Satoyama Workcamps: Volunteering to Clear Bamboo & Restore Japan’s Forests
Introduction: The Camp-Style Volunteering Model NICE (Never-ending International workCamps Exchange) is Japan’s main international workcamp organization, part of…
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Where Japanese Couples Actually Go for Illumination & Winter Night Dates
Introduction: Illumination Season Is a Real Dating Calendar Winter illumination displays are one of the most reliably repeated…
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Akiyoshidai & Akiyoshido: Japan’s Greatest Karst Plateau, Lamp-Lit Caves & a Cobalt Spring
Akiyoshidai is Japan’s largest karst plateau — a rolling green upland studded with white limestone pinnacles, the fossilized…
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Motonosumi Shrine & the Ryugu Blowhole: Yamaguchi’s 123 Torii Above the Sea
On a headland of the Nagato coast, 123 vermilion torii gates pour a hundred meters downhill toward the…
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Tsunoshima Bridge & Beyond: Japan’s Most Beautiful Drive, a Climbable Lighthouse & Kawara Soba
If you have watched a Japanese car commercial in the last two decades, you have seen Tsunoshima Bridge:…
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Mt. Daisen: Western Japan’s Fuji — Beech Forests, Sacred Slopes, Soft-Serve & Snow Crab
Daisen rises 1,729 meters straight off the Sea of Japan coast — an old volcano whose western profile…
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Tottori Sand Dunes Done Properly: Sandboarding, the Sand Museum & the Uradome Coast
The Tottori Sand Dunes stretch sixteen kilometers along the Sea of Japan — the country’s largest accessible dune…
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Nageiredo at Mt. Mitoku: Climbing to Japan’s Most Dangerous National Treasure
Halfway up a cliff on Mt. Mitoku in central Tottori, a small wooden hall stands wedged into a…
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Kumano Kodo Iseji: The Pilgrimage Route Through Mie That Foreigners Haven’t Found Yet
When overseas hikers say “Kumano Kodo,” they mean the Nakahechi route through Wakayama — deservedly famous, increasingly busy.…
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Iga & Akame 48 Waterfalls: Real Ninja Country and the Training Gorge of Mie
Iga, in the mountains of western Mie, is one of the two birthplaces of the historical ninja (the…
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