At Kumano Nachi Taisha shrine

Walking in the Japanese hills

Here is a wonderful article with great photographs about walking in the Kumano region. The Kumano Shrines are among the most revered in Japan and for many years women were not allowed in these sacred mountains. Many many years ago I spent time in nearby Shingu and took the waters in the hotspring at Kii-Katsura … Read more

How Jordan is trying to reassure tourists

“We are in the eye of the storm,” says Sami, the moustachioed owner of a tiny café perched on the edge of a precipitous canyon. “Israel, Egypt, Syria, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia – they’re all around us. But here is calm.” He gestures around the spectacular ravine in front of us. We’ve spent all day zig-zagging down one side and up the other. “Is Jordan not calm and peaceful?” I have to agree. “But tourists no longer come,” he adds gloomily. “They’re afraid. Tourist industry is in trouble. We can’t make ends meet.” […]

Cruising the waves of Japan’s culture

As the great ship surges into Tokyo Bay I’m on the prow, hair streaming in the wind, like Kate Winslet in “Titanic.” Wooded crags come into view, dotted with buildings and the odd factory chimney. The buildings are modern, not wooden houses, but the crags are still much the same as Commodore Matthew Perry must … Read more

Nagoya Castle before it was destroyed by fire

Nagoya Castle – Tokugawa splendour

Nagoya has many memories for me. I used to live near here, in a little city called Gifu, half an hour away on the local train. In those days Nagoya seemed like a huge industrial city. Many years later, when I was researching my book on Sadayakko (the turn of the last century geisha who … Read more

Yokohama and Kamakura …

So I watched from my balcony as the great ship glided away from her berth in Tokyo Bay with the Kodo Drummers there on the quay to drum us out … To reposition a little farther up the bay in Yokohama. I’d never realised Yokohama was beautiful! I used to always come here by train … Read more

Hirakawa Gate - dolphin on roof beam

The women’s palace – what it all came to …

The poet Basho wrote: Summer grasses – All that remains Of mighty warrior’s dreams Was reminded of this poem when I went back to the women’s palace, the women’s vast palatial residence which formed a huge proportion of Edo Castle, the shogun’s headquarters. (Akin to a harem, the women’s palace housed 3000 women and the … Read more

Entering Tokyo Bay

Sailing into Tokyo Bay …

Had never realised sea travel was so wonderful! Just spent 2 ½ weeks on an enormous ship with twelve decks, like a floating twelve storey luxury hotel, sailing along the coast of Japan. I’d been asked to give lectures while the ship was visiting Japan. Arrived in the port of Otaru in Hokkaido and stood … Read more

Crossing the Himalayas through memory to Ladakh

Lesley Downer retraces a journey she made 30 years ago to one of the most unspoiled, remote and welcoming corners of the world I’m in a small van careering along a rough and narrow road beside a rushing river with brightly painted temples along its banks and craggy peaks towering overhead. We’re traveling in the … Read more

Mountains of magic in Ladakh

Long after she first visited, Lesley Downer returns to this remote Himalayan region to see what’s changed Crossing the Himalayas from the Indian plains to the mountain region of Ladakh is a bone-shaking 22-hour minibus ride, through snow and blizzards, over four of the world’s highest passes. The last and highest, Taglang la, is a … Read more

Episode 4 – ‘A Gilded Cage’

Episode 4 – ‘A Gilded Cage’Through the side gate

‘The dowager widow is back. She’s demanding to see you.’ The voice of Sakurai, Ejima’s chief maid, echoed through the lavish apartments to the inner chamber where Ejima was lying with her lover, the actor Shingoro.

Ejima gasped and sat up with a start, half-expecting to see the dreaded dowager come sweeping into the room and bear down on the two of them, her face like thunder.

‘So the old dragon’s back,’ Shingoro drawled, putting his arms around Ejima and trying to tug her back down again. ‘She can’t be that bad. She was young herself once. She must have had lovers too.’

‘You don’t understand what this place is or what power she has.’ Ejima’s voice was shaking. ‘She’ll have our heads on the executioner’s block.’

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