September 2025 • Folksy Travel by Bill Smale

September 13, 2025September 13, 2025

Hopping in Kiso and Mt. Fujij

As I was traveling around Japan I decided to go to my old school area on Mt. Fuji, Fujinomiya, and also to a place I love to visit. The Kiso trail goes from near Matsumoto area to Nagoya and still has old villages with places to stay and a walking trail along the centuries old walking trail. These two areas are close to Tokyo so easy for day or several day trips. The Chuo line goes from Tokyo along the Kiso trail and is one way to see this beautiful area.

triumph car near Mt. Fuji — An old car museum display of one of my favorite type cars.

pokemon go players — Near my hotel in Kashiwa all these people are standing around playing Pokemon Go

the ghost musical — I am guessing this musical is based on “the ghost and Mrs. Muir”

motorcycle stop wakayama — Actually this is near Wakayama in the mountains and has been a favorite motorcyclist stop for over 50 years

The river view which is superb during the cherry tree blossoming season

bagdad cafe wakayama — The old sign for the “bagdad cafe”, evidently a hint from the movie

Map of customers — At a local restaurant a map with pins of were customers live

Measuring the CO2 level in the restaurant

few shops open — Many shops were not open due to dwindling tourist arrivals

noodle shop — I had delicious noodles here

March view — A view from the top in March

A small private garden. There are millions of these in Japan

mountain view Mt. Fuji — Later in the evening he snow dusted hills change color

Mt. Fuji view — A view from my grad school campus

shiraito no taki — Shiraitonotaki (white thread water fall) near my school has become quite a developed tourist destination

September 12, 2025September 12, 2025

Palermo-Last Day

When I first came to the outskirts of Palermo in 2010 all the cars I saw were badly scratched or dented and parked on the road and sidewalk in every kind of configuration. I didn’t want to subject my rental car to this fate so I turned around and went to another place to stay and visit. However, this time I found it to be a safe place to drive and park a rental car, though I didn’t rent one, and things were generally better organized. Palermo is a nice city with many sights and inexpensive street restaurants to enjoy. I highly recommend Palermo.

street art — Street art can be a goal of your walk around the city

sweets at coffee shop — Something sweet with coffee

japanese restaurant — Definitely not run by Japaese, jMaybe by vietamese or chinese

wedding dress up — Getting dressed up for a wedding reception at the wharf restaurant

anti tourism — An increasingly popular opinion

A very healthy salad with a campari spritz

following band — Following the band to the celebration

bike shop. Palermo-last day — Bike shop fixing the. Young boy’s bike

nice spaghetti — This spaghetti sauce was not too rich

spiderman in Palermo — The young boy was spiderman

japanese characters — Japanese characters are popular

September 10, 2025September 10, 2025

Drifting around Ishigaki island

Ishigaki island is much closer to Taiwan than Okinawa and a much smaller island. However as you are drifting around Ishigaki Island you will find a wonderful ocean, interesting plants and animals and really friendly people wanting to talk to you over a drink. An island close by is Taketomi. When I was there in April/May I got the feeling it wasn’t the tourist season since most everything was closed. It is worth a day trip from Ishigaki and I recommend just walking around since it is such a small island.

typical local food — Typical local foods, the noodles and way of cooking pork is special to these islands

fish restaurant — Fish is the very delicious here

my hotel — My hotel which was not so cheap and a pretty old and not well maintained building. Hotels here are fairly expensive except that most seem to have rooms for 3 or more people, groups and families

Along with Avocado toast you can have “hot sand”,not so crunchy or gritty since “sand” is Japanese for “sandwich”.

Gas pump — Nice to see an old gas pump probably left from the US post war occupation

on guard — Watching out for all sorts of criminals especially illegal China fishing boats

beautiful ocean — Beautiful water. I wanted to try snorkeling but the shop said I was too old to go on a boat

traditional drawing — Okinawa tradition in a drawing.

island from above — Taketomi is the second from the right

While the Ryukyu islands were a kingdom each island had a different language. Locals today say they can’t understand what people on their neighboring island are saying.

growth monitors — Many trees are being monitored for growth

Two Korean tourists on the left (spoke very good Japanese), the bar owner in the back (bar seats 6 people), and two local residents to the right. It was a fun nght.

bar entrance — The vending machine on the left can be pulled out on a hinge and that is the bar’s entrance. Unique!

Highball — So “highball” is now a verb. This 1950’s term is still used in Japan and refers to whiskey and water.

beef is popular — If you “lanch” here you will have had a good lunch. Beef is a big thing in these islands and they raise cows on most of the large islands in a careful manner like in Kobe or Matsuzaka. But it is expensive.

roof tiles — Roof tiles stacked behind a coral wall

Coral wall plants — Plants growing out of the coral wall

Traditional clothing — Traditional costumes

nice trees — Reminds me of the Bhodi trees

chinese influenced temple — A temple with some chinese influences

I took a bus tour around the island. These are my fellow tourists.

ishigaki opposite side — The opposite side of Ishigaki

K car — Most cars in Japan now are “K” cars with 650 cc engines

flavored ice — Ice flavored with not much cream

September 9, 2025September 9, 2025

High on Heidelberg Castle

when you’re traveling to Germany Heidelberg it’s definitely one of the cities you should visit at the castle is very interesting. So remember when you get in this area make sure you get high on Heidelberg Castle.

River below when you are high on Heidelberg Castle — Beautiful views of the city below and the river

Nice view — One of the best views when you are high on Heidelberg Castle

Symbolism — Very iconic and important symbolism for the times when they were set on the entrance gate here

City clock — This is the old clock in the city center

Beer keg, a giant one — The giant Heidelberg beer keg

Dispenser — This is where they dispensed the beer

Chapel — You have to have a chapel in a castle

Heidelberg Castle pipe organ — Church pipe Oregon

Desk and chair — A very old desk and chair

Ornate hallway — And extremely ordinate hallway

Detailed ceiling — The ceiling of the hallway. Look at the detail

Room entrance — And ordinate room entrance

It was interesting to see Hebrew here. Obviously there was a lot of respect for the people who helped build and manage the castle

Marks in the stone — Builders’ marks in the stone

The old outside wall — This shows the old Castle wall on the outside which was built many hundreds of years ago

Cast model — The model of the castle as it is today

Complete model — Another model of the castle when it was complete

Great Frederick — This guy brought the castle to its peak architecture

Pharmacy inside the castle — There was a pharmacy inside the castle

Medicine creation laboratory — Were they concocted the medicines

This is a very old brand

September 7, 2025September 7, 2025

Crowning Kings in Reims

Reims is a pretty interesting ciy to visit, the place where French kings were crowned for many centuries .

The roman wreath for crowning kings in Reims is what the lady is carrying

piano Crowning Kings in Reims — Many train stations in France have pianos for people to play some music, a very interesting and enjoyable idea.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Baptiste_Colbert

French roof — Nice architecture. The roof identifies it as French

crowning church — The church where the king were crowned

Garment Lao bag — Still carrying my Lao garment bag

coffee and cigar — Nice coffee but not my best cigar

continental hotel — John Wick’s Continental Hotel?

Hemingway hotel — Didn’t ask if he stayed here

September 6, 2025September 6, 2025

Quick US Trip

I made an emergency trip to the US landing on July 4. After taking care of necessary issues I traveled to see some friends in bad health and stop by my old hometown to check out how things changed.

quesadillas — My favorite kind of breakfast, a quesadilla with guacamole and crema. A good way to start out the day.

Not an announcement but some very interesting information about he past came to light. I got this cookie at my favorite chinese restaurant. Did you know this fortune cookie tradition was started by a Japanese restaurant owner in San Francisco for kids many decades ago

onigiri — Mispelled but an interesting way to present ONIGIRI

retro diner — They have new owners but a pretty nice diner in the city, retro style

Monroe photo — This is THE famous Marylin photo

Our doctor’s office, Dr. Cook who became the county coroner

corner Market — The former Corner Market where I worked as a delivery and bag boy for the Manteganis

The house my parents built in Tiburon in 1967

bay view — Part of the view from out house bay windows. We could see the fog rolling in over the Golden Gate bridge and over Sausalito

The bakery was Mr. Taylor’s barber shop where I had one of my first jobs at 9 years old sweeping the floor an shining customers’ shoes.

st steven’s — St. Steven’s where I was an acolyte and was confirmed so I could drink the wine on Sundays

Behind the tree is the rest room for he Belvedere park where I almost fell from the roof to a disastrous fate. I grabbed the gutter on the way down

Old house — Our former house on Bayview Avenue. I talked to the new owners who didn’t even know they had an extended garden area in the back. The plum tree in front has been replaced.

Cheap alcoholic drinks in round containers. Interesting Marketing

market street — Not so much taffic on Market street

Famous clam chowder in Boudin’s sour dough french bread

luggage — This is everything I own. Yes, it is all carry on.

A Mexican style pizza with lots of jalapeños

September 3, 2025September 3, 2025

Food in Taiwan

Taiwan is becoming quite a tourist attraction for Asian populations. The one group I saw and heard the most of is from the Philippines. Of course there is somewhat a language barrier for non Taiwanese (one Chinese dialect plus some original indigenous people’s words) but most people I met spoke enough English to assist me or were just kind enough to use gestures and simple words in Chinese to get the message across. My Chinese is limited to food and a few phrases I learned long ago. Looking around town I understand most of the signage with the similarities with Japanese Kanji. This page on Taiwan (link here) will give you more information that might be helpful for visiting.

TAICHUNG 台中

Taichung is a fairly quiet city and it seems the busy city center has moved away from the train station, to the west, so you might want to concentrate time there.

Old tracks — The old train tracks are a fun place to sit, have a coffee or tea and think about old times, or whatever.

shops — You can buy all sorts of things on the old platform

Old train Food in Taiwan — Here is one of the older trains for people to view. You can see this generation train still used in Thailand on the very slow route from Bangkok to the Malaysia border.

simple food variety Food in Taiwan — This restaurant has inexpensive but tasty food variety on a plate. It is a well known with locals

one piece — A famous Japanese Anime made into a TV series recently. Taiwanese people are crazy about everything Japanese. You probably know Taiwan was a Japanese colony for decades until 1945. However both countries are really the closest of friends.

ramen — Delicious noodles with some WAN TAN

Thai food — This Thai restaurant has some good food. The cabbage order should have been made with NAM PLA (fish sauce) but I asked and they made it the Thai way for me. I think the owners are Vietnamese.

coffee and mango cake — Good coffee and excelent Mango cake is in a very hard to find coffee shop which you can find with the reference below.

Your seat here is an old elementary school desk. The entrance is through a hall that looks like one for a janitor, then up steps to a locked door you need to knock on for the young lady to let you in. I asked the owner why this kind of setup. She explained the rent was low.

Old bricks — An old construction from a past Chinese imperialist occupation.

hot pot — Hot pot with an old friend. It was very popular, not expensive and very fresh and delicious ingredients.

TAINAN 台南

Gyoza — One of my very favorites, a gyoza type **fried** dumplings with SUI GYOZA. This shop is very popular and very delicious.

Sometimes it is a challenge not being deflected to the street to walk around due to the over abundance of motorcycles parked in the way on the walkway. This part was ok.

sushi — Would you eat at this Sushi restaurant? I waited to get back to Japan.

ding dongs — When I was a kid there were very foamy “Ding Dongs”. These are different .

motorcycle parking lot — Motorcycle parking lot. Reminds me of Vietnam.

Taiwan spaghetti — Taiwan style Italian Pesto Spaghetti with broccoli which was delicious.

Kaoshiung 高雄

sui gyoza — Old Chuan has a sour attitude but his food is so delicious. This SUI GYOZA was so delicious.

This duck restaurant was not with the highest recommendation in Kaoshiung but it was very good. It was 2 dinners and one breakfast in one duck. The rest they did Taiwan style with the rest quick chopped, thrown in a wok and cooked up with spices, pepper and some sauce. The whole duck cost NT$500 ($17).

dressing up — Kids dressed up for an event in the underground metro

Night market — This night market was huge.

pin ball — Pin ball parlor with old fashioned Japanese Pachinko

sweet potato — Sweet potatoes were easy to grow in your yard and became the sweet delicacy in Japan at the end of WWII since rice was hard to get. It is popular throughout Asia

Unlike Thailand, in Taiwan the fresh fruit smoothies are not made with sugar, something I appreciated

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

TAICHUNG 台中

TAINAN 台南

Kaoshiung 高雄

Share this: