Big Wave Ice Rink

Every winter, between November and April the Olympic-sized swimming pool at ‘Big Wave’ in Ushita is drained and transformed into

Sakura cherry blossoms at Ushita Sogo Koen Park

Ushita Sogo Koen Park has many large, beautiful cherry tress are laden with gorgeous blossoms during sakura season and is

Ushita Sogo Koen [牛田総合公園] expansive hillside park behind the Higashi-ku Sports Center and Big Wave pool offers walking paths, grassy

Ushita-yama, unsurprisingly, looks over the neighborhood of Ushita in Higashi-ku. The summit is only 261m, but offers nice views over

This is Part 2 of a 3 part series of posts describing the 7km trail between Peace Pagoda and Big

This is the final post in a 3 part series describing the 7km trail between Peace Pagoda and Big Wave

At the base of Ushita-yama, there is an interesting Buddhist temple and pet cemetery. The temple is easy to see from

>Every autumn, the Big Wave Olympic-sized pool at Higashi-ku Sports Center in Ushita is emptied, covered and iced over for

It wasn’t looking good. The weather forecast said it was going to be a morning of thunderstorms, but it changed

Although the last gasps of winter may make you think otherwise, come late March, spring is just around the corner,