Matt’s travel highlights 2024
2024 was a big year for me, with lots of exciting experiences and challenges, both personal and professional. Looking back, many of my most important experiences this time around have felt uniquely tied to the seasons, so here are my highlights of 2024 in chronological order:
#8: Mount Asama in Winter
Since moving to Kitakaruizawa in the mountains of Gunma Prefecture last year, I've gotten used to the graceful form of Mount Asama - the most active volcano on Japan's largest island of Honshu, standing at 2,568 meters - towering overhead.
While the demands of a new home and an exceptionally busy year at work have left me little time for hiking this year, I at least managed a modest trek through snowy forest from nearby Manza Onsen for this perfect view of the mountain in its best winter outfit.
#7: Sakura reporting
Rushing around the country to check on the annual cherry blossom season can be an intense and even exhausting experience, but this year's reporting more than made up for it with some spectacular scenes at Matsumoto Castle, and in the Kansai Region where I was delighted to revisit some old haunts. The outstanding moment for me however was the temple walk in Onomichi - a lovely, sleepy town on the Seto Inland Sea.
#6: Visiting Aogashima and Hachijojima
Not unlike hiking, opportunities to travel for its own sake have been few this year - so when an old friend reached out with a plan to visit these two far-flung islands, of course the answer was going to be yes.
While my time on Aogashima - a literal volano within a volcano, with a population of around 50 - felt especially adventurous, Hachijojima was also a huge eye opener. For me, the experience peaked at the exact moment the clouds lifted over Mount Hachijo-Fuji, just as my friend and I were carefully picking our way around the volcano's crater summit, revealing spectacular views of the island and its smaller neighbor, Hachijo-Kojima.
#5: A sea kayaking tour around Mount Sakurajima, Kagoshima
In what was only my second time on the island, reporting for an upcoming Kyushu project brought with it four long awaited first time visits - Kagoshima, Kumamoto, Fukuoka and Kitakyushu. While all of these were exciting in different ways, the standout moment for me was seeing Mount Sakurajima and the surrounding volcanic landscape from a kayak out over the Kagoshima Bay.
#4 Adopting two rescue cats
As always, some of the best moments this year went entirely unreported - in this case, adopting this adorable mother-daughter combination from a foster home in Chiba Prefecture.
#3 Meeting geisha in Fukuoka and Tokyo
The twilight world of geisha is something that has long fascinated me from a distance, but it was not until this year that I got to experience it up close - first in Fukuoka where I watched a performance by a young maiko at the Wanoka teahouse, and then again soon after with a very special evening's entertainment In Tokyo's Mukojima district.
#2 Funazushi and sake pairing in Nagahama, Shiga Prefecture
My overnight trip to Nagahama back in October as a whole was an unexpected delight, but one experience that seemed to encapsulate the feel of that place was this special pairing of locally brewed sake with funazushi - a regional speciality of fermented fish and rice.
I can sometimes be a little timid with food, but the dish had nevertheless been on my radar for years, and for it to turn out to be as delicious and fascinating as it did was enormously encouraging.
#1 A perfect day of autumn leaf viewing in Kyoto
With bigger projects keeping me busy, I had almost resigned myself to missing the best part of this year's autumn leaf season. I was in luck however, as unseasonably warm temperatures delayed the peak colors in Kyoto until just in time for my report - giving me one of my best ever days of leaf viewing.
