Features

by Clyde Holt, Hinesburg, VT, photos by Clyde and Jane Holt

Tsuwano, in Japan’s Shimane Prefecture in western Honshu, is a small mountain town with the faint remains of a ruined castle, two Shinto shrines, a street of restored samurai houses, and a chapel memorializing Catholics martyred there in the last period of the persecution of Christians in Japan. It is a pretty, quiet little town, often visited by day-tripping Japanese tour groups from nearby Yamaguchi, the capital of the adjacent Yamaguchi prefecture.

It is also visited by travelers from Hagi on the north coast,...

In the letter titled “Taxi Tours of Gibraltar” (Aug. ’07, pg. 16), a reader wrote about a cruise stop on which he and his wife wanted to go into town for shopping and then perhaps take a taxi tour. They weren’t interested in purchasing any of the ship’s shore excursions but couldn’t easily find a cab that would just take them into town.

On cruises of my favored line (Oceania Cruises), I have noticed that most passengers are unaware of online message boards geared to particular cruise lines or itineraries. In these days of the Internet, people are remiss in not just going online. I...

by Jim Hendrickson, Lynden, WA

In April ’08 I joined a group of 19 Americans and six Canadians on a cultural-immersion program to Venezuela offered by Global Awareness Through Experience, or GATE (La Crosse, WI; 608/791-5283, www.gate-travel.org), a nonprofit organization. I had previously traveled with GATE in Guatemala (Nov. ’06, pg. 6) and gained profound insights into the cultural and political situation there.

On this trip I wanted to personally experience life in today’s Venezuela, especially after having been exposed to considerable hostility in the American media...