Aokigahara Forest, Fuji Kawaguchiko, Yamanashi
An ordinary-looking forest in Japan (upper right photo). Nothing spooky about it right? Right. It’s only Aokigahara Forest, a beautiful forest on the northwestern foot/slope of Mt. Fuji. However, it…
Japan Blog by Philbert Ono
An ordinary-looking forest in Japan (upper right photo). Nothing spooky about it right? Right. It’s only Aokigahara Forest, a beautiful forest on the northwestern foot/slope of Mt. Fuji. However, it…
Korakuen is one of the Big Three Famous Japanese Gardens (Nihon Sanmeien 日本三名園). The other two are Kairakuen in Mito, Ibaraki Prefecture famous for ume plum blossoms and Kenrokuen in…
The old Rikuchu-Kaigan National Park (陸中海岸国立公園) along the rocky Tohoku coast centered on Iwate Prefecture whose old samurai provincial name was “Rikuchu.” It extended from the city of Kuji (久慈市)…
Toyooka is a rural city in northern Hyogo, off the beaten path from Kobe and Himeji in southern Hyogo. The city’s famous symbol seen everywhere in town is the Oriental…
Tottori Sand Dunes (Tottori Sakyu) is Tottori’s most famous tourist sight, the undisputed symbol of Tottori. You haven’t visited Tottori until you see the sand dunes. The desert-like sand dunes…
In June 2021, the city of Shimabara marked the 30th anniversary of the tragic June 3, 1991 eruption of Mt. Unzen Fugendake when a huge pyroclastic flow of hot volcanic…
Every spring in April, we hear on the news that the Tateyama-Kurobe Alpine Route has been cleared of snow to create these snow walls on the mountain road (upper left…
“Goshiki-numa” means “Five-Color Ponds,” a very appropriate name for these colorful, volcanic ponds near Mt. Bandai (磐梯山) in Bandai-Asahi National Park. An eruption by Mt. Bandai in 1888 created landslides…
About an hour by express train from Tokyo (Kinshicho), Satte is on the way to Nikko in Tochigi Prefecture. Satte is famous for these cherry blossoms (sakura) and rapeseed flowers…
by Philbert Ono Updated: Jan. 26, 2021 Part of an article series on Yaeyama folklore in scenic Okinawa, Japan. (八重山名勝の民話・民謡の英語訳シリーズ記事) On a recent trip to Japan’s most remote islands, the…