Best Hotels Near Gifu Station | Nobunaga’s Mountain Castle & Cormorant Fires
Nobunaga's eyrie above the river, cormorant fires after dark, and lattice-front lanes — 20 minutes from Nagoya, a…
Read more →
Best Hotels Near Takefu Station | Knives, Washi & Murasaki’s Year in Echizen
The old heart of Echizen — knife forges, paper villages, the garden of the Genji's author, and Japan's…
Read more →
Best Hotels Near Takaoka Station | Bronze Town, Great Buddha & Doraemon’s Home
The bronze-casting capital — a serene Great Buddha, a national-treasure Zen temple, Doraemon trams and Fuji-over-the-sea views.
Read more →
Best Hotels Near Matsumoto Station | The Black Castle & the Alps Gateway
The crow-black national-treasure castle, Kusama's dots, storehouse streets — and every bus to Kamikochi leaves from here.
Read more →
Best Hotels Near Kofu Station | Shingen’s Capital, Wine & Crystal Gorges
Takeda Shingen's basin capital — hoto noodles, a hilltop castle, Japan's prettiest gorge and wine country on the…
Read more →
Best Hotels Near Tochigi Station | The Storehouse Town on the Uzuma River
Black-walled storehouses, poled boats on the Uzuma River, and direct trains from Asakusa — Tochigi is Kanto's quietest…
Read more →
Best Hotels Near Mito Station | Kairakuen, Plum Blossoms & Natto Country
One of Japan's three great gardens, a lordly samurai school, a swan-filled lake — and the proud capital…
Read more →
Best Hotels Near Hirosaki Station | Castle Town of the Tsugaru Clan
Japan's loveliest cherry-blossom castle town — samurai streets, a hundred apple pies, and hotels an easy walk from…
Read more →
Volunteering in Tohoku: Walking the Reconstruction Story With a Local Kataribe Guide
Introduction: Visiting With a Purpose, Not Just Passing Through Fifteen years on from the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and…
Read more →
Meoto Iwa & Married-Couple Shrines: Where Japanese Couples Go to Strengthen a Bond
Introduction: A Different Kind of Shrine Visit Where the enmusubi shrine circuit is largely about finding or repairing…
Read more →