The Takayama Showa Museum is not only one of the best things in Takayama, in our opinion here at WoWasis, it’s most of the most remarkable museums in the world. Showa refers to the period of Japanese history (1926-1987) following the Taisho era (1912-1925), and preceding the Heisei era (1988-today). Virtually everyone who has owned […]
Read the rest of this entry »Archive for the 'By Country' Category
Why we just LOVE the Spa-Hotel Alpina in Takayama, Japan
We don’t write about hotels very often. We here at WoWasis don’t get complimentary rooms, we pay for our own. So when we take the time to write about a hotel, it’s gotta be good. If you’re ever in the beautiful historical city of Takayama, Japan, a bit northeast of Kyoto, then you’ve got to […]
Read the rest of this entry »The best bath in Japan? Maybe it’s Kyoto’s Funaoka Onsen
Here at WoWasis, we’re clean freaks, or can’t you tell? We’ve reported on Thai toilet hoses, soapy massages, Bangkok Korean scrubs, you name it, we just wanna be clean. It turns out that the Japanese, like the Thais and Koreans, are water people, and they revere their public baths, which they call onsen. And there’s […]
Read the rest of this entry »Why a balding, smoking, middle-aged white guy may be the new sex symbol in Japan
You can quote us here at WoWasis: Japan is different. Waaay different. By western standards, middle-aged white guys aren’t worth much, sexually or commercially. Ask yourself: how many older western guys are spokespersons, or models, or mage logos for anything hip? Can’t name one? Neither can we. Receding hairlines aren’t very popular: guys are paying […]
Read the rest of this entry »See Kyoto’s temples by city bus, optimized for western visitors
We’ll have to admit it, we here at WoWasis aren’t much for using city buses to get around. In most cities, we’ll take the subway, taxis, hire a car and driver for a day, we might even take a bicycle. Typically, city buses can be challenging for those not speaking the language. But Kyoto, Japan’s […]
Read the rest of this entry »See Kyoto’s eastern temples in a half-day walk in the southern Higashiyama district
Kyoto’s Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines are spread all over this fairly large city, and using the bus system is something visitors get used to doing quite quickly, unless they want to run up considerable taxi bills. For us here at WoWasis, therefore, a half-day north to south walk along Kyoto’s eastern perimeter in the […]
Read the rest of this entry »WoWasis Book review: ‘Tears of Autumn’ Vietnam spy fiction by Charles McCarry
Here at WoWasis, we love reading old books that we missed the first time around, especially when we discover something that we really shouldn’t have missed. We’ll bet you missed Charles McCarry’s thriller The Tears of Autumn (1974, ISBN 13-978-1-58567-890-7), too. That’s right, it was written in 1974, at which point many of the readers […]
Read the rest of this entry »WoWasis book review: ‘Bangkok Dragons, Cape Cod Tears’ by Randall Peffer
From our catbird seat here at WoWasis, it’s pretty clear that novelist Randall Peffer, in his Bangkok Dragons, Cape Cod Tears (2009, ISBN 978-1-60648-038-0), knows a few disparate worlds. The transgender world features prominently here, both in Bangkok and Cape Cod, as does the Portuguese fishing community of the Cape. Melding these worlds with police […]
Read the rest of this entry »WoWasis Vietnam book review: Nelson DeMille’s ‘Word of Honor’
If you’re a U.S. citizen, when you visit Vietnam, you may be pleasantly surprised at the lack of animosity. After all, the Yanks tore up the country and killed a lot of people. Just how badly things go haywire under combat conditions in Vietnam is a story that sets the table for Nelson DeMille’s epic […]
Read the rest of this entry »WoWasis book review: ‘Lacquerware Journeys’ Burmese Lacquerware by Than Htun (Dedaye)
There has been a resurgence of interest in Burmese lacquer ware concomitant to the large numbers of travelers now visiting the country of Myanmar. Sylvia Fraser-Lu’s landmark book Burmese Lacquerware is in its second edition, but ordering it internationally is financially problematic, going for more than $100 USD on the internet, while available […]
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