If you are weighing up Takayama vs Kanazawa and feel short on time, here is the simple version. Most first time visitors to Japan are better off choosing Kanazawa. Choose Takayama instead if you want mountain scenery, Hida beef, access to Shirakawa go, or a slower rural pace. That is not a knock on Takayama. […]
08
May
May
The short answer: Yes, Hida-takayama is worth visiting if you want a genuinely preserved Edo-period merchant town with excellent food and proper alpine scenery. But if you’re on a tight first trip of seven to ten days, the travel time alone should give you pause. Getting there takes a full day out of your schedule, […]
06
May
May
The thing nobody tells you before deciding which Japan cruise ports to visit, is how fast six hours disappears. Your ship pulls in, you clear the gangway, and suddenly it is mid-afternoon. You are calculating whether you have time for one more stop before you need to be back aboard. Getting this wrong does not […]
12
Apr
Apr
Most visitors to Nagoya spend their time at Nagoya Castle, eat miso katsu, and head straight for Kyoto on the shinkansen. That is their loss. Less than an hour south of the city, the Chita Peninsula stretches down into Ise Bay and offers a completely different side of Aichi Prefecture. There’s a thousand-year-old pottery town. […]
09
Apr
Apr
The first time many Western travellers come back from Japan, they feel vaguely cheated. Not because the trip was bad, but because somewhere between the queues at Fushimi Inari and the crowds at Dotonbori, they got the nagging sense that the real country was right there, just one or two train stops past where everyone […]
05
Apr
Apr
If you’ve done Tokyo, Kyoto, and Osaka and you’re planning a return trip that actually surprises you, you already know the problem. Every itinerary online leads to the same cities. Most places earn their English write-up long after the interesting work is done, leaving copy-and-paste recommendations clustered around the same handful of stops. A while […]
25
Feb
Feb
I remember standing in front of Fushimi Inari on a Tuesday morning, thinking I’d beaten the crowds by arriving early. I hadn’t. There were already hundreds of people there, selfie sticks raised, shuffling through the torii gates in a slow-moving queue. Somewhere behind me, a tour guide was explaining the significance of the shrine to […]
19
Feb
Feb
If you are searching for underrated places in Japan, you are probably trying to avoid queues, tour buses, and the same five photos everyone else posts. That usually means going beyond Kyoto and Tokyo. It means choosing towns that are not optimised for visitors. Places where dinner finishes early, the bus runs three times a […]
27
Jan
Jan
Japan has some brilliant beaches that stay surprisingly calm, even in peak summer. The trick is choosing spots that sit outside the usual tourist loop, or beaches that locals use for a quick day out. Here are 7 quiet beaches Japan, plus simple notes on when to go and what to expect. Before You Go: […]
22
Jan
Jan
Repeated visits to Kyoto reveal certain experiences that stand out above others. They’re not the busiest attractions nor the ones everyone photographs. They’re the ones where couples genuinely connect. Most people move differently here. The temples and gardens are arranged in ways that make you linger. Walking beneath flowering trees, sitting over tea whilst the […]