Japan
Matsue
A lakeside castle city where Lafcadio Hearn heard ghost stories the West had never imagined.
The lake turns gold. On a good evening Lake Shinji's sunset turns the water molten, and people gather on the shore to watch it in near silence — the city even publishes a daily sunset index. Matsue is the castle town of Shimane where Lafcadio Hearn, the Irish-Greek writer who became Japan's most famous Western interpreter, lived, wrote and fell in love with both the country and his future wife.
Matsue Castle, raised in 1611 for the city's founder Horio Yoshiharu, is among the twelve surviving original keeps in Japan and was made a National Treasure in 2015; its dark tower rises from a hill ringed by moats. Hearn's former residence sits beside the old samurai street, the house whose garden he described in Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan, with a memorial museum next door. The city stands between Lake Shinji, the Nakaumi lagoon and the Sea of Japan and calls itself the water city — small Horikawa boats circle the castle moats, lowering their roofs to pass under the lowest bridges. The local soba, milled with the hull to a grey-black noodle, comes in stacked round warigo dishes.
Solo
Reading Hearn in the house where he wrote, then walking to the lake for the sunset he described — Matsue is literary pilgrimage for the thoughtful solo traveller.
Couple
The moat boat, the Hearn house, and Lake Shinji at sunset make an afternoon that builds towards a natural climax.
- Lafcadio Hearn's former residence stands beside the samurai street, the house whose garden he described in Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan.
- Sunset over Lake Shinji turns the water molten gold — the city publishes a sunset index every day.
- Small boats circle the castle moats, lowering their roofs to slip under the lowest bridges.
- Izumo soba, ground with the hull for a dark grey-black noodle, is served in stacked round warigo dishes.
Shijimi clam miso soup from Lake Shinji — the morning cure the city swears by, at a ryokan breakfast.
Izumo soba in three stacked warigo dishes, dark and firm, eaten round by round with the sauce poured on.
Melrose
Scotland
A ruined abbey where a lead casket holds the embalmed heart of Robert the Bruce.
Freixo de Espada à Cinta
Portugal
Almond blossom turns a remote valley white each late winter beneath a seven-sided tower.
Sweetheart Abbey
Scotland
A widow built this abbey around her husband's embalmed heart — the red sandstone still blushes.
Richmond
England
A Norman castle above a river gorge, with a Georgian theatre still staging plays.
Unzen
Japan
A hot-spring town where Christians were martyred in the boiling pools and the earth still steams.
Koyasan
Japan
Lanterns guiding pilgrims through two hundred thousand graves beneath centuries-old cedars.
Tomonoura
Japan
A harbour so intact that Miyazaki lived here two months and drew Ponyo's world from it.
Teshima
Japan
A single raindrop museum on a terraced island where art and rice paddies merge.