After my visit to Kyu Hyuga Bettei, I headed back to the train station to take a free shuttle bus to the MOA Museum of Art situated on the top of hill that overlooks the sea. Like Miho Museum in Kyoto, this private museum was opened in 1982 by the Mokichi Okada [...]

 
Unlike Shirakawa-go in the Gifu prefecture, the remote Gokayama region in the Toyama prefecture is exempt from big bus tourism and seems to attrach more independent travelers. Even though the two areas are both declared as UNESCO world heritage sites, they are located in two different prefectures, and I have a feeling [...]

The view of the city from my room in the morning
 
I am not sure if it was due to the weather or flocks of tourists, but I was slightly disappointed with Takayama city centre after spending an afternoon walking around. Luckily, I woke up the next day and the clouds have cleared [...]

Stunning scenery of the mountains during the train journey to Takayama
 
Even though I am familiar with unpredictable weather, I wasn't fully prepared for the fluctuation of temperatures and weather while traveling around Japan. For the first 10 days of my trip in the Kansai region, I experienced exceptional warm and sunny weather [...]

The preserved townscape of Minoshi
 
I think many people who are interested in Japanese paper would have heard of Mino washi paper, especially after it was was designated an Intangible Cultural Heritage by UNESCO in 2014. The origin of this paper dates back to the Nara period (710 ~ 784 CE), and is [...]

 
One big mistake I made when I was planning my trip was that I underestimated the traveling and transferring time of using the public transport in Japan. Trains are punctual and frequent if you are traveling to major and more populated cities, but it becomes more complicated if you want to go [...]

 
Sometimes it doesn't matter how much planning you do before your trip, things would still go wrong... but miraculously, some kind strangers/ locals would appear out of nowhere to help you out. I am sure many people have had these experiences when they travel, and I think it is probably the most [...]

Katayama Bunzaburo Shoten's flagship store in Kyoto
 
When I was going through my pile of leaflets/ business cards that I picked up from my previous trips to Kyoto, one particular leaflet caught my attention. It was from Bunzaburo, a tie-dyed/ shibori (the term means “to squeeze or wring”)  company in Kyoto. Oddly enough [...]

Since I only had four days in kyoto (including a day out at Miho museum with my friend), I didn't manage to fit much shopping in. Hence I targeted a few shops either close to where I was staying or near a sight I wanted to visit. One of the shops that [...]

 
 
I have wanted to visit Japanese potter, Kawai Kanjiro's former house - now his Memorial Museum for a long time. Yet for some reason, I never made it until this trip... it was a timely visit as the museum was like a quiet sanctuary compared to hassle and bustle in the [...]