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- Nagoya Live Houses
- August 12th, 2010Category: Arts & Entertainment, Travel
- For too many people, Nagoya is simply a station between Tokyo and Kyoto, offering little of interest. In addition to the tourist attractions I have written about elsewhere on this site, Nagoya also has a thriving music scene, some characterful live houses and some ... » Continue Reading
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- Iga-Ueno: Poetry in Motion.
- March 24th, 2010Category: Travel
- For a small town, Iga-Ueno has something for everyone. Whether your tastes lean towards the confrontational and martial or the reflective and poetic, this is a trip worth making. Iga-Ueno is the birthplace of those two most quintessential images of Japan: ninjas and B ... » Continue Reading
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- Portrait of a Self-Made Mummy
- March 18th, 2010Category: Uncategorized
- When mummies are mentioned, most thoughts turn to Egypt, Tutankhamen and a never-ending series of Brandon Fraser films. Japan also has a long tradition of mummification but it is one which takes a drastically different form from that of Egypt. In Egypt the body was pr ... » Continue Reading
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- Into The Wild: Hiking in Aichi
- February 8th, 2010Category: Travel
- The mountains lining the banks of the Kiso River as it passes through Inuyama offer a plethora of pathways for both the serious and the casual hiker. My favourite is strenuous without being difficult, and matches exercise with rewarding views and easy accessibility ... » Continue Reading
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- Atsuta Jingu: The Sword in the Shrine?
- January 20th, 2010Category: Travel
- Few tourist attractions can boast as their main draw an item which none have seen for hundreds of years, which none are permitted to see and which may not even exist, or if it does, is possibly a replica. Yet this is the central boast of Atsuta Shrine in Nagoya. Thi ... » Continue Reading
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- Chiune Sugihara: The Japanese Oskar Schindler
- December 14th, 2009Category: Uncategorized
- Yaotsu is a small rural town in the hills of southern Gifu. Every spring they stage an impressive festival with floats, food stalls and more flowing sake than the small population could ever manage to drink, although they give it their best shot. The fireworks in su ... » Continue Reading
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- Kiyosu Castle
- November 11th, 2009Category: Travel
- While the Sixties bring to mind images of hippies, Woodstock, students on the street, The Beatles on a rooftop and Jimi’s guitar on fire, the decade wasn’t all colour and light. In Japan, from the late Fifties through the Sixties, while campuses became battlegrounds, ... » Continue Reading
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- Komaki: Culture, Sex and Death.
- November 9th, 2009Category: Travel
- Thirty minutes north of Nagoya, in the heart of the commuter belt, lies Komaki. This town was formed around the castle built by Oda Nobunaga in 1563. The castle was the 3rd to be built by Nobunaga, after Nagoya and Kiyosu. The idea was to make it a staging point from ... » Continue Reading
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- The Paths of Glory: Yokohama Foreign Cemetery
- October 20th, 2009Category: Travel
- During difficult times, it is always comforting to know that you are not alone, that others have stood where you stand, have gone through what you’re going through and come out the other side. Regardless of how adventurous we feel when first we board the plane that t ... » Continue Reading
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- The Pastels / Tenniscoats: Two Sunsets
- October 19th, 2009Category: Uncategorized
- My interest in this album started back in Scotland in 2007 during the Triptych festival. Indie senpai The Pastels were joined onstage by Saya and Takashi from Tenniscoats and the music they played captivated the audience until an amplifier blew and stopped the show. ... » Continue Reading