The Japanese are renowned for both their hospitality and for their scenery. Their culture is different enough from ours (American influence notwithstanding) that you watch almost everything with fascination and go almost anywhere and see something interesting. Choose from more than 3900 islands. A zillion places to stay. Several earthquake zones, and one Mount Fuji. Full name is Fujiyama (not mount Fujiyama—yama means mount). Or if you want to sound like you have some familiarity with things Japanese, call it Fuji-san. Mr. Fuji.

You have seen pictures of pagodas and other Japanese architecture, views of bustling Tokyo, and serene panoramas of the Japanese countryside. Here’s a nice picture you probably haven’t seen:

This is not Fuji-san

I think it’s a park. I can see some guy wanting it to be a golf course. Maybe some day it’ll be a bobsled run.

The attraction I have in mind is a municipal museum, and Detroit Lakes has one.

The museum is not open all the time, but if you are visiting someone in town, they might know the guy who has the key, and you might get in (and get a private guided tour) regardless of the official open hours. Then again, maybe not. These museums seem to start when someone with a penchant for setting things in order finds a storeroom full of obsolete municipal hardware, maybe coupled with a prominent citizen who has an interesting collection. Perhaps something of historical significance happened there. Over time memorabilia accumulates, young soldiers are memorialized, the town centennial comes along. Nostalgia is a powerful emotion.

You never know what you’ll find.

The museum in Detroit lakes has, among other things, a collection of ball-and-chain shackles. You know, the things sometimes used as a metaphor for marriage. They never used them on real prisoners, but they did use them. Back during the depression, transients (hobos) coming into town riding the rails became a bit of a problem.  The town hired a few to wear the shackles and break rock near the train station when the trains came in. New hobos coming in would keep going when they saw the state of their compatriots. Hobo problem solved.

Generic ball and chain. DL didn't have any pictures of them on their web site.

The resorts and fishing in the area are pretty good, too.

Have you ever visited an interesting out-of-the-way museum? We’d like to hear about it.

The island is noticeably different from Dominica. Barbados, unlike many Caribbean islands, is not volcanic. It’s a pile of limestone, so the hills are low and rolling, and grass is clearly evident on the slopes. This has the advantage that the ground water on the island is drinkable—the limestone filters the water, unlike the hard basalts of the volcanic islands that let their rainwater run off.

Barbados is by far the most touristy of the islands mentioned so far in this series, and that’s saying a lot. You have to walk through a (bright, clean) shopping building to get to the tour buses, and the port is in an industrial area, so you pretty much need to take a taxi or tour bus to get anywhere.

The snorkeling is pretty good. The island is dotted with wrecks in fairly shallow water, and the sand on the beaches is a beautiful white. Beware the word “pirate,” though. It means “party, rum included.” they might take you to a nice wreck to snorkel around, but it’ll be accompanied by unbelievably loud Caribbean music and a lot of carrying on on the way back.

You'll note that not everyone on a cruise is beautiful.

If you care to go on a more land-based excursion, a fellow named Carlos has a little shop outside the terminal. He will rent you a four-wheeled ATV and lead you to the northern tip of the island and back, and you get to stop at a nice beach or two while you’re at it. Barbados supports other water sports than diving, by the way. The east side—they call it the Atlantic side—is pretty rocky and windy and the surfing is excellent there, not to mention highly popular wind surfing on the south. Which I don’t think you can do in Texas.

Have you ever visited Barbados? Tell us about it in the comments.

Travellerspoint – Active online community of international travellers. Travellerspoint features a wiki travel guide, forums, blogs, photography, interactive trip maps, accommodation and more. (I’d put a comma before the “and more,” but hey, I’m a curmudgeon.)

I applied to see if maybe they’d include us in their list of associates, but even if they don’t, their site is worth a look.

In other news: Look for an ezine article about costs they don’t tell you about when they advertise a cruise. It should be out in about a week. Start saving up—the fare is the least of your worries.

Have you found another good travel site? Mention it in the comments.

Here’s a second tip from the sophisticated traveler: Get one of the locals to tell you where the good eating places are. That’s how we ended up at Connie’s.

It looks like a converted factory building

The staff was friendly and eager to serve. We had arranged ahead because we were a group of about a dozen and a half people of assorted sizes. A mix-up in the kitchen delayed our meal (boo), but my children are raising exceptional grandkids, and we had no disturbances caused by hungry urchins. The restaurant had a sign on the wall advertising gift certificates, $100 for only $80. Our tab came to almost $150—if I had had my wits about me (and listened to my dear sweet astute wife), I would have bought myself a gift certificate and saved twenty bucks.

Chicago-style pizza is a deep dish pizza, with a mild sauce. My wife said it was overrated. Next time I’ll take everybody to Ricobene’s.

One such place in Chicago is a grocery store. I suppose every big city has its really interesting grocery store, and Chicago’s is the Fox and Obel food market. They wouldn’t let me take a picture of the interior, but here’s a rendering of the outside on their web site:

One of three entrances

Proximity to places like this is a good reason to live in a big city. They have a small restaurant/ neighborhood hangout (breakfast, lunch, and supper); they do catering; and their inventory is the most scrumptious selection of cheeses, meats, fresh produce, candy, and exotic goodies you won’t find anywhere else. French foot-long marshmallows, tea in pyramidal tulle (I think it’s tulle) bags, cheeses with unpronounceable names, grass-fed organic beef aged on site, $175 vinegar (no lie—it’s so old that half has evaporated though the wax seal), not to mention ready-made foods fit for a gourmet, and fresh baked goods from the kitchen, said kitchen visible through large glass windows. And the people behind the counters are experts, eager to talk about their products, and generous with the samples. Worth the trip just to shop there.

Do you have a favorite grocer? Tell us about it in the comments.

Rule 2. Get plenty of sleep the night before. Yeah, right.

Rule 3: Don’t worry if you leave later than planned. We had things pretty ready by the time we got to bed the night before, so we left only half an hour behind schedule, and felt pretty good about it. So we have this rule down in spades.

Rule 3: Don’t get lost. Watch the following posts to see how we fared.

Terrace is so out of the way, it’s not even on the way to someplace else. It’s easy to miss even if you look it up on Google Maps. The population last time I was there was about two dozen, and most of the folks had Norwegian accents.

The town is home to one of the few remaining water-powered grain mills in the state. It’s no longer functioning, but you can still see the turbine and tell where the millrace, now filled in, runs under the road. Three times the site hosted the Minnesota Orchestra, once performing the 1812 Overture with live cannons aimed out over the millpond. Picture thousands of people descending on this hamlet for an evening open-air concert given by one of the world’s foremost orchestras. People talked about it for years. They still have a popular fiddling contest every year, and a few other events, and the mill museum is open to the public.

To check out the mill online, go to terracemill.org.  And if you want to get away from it all and still do a bit of shopping (they have a gift shop, maybe a small eatery) it’s worth the drive. Take some pictures and share them here.

New Yorkers have a reputation for discourtesy. The city is crowded, traffic bumper-to-bumper. Don’t go near Central Park, and everyone is out to take advantage of the suckers from out of town. Right?

Not exactly. The several New Yorkers I talked with were all nice. The city has at least a dozen parks, and the Central Park precinct has the lowest crime rate in NYC. With that many people, close is the only way to fit all those cars in, and new Yorkers have worked out a system that works. It’s just different from how less-populated areas drive. (So ride with someone experienced driving in NYC. Do not attempt it yourself.)

You might not consider NYC a vacation spot unless you’re from Upper Coffeepot, MT (real place), in which case NYC would probably be a real change of pace. People visit NYC to do something other than relax. A good vacation is a change of pace, and NYC can certainly provide a pace different from most other places.

So consider NYC: attend a play, check out the world’s biggest planetarium, visit one of the many museums, walk Central Park, saunter through one of the many fascinating neighborhoods. Eat at a local eatery. With connections (such as, ahem, a travel club), you can find a clean motel room for maybe $100 a night (and it goes up from there). Consider staying in nearby new Jersey and taking the train into town. That’s an adventure itself. Taxis and walking are the ways for a visitor to get around in town.

It isn't always this crowded—sometimes it's worse!

Do your homework—study a map, get some brochures, talk with someone who’s from there. Plan what you want to see, and don’t be too rigid about sticking with the plan, but have one. If you can, bring a guide, but it’s not strictly necessary. People will give directions if you don’t bend their ear too much with your life history.

When you get back, come here and tell us about it.

You could go online (that’s where you are right now, you’ll notice) and do a little research and reading on the subject of travel (which you’re also doing right now). How do you separate the wheat from the chaff? What about hidden costs, problems you might not think of, secret discounts you don’t know about, pitfalls in processing—many dangers lurk in traveling beyond familiar confines. All that research—and figuring out how the processes work—is time consuming. What’s your time worth?

You might visit a travel agent. Travel agents have an unearned reputation for being expensive. After all, they have offices and all those fancy travel books and posters. All those ads are supplied by the cruise lines and travel companies, and that’s who pays the agent, too, not you, normally. If an agent has to charge you for a service, they will tell you up front. if you’re in a travel club, you can expect the agent to reduce or eliminate the commission, too, further reducing the price.  Ask yourself: What’s a travel agent’s knowledge and experience worth? They know the ropes, pitfalls, they have access to all the discounts, and they’ll save you time—after you get to know a travel agent, one phone call can take care of everything.

Of course, you have the same problem picking a travel agent as you do making travel decisions online: Who’s good? How do you tell? Here are a few ways to take the measure of a travel agent.

• Does the person have a connection to you? (This rule applies to real estate sales and funeral directors, too.) Relatives, acquaintances, friends, and friends of friends are motivated to take especially good care of you.
• Is the person well traveled? Especially if they have been to where you want to go, but all travel experience seasons a person to the rigors of travel. A travel agent who has personally been around the block a few times is a fount of wisdom and advice, and they can tell you what to expect.
• Is the person organized? Not necessarily neat (but that’s a good indicator), but can they find your file immediately? Do they know where everything is? That sort of thing. You don’t want an absent-minded professor as your travel agent. You never (okay, seldom) see a good travel agent surprised by something, and they keep their promises about when they’ll have something ready. They are ready for you when you show up after the first, introductory meeting.
• Do they answer phone calls and emails promptly? This is a must. Even if they have to tell you they need more time, they don’t make you wait for a reply.
• Do they want to do a good job for you? You can tell this by the number of choices they present you with. A lazy travel agent won’t research multiple options, won’t hunt for the best price. You see them look up one thing and give you a price. A good agent will hunt down good deals, think of options (a nearby less expensive location, for instance) that you didn’t consider, check with several wholesalers, give you a lot to choose from.

A good travel agent can make your next trip more enjoyable.

See if you get the pun:

(Note the sign on the back wall)