501 Places

It is one of the most common traps for anyone writing a blog: I’ve been to a place so I must write about it. As if the act of merely being somewhere is a story worthy of telling to the world. Let’s face it; sometimes we visit a place and while it may be nice [...]

Budapest has long been an important European capital, sitting as it does pretty much in the centre of the continent and straddling the mighty Danube. A succession of invaders have left their mark on the skyline of Budapest and evidence of 20th century European battles is easy to uncover. Budapest is home to dozens of [...]

Five-storied red pagodas, carefully manicured gardens, geisha girls and futuristic skylines: just a few of the most popular images of Japan. During our month travelling around the country we saw all of the above. Yet Japan is a country we hear relatively little about and in the course of our travels we stumbled across plenty [...]

Before we came to Japan I received suggestions from several people about the places we shouldn’t miss. The advice to visit Miyajima was unanimous. Reading a little further into this I discovered that Miyajima is also listed as one Japan’s three most scenic spots. I felt compelled to find out for myself what the fuss [...]

Most of us would never have heard of Nagasaki had it not been for a few rogue clouds. On the morning of August 9th 1945 an American B-29 bomber carrying a nuclear bomb with the code name “Fat Man” was circling over the city of Kokura, its intended target. A late covering of cloud had [...]

Growing up in the latter years of the Cold War the subjects of nuclear wars, mushroom clouds and Armageddon were never far away. We had Reagan and Thatcher talking tough to the revolving procession of aged Soviet leaders while the movies of the day depicted scenes of nuclear wars that caused genuine panic in many [...]

It is said that we can link anyone in the world through no more than five connections. The link between the last Shogun of Japan and Paddington Bear however is considerably shorter than might be expected. These two unlikely characters are in their own way a part of the history of the city of Hakodate [...]

Japanese castles don’t really conform to the the Europeans understanding of what a castle should be. Built at a time of relative stability, most of the castles were constructed as a show of wealth and power rather than as a fortification. The consequence of this is a series of buildings dotted around Japan that are [...]

At first glance the Japan Rail Pass looked very expensive. £444 for 21 days of unlimited rail travel (up to £476 now thanks to the ever-strengthening yen). Would we really travel enough to make the investment in the rail pass pay off? We had crossed Europe from Lisbon to London earlier this year for roughly [...]

Japan has more than its fair share of difficult museums to visit. The Hiroshima Peace Museum and the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum tell the story of the atomic bombings on their cities in their own distinct ways. Both are sensitively put together and provide political and historical context along with personal testimonies given by survivors [...]