English Travel– category –

I'd seen photographs of the red torii gates winding toward the Sea of Japan for years. In September 2023, my wife and I finally reached Motonosumi Shrine on our Yamaguchi road trip. The view was even more dramatic in person. Red gates, b...

I’ll admit it: before visiting Sera, I wasn’t sure what we’d find. A rural town in Hiroshima Prefecture, some flower fields, maybe a nice place to stop for a snack. That sounded pleasant enough, but not exactly a grand adventure. Then I ...

I went to Sera Kogen Farm wondering whether looking at flowers would really keep me entertained. The answer, apparently, was yes. I walked farther than expected, kept turning around for another photo, and ended up with a lot of pictures ...

Would you explore an underground kingdom inside an old mine, armed with a map, a flashlight and a book of puzzles? My wife and I did exactly that at Mikawa Mu Valley in Iwakuni, Yamaguchi Prefecture. No children along. Just two adults wh...

I wasn't looking for a swimming beach when I found Human Beach Nagase on Etajima Island near Hiroshima. I was driving around the island and thought I'd stop for a few minutes to look at the water. The Seto Inland Sea was calm, the beach ...

A lot of my visits to Etajima started with a fishing rod. I've come here many times to fish, so for a long while I thought of it mainly as a place to cast a line. Then I tried exploring it from a tourist's point of view. Turns out Etajim...

There's something wonderful about the sea in September. My drive around Kurahashi Island near Kure, Hiroshima, wasn't a grand sightseeing expedition. I just wanted to enjoy the coast, find something good to eat, walk around Katsurahama B...

I set out from Hiroshima for two days of driving around Shikoku. My plan was ambitious: cross the Shimanami Kaido, wander around Dogo Onsen, see Shikoku Karst and the blue Niyodo River, then spend the night in Kochi City before visiting ...

Our Tottori road trip had a very ambitious wish list: fresh seafood, views of Mount Daisen, places connected to Detective Conan, the Sand Museum—and finally, the famous Tottori Sand Dunes. We made it to almost everything. Then it rained....

The reason my wife and I first heard of Okunoshima, Hiroshima's Rabbit Island, wasn't a photograph of a rabbit. It was a very long line of people at Tadanoumi Port. We happened to drive past and wondered what on earth everyone was waitin...