Bare Back, Full Frontal, Inside Out

Narusawa, Yamanashi Prefecture, Japan

January 31, 2017

When in Japan, get nekkid as the Japanese do! It was time to get the hang of letting it all hang out in full view of friends and strangers alike. In the (un)dressing room, I was still bundled up in winter wear, less for warmth than for self-consciousness. My Japanese friends Taka and Koji, comfortable in their own (bare) skin, approached to inquire what was taking me so long. I peeled off my gloves and sweater ten…ta…tive…ly as in an awkward striptease. I stopped short at my skivvies. Then I uttered a sheepish admission, “I’m shy,” before doing a 180 and unwittingly mooning them! I caught their impish grin and, just like that, I was cured of any qualms about public nudity.

Yuyari Onsen @ Yamanashi Prefecture

While They Were Sleeping

Tabaco, Albay, the Philippines and Fujiyoshida, Yamanashi Prefecture, Japan

November 22, 2015 and February 1, 2017

No kissing of the ground here as I wouldn’t want to wake these sleeping beauties. It didn’t mean I was less smitten at first sight by iconic Mt. Mayon (2,463 m or 8,081 ft) in the Philippines and Mt. Fuji (3,776.24 m or 12,389.2 ft) in Japan, both seductively conical and dangerously active stratovolcanoes. At times spewing fire and brimstone but mostly notoriously shy, these badass beauties were known to hide their graceful form behind a veil of clouds.

Mayon Volcano

My Snow Angels

Narusawa, Yamanashi Prefecture, Japan

January 31, 2017

To a tropical boy, snow was as real as Santa Claus. I knew which was fictional, but snow was just as much the stuff of children’s literature and my childhood dream. Then “adulting” cured me of my boyhood fascination with frozen precipitation.

Flanked by my Snow Angels, Koji (L) and Taka (R), with Mt. Fuji in the background @ Fujiten Snow Resort, Yamanashi, Japan

Middle Japan

Shiga Prefecture / Kyoto Prefecture, Japan

June 24 – 25 and 28 -30, 2009

This is the last entry in my Japan 2009 series. I’ve mostly written about historical landmarks and megapolises I visited. All were amazingly memorable experiences; however, they merely touched on extreme points on the Japanese continuum: its rich historical heritage and its modern urban present. I felt there was a missing link between these polar opposites, and on my last day I realized the bridge for this gap was right under my nose.

Tunneling Through Shiga Prefecture

Lost in Time

Kyoto, Japan

June 28, 2009

Some pleasant discoveries were made, not by getting there, but by getting lost. The irony was that my Japanese host’s rusty sense of direction got me exactly where I had envisioned myself to be in Kyoto.

Kimono Korner: Teapot Lane in Kyoto

Three Wishes at Kiyomizu

Kyoto, Japan

June 28, 2009

Kiyomizu-dera was a temple for wishing. In fact, I had to wish to see it.

A Diva at the Deva Gate of Kiyomizu Temple, Kyoto

Heaven and Hell on Earth

Kyoto, Japan

June 28, 2009

Kinkaku-ji (Temple of the Golden Pavilion) was, by far, the loveliest spot on earth I had ever seen. My first glimpse of the imperial yellow temple, gleaming in the summer sun with its reflection shimmering on the placid pond, was a poetic vision – a scene of exquisite beauty that I could only describe as heavenly. Belinda Carlisle nailed it – heaven is a place on earth. And it was in Kyoto. But one man’s heaven could be another man’s hell.

Kinkaku-ji (Temple of the Golden Pavilion): Heaven on Earth