Regional travel guides covering all 10 of Japan’s major travel regions, from Hokkaido to Okinawa.
Shuri Castle reopens autumn 2026 after the 2019 fire, and the reconstruction is the editorial point. Plus Kokusai-dori, Makishi Public Market, Tsuboya pottery, Tamaudun, Shikinaen, Naminoue, Yui Rail and the Kerama ferries.
06:30 at Cape Maeda, the carpark still half-empty, and the cliff stairs down to the dive platform feel cold in flip-flops. The Blue Cave entrance is a black slot at the foot of the cliff, the morning sun cutting in low across the water so you can see straight through to the limestone chamber beyond. … Read more
The Yaeyama Islands deliver more of what most people came to Okinawa for than the main island ever does. Kabira Bay’s water, Iriomote’s jungle, Taketomi’s preserved Ryukyu village, Yonaguni’s hammerhead diving and underwater monument, plus Hateruma at Japan’s southernmost tip.
Yonaguni, the southernmost speck in the Okinawa archipelago, sits 509 km from Taipei and 1,925 km from Tokyo. Most Japan trips treat the prefecture as a long-weekend appendage, three days slotted in after a week of Honshu and Kyoto. That’s the mistake. Okinawa is its own country in everything but the passport: 47 inhabited islands, … Read more
Most Japan trips do Hiroshima as a same-day Shinkansen stop and miss what makes it rewarding. The case for two nights, with verified 2026 pricing for the Peace Memorial Museum, Itsukushima Shrine, the Miyajima visitor tax, Hiroden tram, and the city.
Fukuoka has roughly 100 yatai food stalls licensed to operate at night, the highest concentration of any Japanese city, and they sit a five-minute subway ride from the country’s most efficiently placed major airport. That combination, an international hub airport with the runway 3 km from the central station and a 6 pm flick of … Read more
Nagasaki rewards two nights more than Hiroshima does. Dejima, Glover Garden, the Atomic Bomb Museum, Hashima Island, Mt Inasa night view, and a bowl of champon in Chinatown.
Kyushu is bigger than Switzerland, has more active volcanoes than the rest of Japan put together, and gets less than 8% of foreign visitor traffic. Most Japan trips treat it as the Mt. Aso side-trip from Fukuoka. That’s the mistake. The whole island runs at a different cadence to Honshu. Hakata Station to Kagoshima-Chuo is … Read more
Six-thirty in the morning at the Shiroyama Tenshukaku viewpoint, mid-January, and the village below is still in shadow. Steep thatched roofs poke through fresh snow like brown teeth. The Shogawa river is the only thing moving. No tour buses yet. No drone-buzz. Just the mountains, the smell of woodsmoke from the minshuku chimneys, and a … Read more
Doing the Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route as a same-day Toyama-to-Nagano sprint is the worst way to experience it. I’ve watched the buses load and unload in choreographed convoys; I’ve seen tour groups march across Kurobe Dam with thirty minutes for the photo and the souvenir stand combined. The route fits in a day. It just … Read more
