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Japanese Gardens are so lovely. They contain so many interesting elements, each with its own significance. For example, don’t you just love the marvelous red bridges that seem so quintessentially Japanese. They are called hashi. Yep, they are stunning. The gorgeous red. The graceful...
Nagasaki isn’t on most people’s itineraries when they plan a trip to Japan. It’s too bad. It’s a wonderful city with a lot of history, charm, art and culture. I went there April 2023 on a Espirit Travel: Cuisine and Culture trip to Western Japan and I’m so glad I did. I will share […]
I love clothes. All kinds. High Fashion. Costumes, Historical and festival garb along with wild and crazy street fashion. Even gardeners in RED gloves. Always have. I notice what people are wear and wonder about the back story, the trends, the cultural practice. Why this particularly get...
I spent a lot of time looking down when I went to Japan last April. Not because I was afraid of tripping or falling but because I wanted to be sure to see the manhole covers. They are everywhere in the Land of the Rising Sun. According to a lovely little book about Japan […]
https://designdestinations.org/wp-admin/edit.php I love castles and always have going back to my first trip to Europe in 1971 where my new husband and I got a car and drove from London to Inverness visiting a castle a day. The history, the design, the mystique of times gone by all captivated...
It’s often the little things that you remember about visiting a country. Yep, there’s the big stuff—Eiffel Tower, Big Ben, The Hermitage. I’ve been fortunate to see a lot of them but what I often remember when I return home from a trip are the weird little juxtapositions of odd stuff or the...
I believe staying in a traditional ryokan in Japan is the quintessential Japanese experience. It is one I’ve had twice and would thoroughly enjoy again. I’ve read that ryokan (the traditional name of Japanese Inns) have had to change some to keep up with the times or satisfy the Western...
The efficiency of Japanese trains are legendary. I learned recently on a trip to Japan that the trains live up to their reputation. The legends are true. They are clean and quiet and some of them have a very cool look. We had an opportunity to ride on both the local trains and the Shinkansen...
Greetings from Susan, your travel blogging friend. I’m going to be pausing a bit with DesignDestinations.org because I’ve been on two major trips (Silk Road and Japan) and have hundreds of images to edit, process, sort and transform into blog posts. I will get back to posting every...
If you have been following my Facebook, Instagram or occasional and very random texts to friends, you might be aware of fact that I recently took a Photo Tour of three of the five “Stans.” Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. It was a great trip. Lots of photo opportunities,...