Shimonoseki: Fugu at Karato Market, the Boy Emperor’s Shrine & Walking Under the Sea to Kyushu
Shimonoseki sits at Honshu’s southwestern tip, where the Kanmon Strait narrows to 700 meters against Kyushu — a…
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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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Hagi: The Samurai Town That Built Modern Japan — Castle Lanes, Shoin’s School & Hagi-yaki
Hagi is a small castle town on the Japan Sea where the map itself is an artifact: the…
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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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Yokai & Detective Conan: Tottori’s Manga Pilgrimage Towns of Sakaiminato and Hokuei
Anime fans fly to Tokyo for Akihabara and to real-life film locations across the country — yet almost…
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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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Misasa Onsen: The World’s Great Radium Hot Spring & the Bamboo-Swallowed Railway of Kurayoshi
Misasa Onsen, in the hills of central Tottori, holds one of the world’s highest concentrations of radon in…
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Shimanami Kaido: Cycling Between Islands on Japan’s Most Beautiful Bridge Route
In 1999, a series of bridges opened connecting the Japanese mainland (Onomichi) with Shikoku (Imabari, Ehime) across the…
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Tomo no Ura: The Historic Port Town That Inspired Ghibli’s Ponyo
In 2005, Hayao Miyazaki rented a house in a small port town in Hiroshima Prefecture and began sketching.…
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