Japan Travel Tips & Hidden Gems
Welcome back to yet another super in-depth travel guide where I detail all you need to know to get off the beaten path. It certainly has been a while since I’ve published one of these, eh? Ever since I broke…
“Wintry wind — passing a man with a swollen face.” — Matsuo Basho If you haven’t already had a chance to experience them first hand, know that Japanese winters can be pretty harsh. While temperatures never reach exactly what I would call frigid over…
If you’re anything like me and my fellow Tokyoites, then you absolutely loathe the idea of having to fly in and out of Narita International Airport. After all, the bloody terminals are located over an hour outside of the city’s…
If you’re not humble, life will visit humbleness upon you. — Mike Tyson Looking back over things, it was entirely my fault. Just a few days before, I had been violently thrown from my bicycle in Okayama Prefecture. The result was…
“Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of others; instead, seek what they sought.” — Matsuo Basho 2018 has been a very, very strange year for me. In many regards, it was by far the best year of my life. What…
It really grinds my gears when people associate “old Japan” only with the likes of Kyoto and Nara. Yes, I get that the area of the country has developed a brand for itself as the bastion of all things traditional.…
Honestly, I shouldn’t have been laughing but I couldn’t help myself. I really do try to sympathize with the plight of visitors traveling abroad in foreign lands. This one, however, was just too comical. You see, right in front of…
Welcome back to yet another one of my area guides where I go irrationally deep on a single location. Today we’ll be taking an exhaustive look at Okayama Prefecture, the so-called “land of sunshine.” This peculiar moniker comes from the…
Ever since I first published my wildly popular titled The Haunts of Yotsuya, I’ve been itching to do another piece on Japan’s supernatural apparitions. My own interests aside, there’s just something about ghost stories that adds an additional layer to…
Well, everyone, I’m unfortunately grounded for the time being and not able to travel. As anyone who follows me on social media already knows, I was recently thrown from my bicycle while cycling in Okayama Prefecture and broke both my…
Allow me to begin this one by describing an all too common scenario. Imagine the following. You’re speeding along on the bullet train from Tokyo or Kyoto as you make your way to Hiroshima. As the stations roll by, your…
Welcome back to the second installment in my in-depth series on Yamanashi Prefecture’s hidden destinations. As explained in part one, Yamanashi is a location that holds quite an unique predicament when it comes to attracting foreign visitors. You see, the…
It’s no real secret that my favorite time of year in Japan is autumn. After all, I have been hammering this point almost daily now on social media. While spring may have its cherry blossoms and summer its festivals, these…
“Maybe if more people actually visited the Sea of Trees, as opposed to just imagining it based on multimedia, it would help dispel some of the spooky notions that are floating around out there.“ — Beyond Death & Pain: The Truth…
Ah, the mighty Japan Rail Pass… When I originally penned this piece back in 2018, I didn’t think that I would ever need to do as significant an update as I have now completed. Alas, nothing lasts forever, my dear…