Wow. Whales swimming below and above us, giant flower buffalo marching slowly across the walls, interactive trampolines where you create new planets with every jump. TeamLab Borderless was the best...
Sabbatical
Because we have been having such a hard, difficult, ascetic kinda life, it was time for a bit of decadence in the last weeks before facing home. A ryokan – old school traditional Japanese inn...
Kawaii – cuteness – is a religion here. The rest of the world frowns on cartoons, sniffs at toys, and sneers at all things doey-eyed and fluffy. But in Japan, the cuteness levels accepted...
Time to change. Total change. A Buddhist temple stay with daily 5.30 prayer service should do it. That’s 5.30 am. With vegan-only food – for us dedicated carnivores. And, of course, no...
Osaka was plastered with giant posters of pretty boys. Androgynous teenagers with pouting lips and expensive choppy hair, all looking like rather attractive lesbians at a glance. At first, we thought...
When Japan decides to pay attention to something, it does it with an obsessive attention to detail that is – frankly – terrifying. Sushi is something that a European would reckon they...
We’d thought Japan would be good. We were wrong: it’s fabulous. China was still very fresh in our memory when we boarded the Japanese ferry in Busan – and realised that suddenly, everything was...
Silence. Even on the plane from Beijing to Seoul, the volume had already dropped several decibels. No-one playing their phone at top volume or yelling at each other. And by the time we were on public...
Decadence! – I’d have said twenty years ago when I was interrailing. On the train from Xi’an to Beijing, we had a whole bedroom for just the two of us! Our own private bathroom...
So, Xi’an. Just a couple hours flight from Shangri-la, but worlds apart. And, thankfully, normal altitude. I hadn’t realised, but it was the end of the Silk Road, with lots of Middle Eastern...