~ a quest for harmony between man and the universe, and all things in between ~

I just returned from a two-week adven­ture across the mid­dle of Japan, vis­it­ing Osaka, Himeji, Kobe, Kyoto, Nara and Takayama. I can’t begin to describe how much beauty sur­rounds you in this won­der­ful coun­try, although I hope these pho­tographs will give you an impression.

Takayama is a small, well pre­served, his­toric vil­lage in the Japan­ese Alps. It is remark­ably attrac­tive with a wind­ing river­way that cuts through the town and beau­ti­ful conif­er­ous forests sur­round­ing it on all sides. It also boasts an array of nat­ural onsen (hot springs) and some pretty funky farm­house archi­tec­ture (called Gassho Houses) in nearby Shi­rakawa. Not to men­tion, the friend­li­ness of the local peo­ple is unpar­al­leled (pic­ture a monk chas­ing after you at 6 in the morn­ing to give you an umbrella just as it begins pour­ing rain). It’s the first place I’ve trav­elled to where I felt I could be con­tent never leaving.

Renown for its hot­springs, Beitou is a pop­u­lar tourist spot in Taipei. I took a few hours out of my day to explore the Japan­ese archi­tec­ture around the area. Below are a few pho­tographs of the Hot Springs Museum, built by the Japan­ese in the early twen­ti­eth cen­tury. The build­ing appears quite eclec­tic. It looks as if mul­ti­ple archi­tects each designed a dif­fer­ent part and only later patched the house together.

I took the High Speed Rail down to Kent­ing at the South­ern tip of Tai­wan for the long week­end. Every Spring Tai­wan hosts an out­door music fes­ti­val that attracts per­form­ers from around Asia. Even if music isn’t your thing, the white sand beaches and breath­tak­ing views of the pacific along wind­ing hill­tops make Kent­ing a worth­while des­ti­na­tion. I highly rec­om­mend spend­ing a few days sun­bathing in Taiwan’s South to expe­ri­ence how relaxed Tai­wan can be out­side its North­ern capital.

My very unique Spring Scream “ticket”.

I vis­ited the Taipei Zoo today with my Kinder­gar­den stu­dents as part of our “out­door teach­ing” require­ments. I had more fun pho­tograph­ing the kids than the ani­mals … at least they had room to run and play.