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Driving Iki: Indลji to Hara-no-tsuji, the ancient Yayoi settlement
(This is the first of a video series driving around Ikijima. I will be uploading more vids as I edit them.) Iki is just a small island, only 17km long and 14km wide. Many of the attractions are outdoors, so when…
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Sudden Goodbyes
Our first summer spent on Iki in 2020 was a bit hectic. We had just arrived in May: new community, new house, new school, new life. We didnโt know the roads, weather, where the good beaches were, the best times to…
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Women adventurers
In my previous post on adventure travel I listed a number of adventure writers that have inspired me over the years. You may have noticed that they were almost exclusively men. The reason is because I wanted to do a separate…
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On Adventuring
It was 1993, the beginning of the Clinton years. The Wall had come down and Yeltsin had gone up onto the tank. No longer impeded by a curtain of iron, there were now fifteen new โFSUโ states strung along the old…
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Rural perspective โ Review of โInakaโ on WiK
The Arashiyama bamboo grove is one of those must-go places when you visit. Located in the west of the city, at the foot of Mount Arashiyama, it is a major tourist area offering all the amenities you would expect of a…
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Marking 1 year on Iki
Today is our 1 Year Anniversary of moving to the remote island of Ikijima. (More on Why Iki here โ) We have enjoyed clear blue water, white sand beaches, stunning sunrises, windy days, typhoons, unexpected snow, cancelled flights and boats, new…
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Creating the image of peace โ Kitamura Seibo
Just north of the hypocenter where the atomic bomb exploded over Nagasaki is a commemorative park honouring victims of mass destruction. Walkways wend through trimmed lawns dotted with sculptures gifted from nations around the world in a mournful solidarity. The piece…
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Nakamura Tetsu
I wrote a review of the recently published English translation of Nakamura Tetsuโs book Providence Was with Us: How a Japanese Doctor Turned the Afghan Desert Green. You can read the review on BooksOnAsia.net here, but I just wanted to say…
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Around Iki by video
Last weekend was the first time I left Ikijima for four months. But it isn’t like we have been spending the whole time huddled in our house against the snowpocalypse. The weather was really crappy, and we did have a couple…
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Yufuin: Driving across Kyushu
statue of an elephant by a sign for African Safari in Japanese
Got any book recommendations?