Japan-From Samurai to Soft Toy: The transformation of Lord Date Masamune: He ruled much of northeastern Japan with an iron fist 400 years ago, a one-eyed warlord whose black helmet topped with a golden crescent struck fear into the hearts of his enemies. Today, Lord Date Masamune is a...

China- Bai tribe of Dali. (Continued from Up on moonhill.) From the top of moonhill, I moved on towards the city of Dali. Dali is an old city with lovely stone walls, imposing gates and pagodas. It used to be the ancient capital of the Bai Kingdom Nanzhao and subsequently, the Kingdom of...

China- Up on moonhill. (Continued from Ancient stone town.) Back from the ancient stone town, I set off to explore the Yang Shuo on bicycle. I have joined a group of travelers along with their local host. Cycling on the long winding roads between the endless giant Karst mountains, I felt very...

Japan- Nice People in a Nice City: Tokyo station is an interchange between 5 train lines. At non-peak hours, the crowd is confusing. At peak hours, the crowd is suffocating. At 10.30 pm, I cannot tell whether it is still peak hours or not. And Tokyo station is not even the busiest...

Indonesia- Village life & music On one of my trips to Java island of Indonesia, I went to stay in a small city called Cianjur. There was nothing too remarkable about it. Perhaps that is why I chose to go there; to experience nothing remarkable but a simple life. In fact I would go as far...