Japan Travel Tips & Hidden Gems
For a hot minute now, Shizuoka Prefecture’s city of Hamamatsu has been on my bucket list. Though I first got to visit back in 2021 for Tokyo Creative’s #HostTownRelay, I really never had enough time to thoroughly explore all of…
Hail and well met travelers! Rather than take you on yet another adventure to some rural region, I’ll instead be looking to detail in this piece everything that you need to know to thoroughly enjoy Japanese alcohol. While I do…
Unfortunately, most overseas visitors to Japan only ever experience Nara as a day-long excursion from Osaka or Kyoto. As soon as these travelers arrive in the city, they make a beeline for attractions like Todai-ji’s Daibutsu and the venerable Kasuga…
Recently, I took part in what is locally referred to as a “monitor tour” to assess the viability of a new route that the government and railway companies are considering. The other participants and I started in Tokyo’s Taito Ward…
Note: Our Japan is now an AI-powered trip planner that helps travelers explore Donny’s decade of regional Japan reporting through the LLMs they already use. The original crafts project is no longer moving forward, as onboarding enough craftspeople and solving…
As of right now, it’s early 2022. Pretty soon, we’ll be coming up on the two year mark since Japan closed its borders to outside visitors. While the reprieve from overtourism has been a much needed breath of fresh air…
As of this writing, it’s the first week of 2022. That means that we’re quickly coming up on the two year mark since foreign tourists have been prohibited from entering Japan. Seeing as I am a writer who has the…
There I was, about an hour into my evening trek up to the top of Mt. Inari upon which Fushimi Inari Taisha resides. As I steeled my resolve for the final few torii-lined steps to the summit, I was met…
Japan always manages to surprise me. Every time that I think that I’ve FINALLY crossed an area off of my now 6,000 item-long bucket list, I somehow manage to uncover more allures in the region. For example, I was recently…
A few weeks ago, while browsing the endless list of locales that I want to see in Japan, I realized that I had somehow managed to not feature Gero Onsen. Seeing as it is considered to be one of the…
Today, I’d like to introduce you to Omiwa Shrine, a spiritual sanctuary that has long been on my bucket list. Found in the southern portions of Nara Prefecture, this ancient sepulcher is regularly considered to be Japan’s oldest shrine. The…
“What are you doing tomorrow?” I asked. To be honest, it wasn’t really a question but more of a formality. “Ummm—I have…” she retorted before I cut her off with a definitive “You can do that later. We’re going on…
Today is November 21st, 2021. This date marks the end of the 35th year that I’ve been alive on this planet. In many senses, it’s been both one of the best and also most tumultuous years of my life. Around…
Anyone who has been following me for a while now will know this already but I absolutely loathe when people harp on about Fukushima. Yes, there was a terrible triple disaster back in 2011. No, the entirety of the prefecture…
Most first-time visitors to Japan default to following what’s often referred to as the Golden Route. Running all the way from Tokyo in the east to Hiroshima in the west, the route includes most of the mainstream attractions, and while…