Places we love

Tokyo: Beyond The Obvious

Tokyo: Beyond The Obvious

We started at the University of Tokyo and kept walking — through Nezu Shrine, the old streets of Yanaka, Ueno and eventually the chaos of Ameyoko. ...

We Went Looking for Hydrangeas. We Found a Different Side of Nara.

An Instagram reel sent us deep into Nara during Japan's rainy season. What began as a search for hydrangeas became a day of fog-covered temples, un...

Shinhotaka Ropeway in Summer: Beautiful, But We Need to Go Back

Shibu Onsen: The Snowy Onsen Town We Walked Into

We skipped Nagano's famous snow monkeys and walked through the snow from Yudanaka to Shibu Onsen instead. What we found was an old hot spring town ...

Narai-juku: The Nakasendo Town That Stayed With Us

We first visited Narai-juku on a bitterly cold winter morning from Matsumoto, long before Beyond Tokyo existed. Years later, after exploring Magome...

Okayama Korakuen: Why Timing Changes a Japanese Garden

We reached Okayama Korakuen late on a hot June afternoon and discovered something we've learnt repeatedly in Japan: with gardens, when you visit ca...

Magome & Tsumago Without the Hike: Is It Still Worth Going?

The famous way to experience Magome and Tsumago is to walk the old Nakasendo between them. Travelling with a five-year-old in peak summer, we didn'...

Tomonoura: A Place We're Still Figuring Out

We travelled to Tomonoura expecting to understand why this little Seto Inland Sea port appears in so many travel journals. We found beautiful old s...

Kurama: Where We Go When Kyoto Gets Too Crowded

Less than an hour from Kyoto, Kurama feels like another world. A little train into the mountains, old Tengu legends, a quiet village, a riverside w...

Rainy approach to Omiwa Jinja, one of Japan's oldest Shinto shrines near Nara

Omiwa Jinja: The Rainy Journey That Led Us to Japan's Oldest Shrine

Most visitors end their day in Nara. We boarded another train. Four local trains, a day of rain and one sacred mountain led us to Omiwa Jinja—one o...

Onomichi: The Town Between the Hills and the Sea

Everyone talks about Miyajima when they visit Hiroshima. We left thinking about a quiet hillside town an hour away instead. This is the story of ho...

Matsumoto: Where Japan Began to Feel Like Japan

Tokyo introduced us to Japan. But it was a quiet castle town in the Japanese Alps — with our son's first shrine visit, first omikuji and our favour...

Kanazawa: The City We Had to Visit Three Times to Truly Understand

Our first visit to Kanazawa left us wondering what all the fuss was about. We had underestimated the city, arrived unprepared and barely scratched ...