Travel photos and journals from across Asia [1997-2025]
Japan travel
Day 13: Fukuoka Today, we wanted to sample some evening street food, so we set out a little later and walked over to the Canal City shopping mall, which turned out to be another multi-floored collection of empty shops selling hi-so brands. It did have a fancy fountain that would come on for a little…
Day 11: Asakura to Nanzoin Today, we had to return the van, and the weather remained grim, but there were a couple of sights to see on the way back to Fukuoka. The first stop was Amagi Park at Asakura, which was one of the top spots to view the cherry blossoms. The annual Sakura…
Day 10: Kurokawa Today, I turned 50 (an entire decade since we went here), and to mark the occasion, the weather was cold, wet, and miserable, but I was determined not to let it make a difference. We would stick to the plan for the day, which involved motoring north to the Daikanbō lookout first…
Day 8: Aso With the boat trip over almost as quickly as it began, we were on the road again for the hour’s drive north to the Aso-Kuju National Park, which is home to Japan’s largest volcanic caldera and one of the largest active volcanoes in the world. We checked out the Asobo no Sato…
Day 7: Nishiki to Takachiho Today was a driving day as we had to head around three hours north to get to Takachiho, where we had booked a boat trip for the following day. We decided to avoid the boring toll expressway and take the scenic route through a spectacular river valley on Highway 212….
Day 5: Sakurajima to Ebino Leaving the still-smoldering volcano in the morning, we pointed the van north, driving through the coastal town of Kirishima and toward the Kirishima-Kinkowan National Park, where we would spend a couple of days hiking. Before venturing into the national park – free to enter in Japan – we checked out…
Day 3: Ume to Miyazaki Temperatures dropped below zero again, but there was no snow overnight, just a layer of ice on the front windscreen. When the van and ourselves were suitably warmed after a coffee, we headed south to Nobeoka to fuel up and fix the rear tire, which had picked up a screw….
It was time for a return trip to Japan to celebrate my fiftieth in March. We’d originally thought of going to Sapporo and Hokkaido, but flights were either fully booked or silly prices for that time of year due to the skiing season, so we opted for Fukuoka and Kyushu instead. Kōdō (行動) is the…
Day thirteen Our final day in Japan was dedicated to shopping so we headed over to the Don Qui supermarket to get lost in the warren of tiny aisles where everything from designer handbags to four-litre bottles of whisky to wasabi paste was for sale. We were looking for some spirits to take back since…
With the long weekend finally over, we thought it would be a good time to head out to Nara and the famous deer park. A 45-minute train ride later we emerged from Kintetsu-Nara station to realise that it made no difference to crowd levels as the Chinese tour groups were there in force. The attraction…
Day twelve Today we were heading one stop up the subway line to the Korobon Ichiba Market, Osaka’s famous seafood market. Every kind of aquatic lifeform imaginable from puffer fish to seaweed was on display here for consumption. We started with something safe, Kobe and Wagyu beef which we could select and the chef would…
Hotel check-out times are early in Japan so we were on the road to Tamachi station by 10am to grab a train into Tokyo Central for our Shinkansen connection. Being a public holiday meant more people and this sprawling transport hub was absolutely rammed. It was busier than the busiest airport I have ever been…
Day nine Today was our only full day in Tokyo so we had a lot to pack in. The first stop was the city’s top attraction – its oldest Buddhist temple, Sensō-ji. About a million tourists had the same idea and the place was rammed. Thailand often touts how many tourists it gets, but I’ve…
Day 8 Our week with the van was up and it was time to return it to Tokyo. The quickest route was on the expensive toll roads, but going over the mountains would consume more fuel and take longer so we followed Google’s instructions this time. Navigating through the city and its monumental urban sprawl…
Day 7 Today would be our last full day with the van so we had to start heading back towards Tokyo. We woke to a cold ‘pea souper’ which for the non-Brits is a thick fog. A couple of coffees later and it had started to clear so we set off ignoring Google Maps to…