online, simply turn up and buy tickets on the door. Next to the outdoor ice rink there is an indoor bar for those who simply wish to watch, and it’s open until late ...
• Until 12 Jan, adult from £13.50, child from £6.75, rmg.co.uk
Ruby
Polish flag carrier LOT Polish Airlines will launch nonstop service from Warsaw to Washington Dulles in summer 2020, with three flights per week beginning June 2, 2020. The route will operate three times per week on Tuesdays, Fridays, and Sundays using a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner seating 252 passengers in a three-class configuration (18J/21W/213Y). The flight […]
Read the rest of this article at LOT Polish Airlines Adds Warsaw to Washington Dulles.
Japanese Butterflies Dying Out 里山のチョウ激減 [AdSense-A] In Japan, why are Japanese butterflies dying out? In the fields of Japan’s countryside, some 87 species of butterfly are thought to exist. Of these, according to a recent survey, the population of 40% of them has declined precipitously. Wildlife Survey Since 2003, Japan’s Ministry of the Environment has conducted a Monitoring Sites 1000 survey, which looks at the wildlife in 1000 areas around Japan. 2008 – 2017 In the ten-year period from 2008 to 2017, 50 areas were surveyed for butterflies each year. The findings were dire – 34 species are at risk of becoming extinct. Red List These species have been placed on the Ministry’s “Red List,” which is for those species at greatest risk of disappearing. Reasons for Japanese Butterflies Dying Out Researchers are not sure exactly what accounts for the drastic decline in butterfly populations. Possible reasons given were the decrease in satoyama landscapes and the decrease in wild flowers. Satoyama In the past, much of rural Japan was “satoyama.” This is an area between mountain foothills and farmable land. Sato means village, and yama means hill or mountain. As Japan has become more and more urban, these spaces have […]
The post Japanese Butterflies Dying Out The Reasons appeared first on Japan All Over Travel Guide.
Aloha from the Hawaiian island of Kauai. Shelly and I took a mileage run to Kauai to spend Christmas in the tropics. The day after Christmas, a sightseeing helicopter operated by Safari Helicopters crashed in Waimea Canyon. We both received texts and phone calls from concerned family members wanting to know if we were on […]
Read the rest of this article at Are Sightseeing Helicopters Safe?.
Most Popular Places to Live in Kansai 住みたい尼崎にモテ期 [AdSense-A] Kansai – the area Japan that includes Kyoto, Osaka, Nara, Kobe – is after Tokyo Japan’s second great region. See below for a list of the most popular places to live in Kansai. Kyoto is the old capital with temples and geisha, Osaka the great industrial metropolis. Nara is the former capital, a mini-Kyoto with deer. It briefly served as the locus of power before losing that privilege to Kyoto, which itself a thousand years later lost it to Tokyo The port city Kobe is famous for its chic, modern vibe. Where then is the most desirable place to live? Ashiya is a perennial favorite. It is a wealthy suburb of Kobe. Osaka is a fun, down-to-earth city – and home to much of the region’s industry. Kyotoites, perhaps a tad snobby, are proud of the city’s beauty, size, culinary culture, and major industrial presence. Drum roll, please. Amagasaki The winner is, shockingly, Amagasaki. The small industrial city located between Osaka and Kobe brings to mind factories, pollution, and street crime. That image, it turns out, is dated. The factories have mostly closed, taking with them the pollution. Crime, moreover, has decreased […]
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Two weeks ago, I wrote about new service from Alaska Airlines beginning next month. I have an update to that post regarding service changes at Missoula (MSO). A Christmas Eve announcement from Alaska will bring mainline jet service between Missoula and Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA). Missoula to Seattle A-319 Jet Service Currently, Alaska flies the […]
Read the rest of this article at Alaska Airlines Adds Jet Service For Missoula (MSO) to SEA and LAX.
Encounters with Kyoto: Writers in Kyoto Anthology 3 Edited by Jann Williams; Ian Josh Yates ISBN: 978-1-0992-7643-9 Writers in Kyoto, 2019 Softback, 135 pp Generally speaking, this anthology of prose, poetry and excellent black-and-white photography defies the almost inevitable unevenness in form and substance that besets such collections to achieve a fresh look at a well-traversed city. There is something for everyone – travelogues, memoirs, portraits, pastiches, poem sequences, short stories – and thus nothing that really consolidates the anthology. Ultimately this energetic, scattershot miscellany supports John Dougill’s assertion that Kyoto is a “city … that’s hard to put into words”. I suspect the collection will make more sense to those who know Kyoto already than those who are new to it. And perhaps that is the point – it and its previous iterations are a loving tribute rather than a primer. It begins strongly, with veteran writers Juliet Winters Carpenter’s and Alex Kerr’s affectionate yet clear-eyed takes on Kyoto as it was and is. Some subsequent pieces are hampered by slapdash editing, which emphasises the disparity of approach, tone and substance. Indeed, the two editors’ pieces themselves could hardly be more different, one dense and scholarly, the other impressionistic and intimate. […]
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