Buddha has shown up in temples, picture frames, rocks, and on mountains quite a lot in my travels around the Far East. His eyes are usually shut and he looks like he might be sleeping; he seems like a pretty chilled out dude to be honest. I think it’s pretty clear that I’m not a Buddhist [...]
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Yasukuni Shrine, located in the centre of Tokyo is undeniably beautiful and rather serene, at least from the outside. Why then, does this place of quiet worship enrage so many in northeast Asia whenever Japanese dignitaries visit the shrine? What is it about Yasukuni that causes South Korea to cancel its foreign minister’s trip to [...]
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The neon madness of Tokyo, Seoul and Hong Kong, where I’d spend much of the last decade, were miles and miles behind. Geographically, I was closer to home than I’d been in years. Culturally I was so far away…
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This story/photos were written/taken a couple years ago. At the time I was irking out a living in the earthquake-laden land of Japan, teaching English in two countryside public middle schools. Re-reading this now, I’m quite embarrassed to see that my writing skills haven’t really improved. Hopefully, though, the photos are at least worth a [...]
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“I would say, I haven’t earned a single cent since I’ve been back from Korea,” sighed Coenraad Groenewald, owner of Galbi Alley, a Korean Barbeque restaurant in Cape Town, South Africa. As I rummaged through my papers, desperately seeking a new angle, the cynicism continued. “Sometimes you think, maybe I should just run away. But [...]
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“You’re white. You’re English. You can afford it,” she blurted out in frustration at our refusal to fork over the green. We’d seen these same gaudy paintings a few days before. Dragons, tigers, bamboo shoots, old men with droopy white beards and other clichéd depictions of China dangled before us. The petite, professionally dressed and [...]
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There was once a time when Japan and Korea didn’t hurl abuse, squabble over rocks in the sea or blast half-baked missiles over each other’s sovereign territory. In fact for most of their shared history Korea and Japan have been at peace with one another. The Joseon Tongshinsa festival, held high above Busan’s Nampo-dong district [...]
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After canning it up the hill at what must have been record speed, I couldn’t get off the mini bus fast enough. The nausea eventually subsided as I peered down at the sloping, vibrant neighborhood of Taeguk Village. The colors and short stature of the buildings were a stark contrast to the grey tides of [...]
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I hustled off the train in Guilin, a full 13 hours after boarding. Peeking out of my soft sleeper cabin’s window a few hours previously, the moon shone a mysterious communist red. I wasn’t quite sure what to make of that omen. The apprehension for my first solo trip in China, along with the motion [...]
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It struck around 2:45 in the afternoon on what had been a beautiful spring day. I was nearing the end of my English teaching contract at a Middle School, about an hour outside Tokyo. I’d been in good spirits due to the winding down of the workday and the promise of the weekend. My current [...]
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