Yogyakarta, Indonesia (05/01/2015 - 05/03/2015)

Yogyakarta is the cultural capital of Java, renowned for its ancient temples, batik, performances, and fine cuisine. It's often referred to as Indonesia's Angkor Wat, and for good reason.

It's also within spitting distance of Mt. Merapi, an active volcano, which last erupted in 2010, displacing over 300,000 in surrounding villages and killing over 150 people.

We had the fortune to visit this ancient capital and surrounding areas over a long weekend, stopping at the typical tourist sites - Borobudur, an 8th century Buddhist temple that was abandoned and 'rediscovered' by Sir Thomas Raffles (the very same Raffles that founded Singapore); Prambanan, a similarly ancient Hindu temple; and the Merapi volcano, briefly changing vehicles to a World War II-era American Jeep to scale it.

The city itself is just filled to the brim with arts shops - be it batik, furniture, custom tailors, or various wooden or stone carvings, and hard to leave without stuffing one's suitcase.

Thoroughly enjoyed it here and will surely return again.

飛騨古川/Hida-Furukawa and 白川村/Shirakawago, Gifu, Japan (03/03/2015 - 03/06/2015)

This trip to the 'Japanese Alps' embodies everything I love about this country, ranging from the exquisite food, over-politeness and extreme attention to detail, to the minimalist architecture that feels close to nature, peace and quiet, and strong tradition-rich culture. Ah, if only I could retire here.

The primary focus of this trip was to see the Gasshō-zukuri style village of Shirakawago, designated a UNESCO Heritage site, and the extreme amounts of snow that warranted their existence. Essentially - wooden houses with thick thatched roofs at high angles, that require a whole village to maintain and replace every 20 years or so.

We had wanted to stay in one of these houses, but as an odd stroke of luck, there was nothing available, and so we had scanned the vicinity for nearby guest houses (ryokans) that happened to have hot springs within and were fortunate to encounter Yatsusankan ryokan in Hida-Furukawa, a sleepy town a few train stations north of Takayama - the major city in the region.

Getting here involved taking a bullet train (shinkansen) from Tokyo to Nagoya, a local scenic train (extra large windows) from Nagoya to Takayama, and then another local train (with literally 1 or 2 cars) to Hida-Furukawa.  Getting to Shirakawago required a train to Takayama and then a bus. Quite a contrast to the ultra-connected Tokyo or Kansai metro areas.

Make no mistake - this was a decompression vacation, and as such we spent most of the time in the actual ryokan, which was phenomenal - tatami mats, extremely attentive and polite staff, delicious and delicate multi-course omakase meals twice a day, and yes, hot springs, both indoor and outdoor on-premises.

The town itself was quaint, albeit sleepy with a few eateries and izakayas that would come alive during ski season, which we had just missed. Not quite a ghost town - but really just focused on providing for the daily needs of its residents. However, what was still open were two local and award winning sake breweries (spring water as fresh as it gets), and some local grocery stores that had fantastic small and sweet strawberries, and all sorts of treats made of rice flour, persimmons, red beans and miso.

One thing that needs to be called out on its own is Hida beef - one of the 'holy' beefs of Japan - alongside Kobe, Mishima, Matsusaka and others. It was far more affordable and I would say, on par with any Kobe beef I've had, and we were lucky enough to have this on a daily basis, be it in shabu-shabu, sukiyaki, sashimi or even as beef jerky.

Overall a wonderful trip, and one I'd like to repeat again soon.

Hida-Furukawa

Shirakawago