Going Alone

Here’s a tiny little place that we looked at in Japan. By nearly all standards this place is too old and small and way too full of...

Two days back I made an Abandoned Japan video, while yesterday it was The Bench. Today, I made a new Walking in Japan episode seasoned...

Making good use of this day off, I’ve completed my first Walking in Japan video in almost ten years. This clip utilizes my old formatting...

Check out this very well produced Portuguese video documenting my Abandoned Japan YouTube channel. The man who made this video, Egito,...

The Great Buddha (Daibutsu or 大仏 in Japanese) of Kamakura City Japan is one of the most popular and interesting places to visit when you...

One day five or so years back I was exploring an abandoned trail in the deep mountains near the Japan Southern Alps. It was the height of summer and the danger of giant hornets was very real, as was the threat of moon-bear and wild boars. But my most immediate threat were the dinner plate sized spiders which sat like knowing mountain gods upon broad leaves which bent deep with their weight. The spiders were everywhere, and the fact that few ever came this way meant the trail

Here’s my last Japan hiking video. I made this video on August 29th, 2013 after flying to the United States to introduce myself to a prospective employer. Though it would take another five months to turn that meeting into a job offer, the experience of pursuit did something which caused my mind and focus to switch from Japan to the new life I desired in California. I made this video a few weeks after my journey to the USA, during a solo hike in a very remote and uninhabited s

Japanese praying at a Shinto shrine Shinto is one of the two major religions of Japan (the other is Buddhism). Shinto is often considered to be the native religion of Japan, and is as old as Japan itself. The name Shinto means “the way of the gods.” Shinto is a pantheistic religion, in which many thousands of major and minor gods are thought to exist. The Japanese have built thousands of shrines throughout the country to honor and worship these gods. Some shrines are hug

My name is Kurt Bell and I am delighted that you have taken some time to share a little of the experience of life with me. I’m available on social media at the links below and can be reached via email at dinnerbytheriver@gmail.com. Follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/softypapa Find me on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/LylesBrother On Google+ https://plus.google.com/u/0/109050782163582511388/posts Instagram: http://instagram.com/softypapa LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin

And here is the video this clip was made to be included in: Emily and papa Last summer my daughter Emily helped me film an adventure video in a very remote and utterly empty (of people) region of the Japan Southern Alps. We filmed a variety of segments during our outing for inclusion in a longer edited video titled “Return to the abandoned forest graves” which was uploaded to the softypapa channel this last July (second video above). While cleaning up the unused video this we

My name is Kurt Bell and I am delighted that you have taken some time to share a little of the experience of life with me. I’m available on social media at the links below and can be reached via email at dinnerbytheriver@gmail.com. Follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/softypapa Find me on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/LylesBrother On Google+ https://plus.google.com/u/0/109050782163582511388/posts Instagram: http://instagram.com/softypapa LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin

My name is Kurt Bell and I am delighted that you have taken some time to share a little of the experience of life with me. I’m available on social media at the links below and can be reached via email at dinnerbytheriver@gmail.com. Follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/softypapa Find me on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/LylesBrother On Google+ https://plus.google.com/u/0/109050782163582511388/posts Instagram: http://instagram.com/softypapa LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin

My name is Kurt Bell and I am delighted that you have taken some time to share a little of the experience of life with me. I’m available on social media at the links below and can be reached via email at dinnerbytheriver@gmail.com. Follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/softypapa Find me on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/LylesBrother On Google+ https://plus.google.com/u/0/109050782163582511388/posts Instagram: http://instagram.com/softypapa LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin

Welcome to the softypapa blog. My name is Kurt Bell and I am delighted that you have chosen to walk awhile with me. I’m available on Facebook and Google+ if you have questions or just want to chat and say hi. I can also be found at the JVLOG forum with other Japan-related content creators. All links are listed below. I look forward to meeting you on-line. Have a great day! The Path of Wildness is easy to find The course of a stream Leaves blown in the wind A beast’s track thr

Welcome to the softypapa blog. My name is Kurt Bell and I am delighted that you have chosen to walk awhile with me. I’m available on Facebook and Google+ if you have questions or just want to chat and say hi. I can also be found at the JVLOG forum with other Japan-related content creators. All links are listed below. I look forward to meeting you on-line. Have a great day! The Path of Wildness is easy to find The course of a stream Leaves blown in the wind A beast’s track thr

Welcome to the softypapa blog. My name is Kurt Bell and I am delighted that you have chosen to walk awhile with me. I’m available on Facebook and Google+ if you have questions or just want to chat and say hi. I can also be found at the JVLOG forum with other Japan-related content creators. All links are listed below. I look forward to meeting you on-line. Have a great day! The Path of Wildness is easy to find The course of a stream Leaves blown in the wind A beast’s track thr

And here’s a view of the same bridge during the day. Emily and I set out to visit the famous haunted bridge of Nippondaira under the pale glow of the autumn harvest moon. The lonely mountains are alive with the sounds of late summer insects as well as the din of fast cars and motorcycles which haunt the lonely highway like vehicular ghosts and who’s aggressive speed may be the source of the sad legend of the lost daughter and her grieving father. Join us as we pay our respec

A viewer on YouTube (icanfiksthat) was able to read and translate some of the writing on the sign. Here is his description of what it says: “So 大門薬師堂 appears to be a place, and this ring is called “The lifting stone in front of 大門薬師堂”. The message says: “It is said that before the war (I’m assuming WWII), many young men would gather on days like festivals and agricultural holidays to engage in trials of strength”, and it is issued by the Yui 東山寺 (I guess Higashiyama-dera? Not

Welcome to the softypapa blog. My name is Kurt Bell and I am delighted that you have chosen to walk awhile with me. I’m available on Facebook and Google+ if you have questions or just want to chat and say hi. I can also be found at the JVLOG forum with other Japan-related content creators. All links are listed below. I look forward to meeting you on-line. Have a great day! The Path of Wildness is easy to find The course of a stream Leaves blown in the wind A beast’s track thr

Wasabi horseradish is used in Japan with sushi and sashimi as well as with other meals such as cold soba noodles. Wasabi is derived from the root of the wasabi plant which requires very clean, fresh water to grow well. The mountains of the Japan Southern Alps receive abundant rainfall and this area is perfectly suited for growing wasabi. Farmers in these high mountains have for centuries grown wasabi in terraced fields similar to rice paddies, however wasabi fields are normal