Taiwan isn't on many travel itineraries and for us, it came right on the heels of our wanderings through Japan (which would be a hard act to follow for any country). Even the Taiwanese don't talk up the highlights of their country usually explaining that the country has a history that is only three or four hundred years old. The pilot of our inbound flight also seemed a little reluctant to take us to Taiwan- with the wheels down and only inches from the p...

No matter how prepared you are, Tokyo hits you like a ton of bricks. This city is big, it's busy, and it's also a lot of fun. How big and busy is it? Including Yokohama, a 2007 estimate puts the population at 35.7 million (the entire population of Canada is roughly 34.5 million) making it by far the world's most populous metropolitan area with a population density of 2,642 persons/km² (Canada's density is roughly 3.75 persons/km²). The area has ...

After the somewhat strange spectacle of hockey in Japan, we were looking to go to the other end of the sporting scale for a session of the national sport of Japan- sumo wrestling (and as far as I know, no other country in the world hosts sumo events). DH continues to deny that she has any strange fascination with fat men wrestling, but she was like a small child at Christmas waiting for confirmation that we had picked up some advance tickets for the biggest tourn...

As a bleeding-from-the-eyes, die-hard Canadian hockey fanatic, you probably wouldn't lie awake at night dreading the next encounter with the Japanese National Ice Hockey Team, but we were somewhat surprised to learn that Japan has 4 teams in the Asian Ice Hockey League. One of these teams is the Nikko Icebucks, and, since Nikko is also home to some of the finest temples in all of Japan, watching a hockey game in Japan became a must-do as we wandered the coun...

As the self-declared editor of a blog read by thousands... or maybe just a few people, I have a particular responsibility to acknowledge any significant deeds of our most loyal readers and I've been a bit neglectful. Carol Banks, who fulfilled a lifelong dream to move to a country where she could pay twice as much for the basic necessities of life ($5 for a thimble of beer in Australia should be illegal!!), and changed her last name to Cooke to avoid any furt...