It’s hard to believe that there’s any sort of beachy, “surf’s up, Dude!” culture in Tokyo, but there certainly is if you take the JR East Yokosuka rail line about an hour south of the city, to Zushi Beach.

It is less well known but not much less crowded than the beaches at Kamakura, and is very popular with windsurfers (and surfers, whenever a freighter steams past and some waves roll in.)

July and August are the “official” beach season. Like so much else in very orderly Japan, the Polynesian-style thatched hut beer joints and fish taco stands don’t begin to appear on the rather grubby sands until it is officially time to appear, then they sprout overnight and disappear as quickly at the end of August.

Rather than spend the ridiculous amount of Yen that you’ll be charged for a beachside meal, head inland a little and go Hawaiian at Vahana’s Bar in Zushi.

It’s a two-story building on a main street in Zushi, with palm fronds and surfboards hanging all over it.

There’s a pretty extensive menu, friendly staff, frequent live music and lots of locals.

Beats the heck out of some overpriced, pretentious club in Roppongi.

A recent piece about Moscow’s ritzy Ritz Carlton hotel in Intelligent Travel went a long way to showing that not all of Russia is vacuously obsessed with consuming as much glitz as possible. The general manager showed his intelligence by extolling the virtues of getting out of the city, and one of the places he mentioned is my favorite little Russian village, Suzdal.

I’ve written before about Suzdal (not here), but the place is worth mentioning. It’s part of Russia’s 300-kilometer-long Golden Ring of villages, but is by far the most picturesque. It takes about two hours to walk around, without touring the 30-odd monasteries and churches, and throughout the entire walk you could kid yourself that the Soviet Union had never existed.

Although most tourist guides describe the place in summer, I went in the dead of winter. Even then, in true Russian style, the market vendors were out hawking carved wooden boxes in -10 degrees Farenheit (-23 Centigrade).

Suzdal is full of tiny, brightly colored houses, and windows with curlicued frames. Given the blockiness of most drab, concrete Soviet architecture, you might not guess the Russians are this whimsical, but this is the traditional architecture of Russia — the classic dacha, overheated by one wooden stove and bravely painted against the harsh weather.

I recommend seeing the Russian countryside in winter. The bleak landscape wipes your mind clean, and a village like Suzdal leaves plenty of room for contemplation. Either way, if you can brave the train journey and jostling bus ride out of Moscow, take a trip out to the Golden Ring on your own. Walk around. See something new.

(All photos copyright 2005 Antonia Malchik)

This is why I love to travel; to see little gems like these ema wooden prayer cards at the Meiji-jingu Shrine, Harajuku, Tokyo.

I wish I could meet the author/artist and find out what he/she was asking for….

Related posts:

• Climbing Mt. Fuji
• The Shin-Yokohama Raumen Museum
• Tokyo: The Plastic Fantastic Boulevard
• Press a button for refreshment (Japanese vending machines)

Proving that my blog posts are like busses - you wait for ages and then three come along at once, it was reported in the UK’s Daily Mail over the weekend that British Olympic Athletes have had a clause added into their contracts forbidding any political dissent at the Beijing Olympics.

Mindful of not wanting to insult the Chinese government, athletes have been forced to sign an amended contract stating that they will not publicly comment on China’s Human Rights record, or their shameful invasion of Tibet. The Daily Mail has likened this instruction to the one given to the England football team to give the Nazi salute when playing at an international in Berlin in 1938, and used this picture, previously unpublished in the UK, as an illustration.

Bearing in mind that the Dalai Lama has called for peaceful protests at the Beijing Olympics, over the issue of Tibet, then it seems that the British Olympic Association is siding WITH the Chinese Authorities AGAINST the exiled spiritual leader of Tibet.

Interestingly the British Prince Charles has indicated that he will not attend or support the games, although his niece, Zara Phillips (Granddaughter to the Queen) will be forced to sign the contract if she does attend the Olympics. That could be an interesting debate over the family dinner table!

The deadline is approaching for submission to a writing contest that could give you access to one of the best literary seminars/writing conferences in the world. Aspiring and practicing travel writers will find it particularly attractive. No, it’s not the Book Passage travel writers and photographers conference in San Francisco, although I’m sure that one’s well worth attending, too. But Book Passage doesn’t take place over two weeks during White Nights in St. Petersburg, Russia.

The Summer Literary Seminars (SLS) have been running for less than a decade, but have quickly taken their position as one of the most inspiring writing conferences around. I attended in 2006, and heard from professional and beginning writers alike that St. Petersburg gave them the best creative high they’d ever gotten from a writing conference, including revered institutions like Bread Loaf.

From the giddiness of walking around in the midnight sun, to readings from Russian poets; from late nights of chilly vodka shots with the visiting writer to following Roskolnikov’s footsteps during the Dostoevsky Tour, the Summer Literary Seminars offers travelers packed days and nights of a singular immersion experience: that of writing and place. Their mission statement says it all:

“SLS is premised on the not-so-novel idea that one’s writing can greatly benefit from the keen sense of temporary displacement created by an immersion in a thoroughly foreign culture and street vernacular.”

I was lucky enough to take the travel writing class from the fantastic Tom Swick (and subsequently shame myself by almost getting him lost when I was meant to be guiding him through the metro), who unfortunately won’t be teaching this year. But you’ll get the entertaining Stephanie Griest instead (author of Around the Bloc: My Life in Moscow, Beijing, and Havana).

Since it’s the second year in a row I won’t be able to attend (grr), you won’t see me propping up The Office bar at 2 in the morning, you won’t be getting my walking tour of the Krestovsky Islands, and you won’t get a Russian dinner at my aunt’s apartment. But you will get to hear even more Russian writers read their work; a chance to take the midnight train to Moscow; and coffee-, sunlight-, and vodka-fueled inspiration with some of the most interesting people you’ll ever meet.

The deadline for the writing contest is February 28th, and the winner gets tuition and airfare paid for. Open admission is on a rolling basis, but why not try to go for free? SLS also runs a sister program in Kenya over Christmas, and submissions to the Russia contest are also considered for the Kenya program.