From West Virginia, I was supposed to head straight to London to start work. By my poor dog, Daphne, had what I understood was IVDD (intervertebral disc disease). Basically, her spine was collapsing, or discs were pressing hard on her spinal cord or some variation thereof. The net result of such things was that she…
Author: Jonathan Pearce
West Virginia, Take me Home
I always think it’s kind of silly that I love West Virginia and that my favorite Ghibli movie uses a 1971 John Denver song as it’s theme. I visited my good friends the Barneys at their West Virginia cabin this year from August 23-27. I missed the Lake Olympics, but it was still a good…
Japan – Day Eight
Today, I drove 5 ish hours south to Noboribetsu. This is apparently a super famous onsen. There is basically this tiny town, just downhill from a volcano water spot/pond that has these giant hotels and onsen built around it. I’m at the Noboribetsu Grand Hotel. My room is bonkers, with a built in hot tub….
Japan – Day Seven
I’m now caught up, posting these backwards a few days for … posterity? Today, I got up without anything in particular in mind. This hotel isn’t nearly as fancy as the one prior, but it’s in this cute national park area, Daisutzen National Park, that feels a bit like the Pacific Northwest. There’s bear and…
Japan – Day Six
I’ve been waking up early, and I only had so much time at Mizo no Uta (Song of Water). Since I wanted to finally start hiking, but I also wanted to get more quality time with the onsen, I woke up naturally (jet lagged) at 4:30. I left to hike by 4:45 am. Checkout was…
Japan – Day Five
This was 6/21, the day before my birthday, and I decided to get up insanely early to get to Nikka Brewery at its opening, since I was supposed to pick up my rental at 11. I would definitely be late, every train to Otaru was a local, and took about 40 min. Then I boarded…
Japan – Day Four
This was a bit tougher day. A total of about 8 hours on two trains. At least this time I caught the right ones. It’s surprising how tiring it is managing all the planes trains and automobiles in a foreign language and on a schedule to make your day work. I left Tokyo early Tuesday…