Since everyone is thinking quarantine, isolation and hiding away these days, I thought it might be appropriate for this month's travel article to be about a place in where such things happened in the past. Enjoy this as "armchair travel" now, and perhaps get there yourself sometime in the future. (Archived article originally published by … Continue reading A Goto Island of Quarantine: the perfect place to hide
Many of Japan's origin legends are set in Kyushu and can be explored at Shinto shrines and other sites across the island commemorating the events of the legend. They are often tales of interactions among a pantheon of gods that are every bit as intriguing as the Roman or Greek mythology doubtless more familiar to … Continue reading Amano Iwato: hideaway cave of a goddess
Takamatsu Castle, on the northern coast of Shikoku, overlooks the Inland Sea, historically Japan's most important waterway. The castle was built at the end of the 16th century, a great time of castle construction in Japan. In its heyday, Takamatsu Castle served as an administrative center and a checkpoint for ship traffic. It was, of … Continue reading Takamatsu Castle: a seaside guardian
On the west coast of Shimoshima, the largest of the Amakusa Islands of Kyushu, is a large bay known as Yokaku Bay. Because of its location on the East China Sea, the bay, and particularly the town of Sakitsu in a small, but deep, harbor on the north shore, has a centuries-long history as a … Continue reading Sakitsu: a remote Amakusa port where Christians once concealed themselves
Standing atop a hill, gazing southwest across the Chikugo River valley toward the Ariake Sea, stands the 62 meter tall Jobo Kannon (the motherly goddess of mercy), cradling a baby in her arms. Completed in early 1983, she is the tallest Kannon statue on the island of Kyushu. Jobo Kannon stands on the grounds of … Continue reading Kannon keeping watch in Kurume
Jigsaw Japan 