Takayama is a small jewel of a city located to the north of Kyoto, and makes a refreshing two day stop. It’s unrushed, and a terrific walking town. To get here, you’ll probably take the train from Nagoya. If you do, get a window seat, as the scenery around the Hida river is at times […]
Read the rest of this entry »Archive for the 'Culture & History' Category
WoWasis visits the beautiful Isui-en Garden in Nara, Japan
On your day walk through the old Japanese capital city of Nara, it’s easy to miss one of Japan’s most outstanding gardens. It’s a must-see, though, and it will take you less than an hour to complete the magnificent walking loop. Located to the west of Todaiji Temple’s Nandaimon Gate, the Isui-en Garden sits astride […]
Read the rest of this entry »WoWasis visits the Yatai Kaikan Float Museum in Takayama, Japan
No visit to Takayama, Japan, would be complete without a visit to the Takayama Matsuri Yatai Kaikan Float Exhibition Hall. The floats are massive wooden two or three-wheeled structures, brought out twice a year for the Takayama Matsuri (festival). Four of these floats are always on a rotating visit to the museum, where you can […]
Read the rest of this entry »WoWasis visits the Hida Folk Village (Hida No Sato) in Takayama, Japan
The hillside and lake-situated Hida Folk Village historical park in the city of Takayama, Japan, isn’t to be missed, and is worth a visit if you’re anywhere close to Takayama. Opened in 1971, the site consists of more than thirty buildings from the Hida area, moved here to preserve them from destruction. Architectural styles include […]
Read the rest of this entry »The incredible mechanical puppets of the Karakuri Museum in Takayama, Japan
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 […]
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 »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 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 […]
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