Blogs from Yamagata, Japan, Asia

A three year gap in time has gone unusually quickly. When the decision to travel again arose after Japan’s borders opened in October 2022, resuming a travel blog was with mixed emotions, particularly being the way the world is now. However, with our usual “when in Rome do as the Roman’s” philosophy, respect for local customs and people, and precautions fitting the traveler’s we are, we are here and here it begins. The ‘old friend’ of the Hotel Radisson seemed to be in the throes of an upgrade, that led us to choose the Narita Hilton for the arrival hotel instead. Ten years on from the 2013 ‘Ma, Pa and translator’ trip when I was last there, the place was still fading in decor but quiet, and far from the busyness of then. So much so, ... read more

Heute war ein legendärer Tag in Japan meine Freunde! Wir fuhren am Vormittag in die Metropole nebenan: Yokohama ist nämlich nur 45 min mit dem Zug entfernt! Dort gingen wir in den "Sankeien Garden". Dieser ist den Touristen wahrscheinlich nicht geläufig, denn wir waren praktisch die einzigen Touris dort, sonst nur Einheimische. Das war wirklich wunderschön. Es scheinte fast so als hätte jemand dort cm für cm sich überlegt wo welcher Baum, wo welche Rastbank wo welches "Häuschen" am besten hingehört. Das absurde dabei: der Park liegt quasi am Hafen und an der Autobahn. Doch man hört einfach gar nix von dem dortigem Lärm. Eine richtige Oase in der Großstadt! Anschließend besuchten wir in Yokohama das sogenannte "China Town". Das Viertel hat sich aufgrund vieler Chinesischer Einwanderer entwickelt und heute ist es ein richtiger Anziehungspunkt für ... read more

Hey all. At the moment, Liva is back in Latvia to finish her studies, and I'm currently pursuing my Master's Degree at Yamagata University. So, I guess there won't be much updates until Liva comes back in the summer. Anyway, most of our travels were done in the past, so I'll update this blog with previous travel stuff. Lots of pictures, so it'll take some time.... read more

In Sendai we have this weekly newspaper called, Sendai Weekly. It's a lot like the Independent in Raleigh. It has ads for restaurants, concerts, coupons, and articles about things that are happening around or in Sendai. It's in Japanese but I have been going through it and practicing my Japanese and trying to learn new kanji and vocabulary. It is fall, or becoming fall, up in Tohoku, so most of the newspaper is about things that families can do together in the fall. This weeks Weekly was about Yamagata; which is the next prefecture over from Miyagi. There were ads for pear and grape picking, and for Imo-ni in Yamagata. Imo-ni is a Japanese potato stew that is famous in Yamagata and Miyagi Prefectures. "imo" means potato and the "ni" is a way to say in ... read more

So today was a fun eccentric day trip for the weekend. I got most of my house work done on Sunday so I searched through my LP to find a good day trip for today. As I was reading through Yamagata I found Tendo. According to the LP, Tendo makes 90% of all Japanese chess pieces, or Shoji. Since I had such fun at Ishinomaki I thought this Tendo and its shoji were just the place for a good day trip. Tendo is famous for having a 'ningen shoji', or human chess game in April I believe. I already looked to see if I could participate but no women allowed. My co and I are so going to be there though. I set out early this morning and made the 8:47am rapid train toward Yamagata and ... read more