Freelance Writer
Me wearing a surgical mask I got in Japan. Not perfect, but it’ll help. Had to take off the shades as I looked too much like a thief and because breathing behind the mask makes them fog up. There’s a sign outside the café-cum-shop appealing to customers that they’re only letting in a “maximum of…
Photo by Henrique Craveiro on Unsplash “There are decades where nothing happens and there are weeks where decades happen.” – Vladimir Ilyich Lenin They say that frogs in a pot of water being brought to the boil won’t notice the temperatures rising beyond a critical point until it’s too late. This logic is often applied to political situations…
Photo by Ruby Doan on Unsplash Now it’s feeling like spring, despite the worst weather all winter. Years in Ireland last around 15 months, from January of one year to March of the next, such is the length of the winter. Spring is rarely counted, unless you’re into the league or the lambing, and it’s probably still the…
Westport Road near Clifden, Co. Galway. Photo by Mateusz Delegacz on Unsplash It’s the middle of February, and there’s a Fatima sun shining through the sleety, snowy, silver-grey skies. The weather is worse than that of slow January, which was cold but clear and dry. Fresh and invigorating. February has no time to waste, even in a…
Who wouldn’t want to live here for a while (and ski down those mountains every day)? Why you should do a ski season in Japan I’ve written before about why I’d wanted to do a ski season in Japan for years before finally going for it last winter. There were two main reasons: snowboarding itself…
The Hakuba Valley is quite a beautiful place on bluebird days, with the backdrop of the Japanese Alps reminiscent of their European namesake. Here’s a resort guide for Honshu, Japan’s main island. If you want a general overview of skiing in Japan, click here. For a guide to some of Hokkaido’s resorts, click here.
The view of active volcano Mt. Yotei from Rusutsu’s Mt. Isola. Bluebird views in Hokkaido are pretty unique in the skiing world. The mountains around here are pretty tasty too. Here’s a resort guide for Hokkaido. If you want a general overview of what to expect from skiing in Japan, check here. Hokkaido is the…
Winter in Japan is a beautiful place. Happo One, Hakuba valley, Nagano prefecture, Japan. Photo by Tomas on Unsplash A few people have been asking me lately about travelling in Japan in general and skiing there more specifically. The first thing I did on my first visit to Japan in 2017 was get a flight to Hokkaido…
Tsutenkaku, Osaka, Japan Photo by Chilam Siu on Unsplash My first sight of Kyoto is the McDonald’s at Kyoto Station. I’ve been dropped off a sleepless night bus at 5am and it’s the first place to open. There’s a queue of 40 people waiting for the shutters to open at 5:30. I don’t know if they’re travelling, on…
Photo by Conor Luddy on Unsplash The Forty Foot, January 12th 2020 The weather has been pretty amazing so far in 2020. A stormy Saturday brought rain of the kind I hadn’t seen in a few months, but today was calm as we eagerly anticipate Storm Brendan roaring in on Monday morning. And what a calm it was.