I visited Okinawa in May. Zamami-jima was just too crowded with its 100 inhabitants, so I walked the shallows to the nearby island of Amuro. In addition to its resident goat, I saw a manta ray cruising by the shore!

Well, after much deliberation, the judges have rated all the photos entered in the Wide Island View’s 2010 Spring Photo Contest, sponsored by White Rabbit Press, and we have some winners! Thanks to all who entered the contest. There were a lot of great photos, so it was tough to choose the best ones. But someone had to do it, and we did.

Making umeshu, or plum liquor, is a highly orchestrated and seasonal activity in Japan. Walk into any supermarket at the end of May and you are bound to see a display of glass or plastic jugs, plums, rock sugar and cartons of mysterious alcohol that you can use to brew your own batch of this sweet yet sour beverage. It’s the perfect umeshu kit just waiting for you.

I am addicted to pickled rakkyo. Half small onion and half garlic tsukemono, rakkyo is a crunchy delight that you can prepare easily at home. The end of May is the official rakkyo pickling season, so let’s get pickling!

Toukasan, a.k.a. the Yukata Festival, will arrive in Hiroshima city June 4 and continue through the weekend. The Yukata Festival is the perfect opportunity to show off your yukata along with thousands of other people downtown. But are you ready? For those of you who aren’t sure exactly how to put on your yukata, Monica has put together this helpful step-by-step guide and video.

Sometimes you just have to trick yourself into studying Japanese. And if you check your email fairly compulsively (as many of us do), signing up for one of the Yookoso! Kanji-a-Day or Grammar-a-Day mailing lists could be just what you need to boost your study time.

Because what happens at the enkai doesn’t stay at the enkai…

Spring, and especially cherry blossom season, has got to be one of the most lovely times to live in Japan, and JETs throughout Japan have captured that beauty on camera. Thanks to all who entered the Wide Island View’s Spring Photo Contest 2010, generously sponsored by White Rabbit Press! You’re awesome! Our judges are rating the photos now to determine the winners, so for now please enjoy this slideshow of all the entries.

As it turns out, there are loads of cool ways to spend a long weekend in Tottori-ken, Hiroshima’s slightly more inaka neighbor to the north, with its sandy coastlines along the Sea of Japan, and onsen aplenty making it a choice destination for ALTs looking to escape the crowded cement strip that follows the Seto Inland Sea from Hiroshima to Fukuyama and beyond. But if leaving the city behind doesn’t sound like your idea of a vacation well spent, consider this: steak. Tottori prefecture is known for its beef and dairy products (a sort of Hokkaido South), and as such, is home to the best, most reasonably priced sirloin steak I have had the pleasure of devouring in Japan.

Are you hoping to make a trip home this summer, but suffering from sticker shock looking at international plane fares for August? Thinking about biting the bullet and putting the purchase on your credit card? If you think it’s expensive now, wait ’til you see how much it really ads up to when you add it to the debt already on a credit card. Austin crunches the numbers for us, and gives us some handy tips to save money so you can afford that plane ticket home this summer – and pay for it up front.