Oni-Oshi-Dashi

About forty minutes from the resort town of Karuizawa, where Tokyo's wealthy keep their summer homes, there's Oni-Oshi-Dashi, which translates roughly as 'Demon Pushing Out Rocks'. It's a rugged, surreal landscape of rock formations, formed when lava from an eruption of nearby volcano Mount Asama flowed into hot mud on the slopes, then cooled and solidified into these twisted shapes.

It's now an attraction for sightseers, with paths laid through the rocks, easy access by car or bus, and of course a restaurant and souvenir shop, which sells cute little demon toys to take home.

It's a fun place to stroll around slowly. As you wind around the paths you can admire the flowers sprouting between the rocks - it is, in essence, a giant rockery - and the butterflies and dragonflies they attract.

There's also a beautiful view down the slopes of the mountain, and it's fun to find shapes in the rocks. Some of the more anthropomorphic ones have been given names like 'Shrine Dog Rock' and 'Parent and Child Rock'.

Riga

I had such a good time in Riga! The weather was great, warm and sunny and dry every day, so I could walk around the city and sit outside for lunch and dinner. The food was good, hearty northern European fare, plenty of meat and fish and sauces, and they had lots of different flavors of cider, pear and strawberry among them.

With a friend I made on a walking tour, we spent a couple of evenings at a bar called The Key, where one lat (about 200 yen) in the football table got us 35 balls! One evening we got playing with a couple of locals, one of whom was the national champion, and holy crap was he good.

The city is very beautiful and relaxed. I stayed mostly in and around the old town, full of narrow streets of pastel buildings, venerable churches and public buildings, and home also to the Occupation Museum, with its moving exhibitions on how Latvia suffered under the Nazis and Soviets.

Nearby is the art-deco district, with its extraordinarily decorative buildings, competing to outdo each other with their fanciness. Then to the east of the centre there's "Stalin's Birthday Cake", a striking Soviet-era monolith of a building which now provides a great view across the city.

Three years on I still tell people about how great Riga is!

The hostel I stayed at was on this street!

A typical scene from Riga's old town

The main square in the middle of the old town

Stalin's Birthday Cake

A view from the top of the cake

Dessert, and I think that's cider behind it

One of the art-deco buildings

Two guys who wanted to become saints bricked themselves into this church, with only this opening to the outside world

The Soviets wanted to pull this down after they invaded, but a sympathetic architect reinterpreted it to fit Soviet ideology to spare it from demolition

Dinner!

I have no idea who this is

Local craftworks on display in the old town's art museum

Riga is twinned with Kobe in Japan

Lunch on my last day, at a traditional Latvian restaurant

The black market, where shifty characters give you dirty looks for taking pictures

Hirosaki

In summer 2013 I visited Aomori prefecture in northern Japan, starting with the historical castle town of Hirosaki.

The view from the bullet train

A festival float in the tourist information centre

The first day I just strolled around Hirosaki Park, relaxing in the green surroundings and comfortably warm weather. I also took a (very quick) look around inside the small castle building.

Greenery in Hirosaki Park

Hirosaki Park

Hirosaki Castle

The castle moat

The next morning I went to Fujita Memorial Garden, a traditional landscaped stroll garden. With its lawns, miniature lake and classical bridges, this was another peaceful place to walk around and take in the scenery, as people have been doing for decades.

Fujita Memorial Garden

Fujita Memorial Garden

Fujita Memorial Garden

Fujita Memorial Garden

Fujita Memorial Garden

In the afternoon I visited the temple district in the southern part of the town. There are two streets with fully 33 shrines and temples rubbing shoulders with each other, and sharing a large forest graveyard, almost silent except for the cawing of the crows in the treetops.

Fierce guardians at Saisho-in temple

On the way from Saisho-in to the temple streets, there's this

Buddhist statues at one of the temples

The forest graveyard

Guardian lions at one of the temples

The main gate at the temple at the end of the street

I was staying in a beautiful, atmospheric old Japanese inn, and went out for dinner at an izakaya known for its local specialties.

My room at the inn

Local specialties: apple liqueur, pickles, egg and seafood cooked in the shell

Lanterns in the izakaya