Noto-Hanto Peninsula (Japan)

Secrets of the Gower Peninsula.

Advantages: Stunning views, pristine and clean beaches, never too busy.
Disadvantages: The Gower is a fair way from most other places

I lived in Swansea for three years between 1999-2002 while I was an undergraduate student. Clearly it wasn't all work and alot of my 'play' time was spent exploring the Gower Peninsula. A stunning and relatively unknown little gem tucked away in South Wales, The Gower was the first place in Britain to be designated as an 'Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty' in 1949 and it truly lives up to this honour. Getting there and Away. ************************** You can get to the Gower in between 20 minutes and a hour from Swansea, if you're driving, depending on which bit you want to go to. Buses also run but these are sporadic and unreliable. You'd really be much better off in a car. The roads are good, although they are generally single track and wind back and forth which can make for slow progress should you get stuck behind ...

nickyturnill 08.02.2005 (11.01.2006) · Read full review
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Review of Gower Peninsula (Wales)

Curious Customs: Tips for Visiting Japan, Part 2

Advantages: A great adventure
Disadvantages: Leave that handkerchief at home!

Welcome to the second part of my top ten tips for visitors to Japan. As this follows on from Part 1 (surprisingly enough), I'll be kicking off with number 6. By the way, in case you haven't read Part 1 I'll just mention that gaijin is Japanese for foreigner. <6> ◄Eating in Japan► Japan is home to one of the one of the world's great cuisines and the Japanese are passionate about food; indeed it is a bigger topic of conversation in Japan than the weather is in Britain. Japanese food is a huge subject and as I'm only offering a few tips for travellers here I can only scratch the surface. I should perhaps mention that my Japanese friends have persuaded me to try just about every weird and wonderful culinary concoction imaginable and I've never suffered any ill effects. Often the things I could barely bring myself to put in ...

Mitsudan 22.08.2007 · Read full review
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Review of Customs (Japan)

Konnichiwa! Tips for Visiting Japan Part 3

Advantages: Successful communication feels like an achievement
Disadvantages: It pays to invest some time and effort

<10> Communication Welcome to the third and final part of my top ten tips for visitors to Japan. Having looked last time at the potential pitfalls for gaijin (foreigners) in blowing their noses and taking a bath amongst other hazards, this time I'm dealing with the biggest minefield of the lot - the all-important business of communication. So here is tip number 10. The Devil's Language? The brick wall up against which most foreign visitors come in Japan when trying to communicate is of course the Japanese language itself. It's said that in the sixteenth century the missionary St Francis Xavier, on discovering the difficulty westerners had in deciphering a single word spoken or written by the Japanese people, concluded that Japanese had been devised by the devil to prevent Christian missionaries from doing their good ...

Mitsudan 25.02.2008 · Read full review
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Review of General: Japan