Japan Travel Tips & Hidden Gems
One thousand twenty-two… One thousand twenty-three… How long have I been climbing? I thought to myself as I hauled my aching leg up to the next stone step. It was an early May morning, already warm enough to promise a…
Back in my university years, I had a part-time gig to help pay the bills that required me to go to a local community center at the crack of dawn to secure a reservation for fitness classes. Basically, all I…
As late March turns into early April, the main cherry blossom season in Tokyo comes to a close as the final few petals fall from the trees and flutter to the ground. Alas, while this time of the year marks…
One of the best things about hunting for off the beaten path spots in Japan for this blog is that I’m always stumbling across new and amazing locations. Honestly, it’s quite surprising how much of the country there is that…
Today, we’re going to be taking a look at Naruto. Not to be confused with the beloved shinobi and Jinchuriki of the Nine Tailed Fox Kurama with the same name, this city in Tokushima Prefecture is famous for raging whirlpools…
Sitting around the sunken irori hearth on the skin of a bear while listening to Oriyama-san talk about the culture of northern Akita’s Matagi hunters, I thought to myself, “This is exactly the side of Japan that I signed up…
You know… Even all these years later, Fukushima continues to get a bad rap due to the earthquake and subsequent tsunami that happened in 2011. Honestly, it breaks my heart whenever someone inevitably shows up in the comment section of…
For the longest time, I thought I was cursed when it came to Okayama and actively avoided going there. You see, in the late 2010s, every single time I braved an outing to Okayama, it seemed that the prefecture wanted…
Welcome back to yet another article on Kyushu’s Kagoshima Prefecture. I promise that this will be the last one for a little while. It’s just that I have so much to share from my adventures there in late 2025. This…
These days, travelers are increasingly venturing off Japan’s so-called “Golden Route,” which stretches from Tokyo down to Kyoto and Osaka, ultimately ending in Hiroshima. Now on their third, fourth, or tenth visit to Japan, these travelers are clamoring for something…
Welcome back to yet another installment of Backyard Tourism. Like every other article in the series, we’ll be taking a look at a true hidden gem this time. As always, the goal is to showcase how just about anywhere in…
Recently, I took a trip to northern Japan to shoot promotional content for the JR East Pass (Tohoku Area). The last time I did this, I tried to jump from region to region as I climbed my way north to…
Oftentimes, I say on social media that I need many lifetimes just for Japan. In fact, I doubt that even 10,000 years would be enough to see it all. And even then, by the time a hundred centuries pass, there…
Last week, when writing about Takasaki City in Gunma Prefecture, I referenced Ikaho Onsen a number of times. After hitting publish, though, I realized that I never actually wrote an article on this traditional onsen town. While I have prior…
Nowadays, thanks to the likes of Kusatsu Onsen and other Instagrammable hot springs, Gunma Prefecture shows up on the digital radar of overseas visitors far more often than it used to in years gone by. Still, many people who come…