Getting the flavour of…
Snowshoeing in northern Japan
The Japanese region of Tohoku is remote, wild and staggeringly snowy in winter. It was a journey through its “otherworldly” mountain landscape that the 17th-century poet Basho recorded in The Narrow Road to the Deep North – and those drawn to retrace his footsteps can now do so on a nine-day group snowshoeing expedition with the company Walk Japan, says Natalie Whittle in the FT. The daily walks – on both plastic and traditional bamboo snowshoes – make stiff demands on the legs and lungs alike, especially on the 1,015 steps up to the Buddhist temple of Risshaku-ji, which the monks must ascend daily as part of their training. But there’s “delicious” food and wonderful onsen (hot spring baths) to enjoy in and around the “charming” small inns and ryokans along the way. Walk Japan (www.walkjapan.com) has a nine-day tour from £3,394pp, excluding flights.
A new museum in Nîmes Nîmes not only has the greatest Roman monuments outside of Italy, but it has also retained much of the “full-blooded southern vigour” of those ancient days. Both aspects of its heritage (the Roman and “the postRoman legacy”) are celebrated in the French city’s new £52m Musée de la Romanité, says Anthony Peregrine in The Daily Telegraph – a “bewitching” place that makes fantastic use of technology, including virtual reality, in bringing the past to life. Occupying a “fluid, diaphanous” building designed by the architect Elizabeth de Portzamparc, it is centred on the Pentheus mosaic, an extraordinary, 377 sq ft work discovered beneath a car park in 2006. Depicting the murder of the Theban king by his own mother, it would be “the star of any show”. The museum is due to open on 2 June (see www.museedelaromanite.fr).
The land of frankincense In the far southwest of Oman, the region of Dhofar has “endless” beaches of white sand and, thanks to heavy summer rains, wonderful flora and fauna (including the rare Arabian leopard). But it is as a centre of frankincense production that the area is best known, says Nigel Tisdall in National Geographic Traveller. The Museum of the Land of Frankincense in Salalah is “excellent”, and the Al Baleed Archaeological Park contains the 12th-century walls of Zafar, a port once visited by Marco Polo. There’s not so much to see of Ubar, the fabled lost city known as the Atlantis of the Sands. Its ruins are located at the village of Shisr – but it’s worth visiting for the chance to camp in the “bewitching” dunes beyond it. Original Travel (020-7978 7333, www.originaltravel.co.uk) has a sixnight trip from £2,560pp, including flights.