Kumamoto, Shimabara & Mount Aso

Getting hot and steamy on the slopes of Mount Aso. Unlike others on Kyushu, this volcano was thankfully not erupting whilst we were there…..

The Karatsu Kunchi

The town of Karatsu on the northern coast of Kyushu has been holding a three day kunchi for around 400 years and is famous for its unique, colourful and very large floats. Called ‘hikiyama’, which translates as ‘massive mountains’, the wooden, lacquered floats weigh-in between 2 and 5 tons and are pulled by a team of bearers up to a hundred strong….

Fukuoka & Nagasaki

Our first few days back in Japan after more than a decade. It made us wonder why we’d not come back before….

A jaunt on Jeju

A few days walking on the holiday island of Jeju in South Korea……

Seoul

Ahh, Seoul…. Not the pain in the backside we’d feared, but a wonderful antidote to the madness of Shanghai.