Global Travel Writers: Articles http://www.globaltravelwriters.com/ Global Travel Writers en Global Travel Writers: Articles http://www.globaltravelwriters.com/EXT:tt_news/ext_icon.gif http://www.globaltravelwriters.com/ Global Travel Writers TYPO3 - get.content.right http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Tue, 14 Jun 2011 05:50:00 -0400 All that glitters is probably gold in Kanazawa http://www.globaltravelwriters.com/articles/category/japan/article/all-that-glitters-is-probably-gold-in-kanazawa/ There’s an unusually large amount of gold in Japan's east coast city of Kanazawa

by Graham Simmons

   There’s an unusually large amount of gold in Kanazawa. From golden chariots to the world’s first gold-leaf plated house, the precious metal seems to be everywhere. It’s even used as a food garnish. Maybe this gold-fetish is due to the city’s having two rivers – one male and one female; and how can there be a marriage without gold? See image preview: http://www.photographersdirect.com/simmons/search.asp?lb=9563

 

]]> Graham Simmons Japan Cities Cultural Travel Destination Travel Eco-tourism History Road-trips By: Graham Simmons Sun, 09 Nov 2008 00:24:00 -0500 Life IS art in Japan’s Hida district http://www.globaltravelwriters.com/articles/category/japan/article/life-is-art-in-japans-hida-district/ Japan's Hida region is Japan's heartland

by Graham Simmons

A trip from Japan’s manufacturing hub Nagoya northwest to the Hida district is not just a trip through some of the country’s most picturesque scenery. It’s also a trip back through time, to a somehow still-existing era when/where life proceeds at a slower and gentler pace.

In Hida no Sato village, 91 year-old Suezo Yamaguti demonstrates the ancient craft of shingle-making. He painstakingly shaves a hardwood slab using a hand-adze, using precise and steady strokes as befits a master craftsman.  The 22nd Century may have already arrived in Tokyo, but in this part of Japan, the old ways of doing things linger on.. See image preview: http://www.photographersdirect.com/simmons/search.asp?lb=9564

]]> Graham Simmons Japan Cities Cultural Travel Destination Travel Eco-tourism Family Holidays Road-trips Socially Aware Travel By: Graham Simmons Tue, 21 Oct 2008 05:45:00 -0400 The first Japanese http://www.globaltravelwriters.com/articles/category/japan/article/the-first-japanese/ The Ainu people of Hokkaido (Japan) want not just recognition but land rights and hunting rights too      

by Graham Simmons

After 200 years of official repression, the Ainu people of Hokkaido in Japan are at last within reach of achieving their goals. But recognition of the Ainu as an indigenous people came as late as June 2008, just before the G8 summit at Hokkaido's Lake Toya-ko. Ken'ichi Kawamura, son of legendary Ainu elder Kaneto Kawamura, welcomes visitors to the rustic museum/cultural centre established by his father in the city of  Asahikawa. Kawamura was also  a demonstrator at the G8. “Recognition is not enough” he says. "I won’t rest until we get both land rights and hunting rights too.”

This story visits three Ainu museums - the Kaneto Kawamura Ainu Memorial Museum in Asahikawa, the Ainu Museum in Shiraoi and the Ainu Centre in Sapporo - and includes also detailed information on other Ainu cultural resources.

See image preview: http://www.photographersdirect.com/simmons/search.asp?lb=9678

]]> Graham Simmons Japan Cultural Travel Destination Travel History Socially Aware Travel By: Graham Simmons Sun, 12 Oct 2008 10:23:00 -0400 All dressed up in Harajuku http://www.globaltravelwriters.com/articles/category/japan/article/all-dressed-up-in-harajuku/ Glenn A Baker uncovers Goths, Punks, Space Cadets, Little Misses Muffett and Bo Peep among the... Harajuku, one of 29 stops on the above-ground Yamanote Line in Tokyo, boasts a street culture wildly flamboyant and imaginative. Not since San Francisco's Haight Ashbury district was in full flower forty years ago has there been anything to quite compare with it. The regular cadre of chameleons who gather on the bridge over the railway line each Sunday have made the suburb famous. The mostly middle-class high school students decorate themselves elaborately as Goths, Punks, Space Cadets, Little Misses Muffett and Bo Peep, Ghouls, Marie Antionette, belles of the ball, comic book heroines, rivals of Sherlock Holmes, parodies, carnival queens, lost prophets and patients escaped from care

Be it an elite social identification, a rebellion against schoolyard discipline, a protest against media-directed uniformity, or true artistic expression, there is an almost religious dedication to the whole process. Nothing about it is casual or half-hearted. As an observer you sometimes feel that you are in on a film shoot organised by a very avant garde European director. As one of travel's great passing parades, it can amuse and entertain even the most inured celebration seeker

]]> Glenn A Baker Destination Travel Cultural Travel Cities Japan By: Glenn A Baker Wed, 03 Oct 2007 21:13:00 -0400 On Okinawa http://www.globaltravelwriters.com/articles/category/japan/article/on-okinawa/ Japan with palm trees Okinawa is the centrepiece of the Ryukyus, an archipelago of 65 palm-fringed sub tropical islands almost opposite Taipei and closer to Korea, China, Hong Kong and the Philippines than to Tokyo. This is Japan with palm trees. A unique people absorbed not quite seamlessly into a large and powerful nation, the Okinawans have been Japanese since the 17th century, but with interesting Pacific permutations.

Though downtown Naha has shops stuffed full of yankee army surplus goods and phony war trinkets, there is much more to Okinawa than an American military presence. Exquisite lacquerware, pottery, glassware and dyed textiles are evidence of a strong tradition of craftsmanship. Music and dance reverberate around the islands. The annual Eisa Festival sees 200,000 people take part in a drum-driven form of ceremonial street dancing.

]]> Glenn A Baker Japan Cultural Travel Destination Travel By: Glenn A Baker Sun, 04 Mar 2007 22:26:00 -0500