Inside the Travel Lab

Ouchijuku Village, Japan For some reason, these photos look calm. Yet in reality, a blizzard raged and the muted glow of the snow-plough’s headlights provided just enough light to let me capture this scene: fragile, snow-cloaked candles beneath an otherwise relentless black sky. Sleet assaulted our eyes, abraded our cheeks and hounded our cameras, while [...]

Time, this week, played tricks on me. An illusion: disappearing, twisting, sliding and slipping away… This photo, from the kamakura matsuri or igloo festival in Tohoku, Japan last year, just seemed to fit for this week’s Photo Friday. The region had just recovered from one of the harshest winters on record – and yet none [...]

Whenever I feel the cold breath of winter on my neck as autumn runs out of time, my tastebuds turn to octopus, the signature dish at…

A clock plods through its strict rhythm as the clink of china echoes through the drawing room. A Union Jack plays hide-and-seek at the window when the teapot isn’t watching and a platter of cucumber sandwiches make themselves comfy for afternoon tea.

Photos of a sizzling Yaketori bar in Tokyo for Photo Friday. Mmmm….

People often describe the view from Miyajima Island as one of the most beautiful in Japan. A softly curved Torii, a scarlet figure similar to the symbol pi, rises out of the water. Its calm background: layered mountains and the ferryboats crossing from Hiroshima.

As you may know, I was in the area of Sendai shortly before the earthquake and as you surely know by now, Sendai and a much larger area of Japan suffered terrible damage as a tsunami swept inland. Right now, Japan is battling to recover, with over 7000 people dead and 11 000 missing. Millions have been left without shelter, electricity or water.

Today I turned on my computer as usual, ready to upload images for another Photo Friday post. Then I saw the news: earthquake in Sendai, tsunami to follow.

These images…

I’m thousands of miles from home, suspended in the night sky of Yamagata, watching the snow fall and fall. In Europe, snow covers pine trees evenly, as though nature took a stash of icing sugar and ran it through a tightly meshed sieve. Here in Japan…

A legend. A volcano. A full moon and swirling, falling snow. The cable car creaks through the night sky to reach the peak of the Zao volcano in the snowy