This is the last of three posts on traveling in Japan on a budget. In previous posts, I wrote about the cost of a trip to Japan and the Shanghai-Osaka Ferry.
Dan and I set off for Japan last month armed with very little in the way of research under our belts. We had a copy [...]
This is the second of three posts on traveling in Japan on a budget. Yesterday, I wrote about the overall costs of a Japan trip. Come back tomorrow for part three, on the cost-effectiveness of the Japan Rail Pass.
To be honest, when I began thinking about where I would go this winter, Japan was pretty [...]
This is the first of three posts on traveling in Japan on a budget. Come back tomorrow and Wednesday for parts two and three.
One of my biggest concerns before leaving for Japan last month was how much it would cost. The country is famously expensive, and since I make my living teaching in China, I’m [...]
This Buddha statue stood out from others at Wat Xieng Thong in Luang Prabang because the gilt on his face and neck was not the usual smooth gold paint that I had seen on other Buddhas in Laos. Instead it appeared as if small postage-stamp-sized pieces of gold leaf had been haphazardly applied over the [...]
After more than two months on the road, I am officially back in Changsha and staying put for awhile. When I left in December, I wasn’t sure how I would feel about such a long stint of traveling. Reading about others’ round-the-world trip plans was exciting, but I wasn’t sure it would suit me. Wouldn’t [...]
Happily for those who spend a full week there, Luang Prabang has more to offer than just wats, wats, wats. In February, I spent two full days taking a weaving course through OckPopTok, which operates two shops in the town and a weaving center just outside of it. I had never done any weaving before [...]
After two weeks of all cities, all the time, it was a bit of a relief to arrive in Takayama, a small town* in the Japanese Alps. We’d seen Japan’s hypermodern side on display in Tokyo and learned about its 20th century history in Hiroshima. In Takayama, we would get in touch with its rural [...]
Kiyomizu Temple was our first stop in Kyoto, due mostly to its status as a World Heritage Site (I’m traveling with a collector) and its proximity to our hostel. It turned out to be an ideal introduction to the city. Kyoto is famous among tourists for its temples, shrines, and gardens, and quaint streets like [...]
Japan is full of wonderful things, many food-related — among them, okonomiyaki pancakes, conveyor belt sushi and convenience-store food of the highest order. But nothing screamed out to be written about here until last night, when we discovered Kyoto’s truly weird “Sweets Paradise.”
We were trolling the streets of Kyoto in search of something sweet when [...]
Earlier this week, a friend and I took the bus from Luang Prabang in Laos across the border to Kunming, China. Information about the trip is scarce in guidebooks and online, and even in Luang Prabang there is plenty of misinformation. So this post is in the nature of a public service announcement:
There is a [...]
