THE ARDENT ENTHUSIAST

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The day after I visited the Russian Market I decided that I wanted to check out the Night Market as a comparison. I remembered it as being quite colorful when I’d visited it several years before. But now it wasn’t much more than a tourist trap. Luckily I wandered through a very picturesque street market just a little to the south of it. READ MORE…

Itoigawa City– Niigata Prefecture – Japan Golden Week; May 3rd-7th gave me five days to go south and hunt for Japanese jadeite. I’d tried to get down to Itoigawa twice last year, but the weather was against me. I’d planned on camping, and was washed out the previous occasions. This time the weather was sunny, so, after an eight hour drive to the southwest along a quite scenic coast highway, I reached… Read More