Puppet- making has been a tradition in Japan for centuries, but we here at WoWasis admit that we were unprepared for the technical wizardry inherent in Karakuri puppets, the centerpieces of Takayam’s Karakuri Museum. Their history begins in Edo (now Tokyo) in 1617, where a watch repairman conceptualized that cogs and wheels found in timepieces […]
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WoWasis product review: The incredible INAX “toilet shower” seat, now available worldwide
It probably started with us because we here at WoWasis hated the squat toilets that are traditional in most of the world. They’re messy and barbaric. We discovered Thai toilet hoses in 2002, reported on them, and even plumbed one into our house bathroom in our own country. But we weren’t prepared to be thoroughly […]
Read the rest of this entry »The best of Takayama Japan: Gomi Teruichi’s Showa Museum
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 »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: ‘The Piano Teacher’ by Janice Y.K. Lee
After finishing Janice Y.K. Lee’s ‘The Piano Teacher’ (2009, ISBN 978-0-14-311653-0), we went scurrying back to Han Suyin’s landmark novel of 1952, A Many-Splendored Thing. There are similarities, to be sure. The setting for both is pre-1955 Hong Kong, and they are essentially love stories that revolve around the unsettled military, political, and social situation […]
Read the rest of this entry »WoWasis book review: ‘Take China: The Last of the China Marines’ by Harold Stephens
Harold Stephens, author of Take China: The Last of the China Marines (2003, ISBN 0-9642521-8-X), maintains that the book is a novel, but in actuality it’s a memoir, his autobiographical tales of serving with the U.S. Marines, transitioning from the end of World War II to mainland China. He’s changed the names, but it’s all […]
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