Japan
Browse 38 travel guides across 9 destinations
Kanazawa, Japan
Kagoshima
Hakone, Japan
Other Guides
Takayama, Japan: Cedar Houses, Morning Markets, and Sake at 10 AM
A culture and history guide to Takayama, Japan's best-preserved Edo-era town: sake breweries, morning markets, the Jinya, Higashiyama temples, Hida beef, and what to skip.
Culture & HistoryNikko: The Shogun's Afterlife, a 1,200-Year-Old Shrine, and Japan's Most Refined Tofu Skin
A culture and food guide to Nikko beyond the day-trip rush: gilded Tokugawa shrines, a 1,200-year-old mountain shrine, the Kanaya Hotel's Meiji hospitality revolution, and where to eat yuba and soba in the old town.
Food & DrinkSapporo Food Guide: Miso Ramen, Soup Curry, and Genghis Khan in Japan's Most Food-Obsessed Northern City
A comprehensive food and drink guide to Sapporo, Japan—from the birthplace of miso ramen and soup curry to Genghis Khan lamb grills, Nijo Market seafood, Hokkaido dairy desserts, and the izakaya circuit. With specific addresses, prices, opening hours, and what to skip.
Culture & HistoryOkayama: Japan's 'Sunshine Kingdom' — Where Peach Orchards, a Black Samurai Castle, and the Real Momotaro Legend Hide in Plain Sight
A comprehensive cultural and food guide to Okayama, Japan — featuring Korakuen Garden, the black-plated Okayama Castle, Kurashiki's canal district, Kibi Plain cycling, barazushi, white peaches, and practical logistics with specific addresses and prices.
Food & DrinkNara, Japan: Where Monks Invented Sake and Pickles Still Taste Like Rebellion
Nara's cuisine carries 1,300 years of history — from Buddhist temple vegetarian traditions to the birthplace of Japanese sake. This guide covers where to eat persimmon leaf sushi, drink sake in a 140-year-old brewery, and find the noodles most visitors never hear about.
Culture & HistoryKamakura: Where the Shoguns Built a City Inside a Bowl of Hills and Let the Sea In
An architectural photographer's deep guide to Kamakura, Japan's medieval capital — from the Great Buddha and Five Great Zen Temples to bamboo groves, coastal trams, and the spatial logic of a city designed by hills and sea. With specific addresses, prices, hours, and what to skip.
Food & DrinkNagasaki: The City Where 250 Years of Isolation Cooked Up Japan's Strangest Food
A food and drink guide to Nagasaki's unique cuisine — from the 1899 birthplace of champon to 1642 geisha houses serving Portuguese-Chinese-Dutch fusion banquets, with specific addresses, prices, and the best after-dark eating.
Food & DrinkHiroshima Food & Drink: From Okonomimura to Saijo Sake Street
A comprehensive food and drink guide to Hiroshima, from okonomiyaki at Okonomimura to sake tasting in Saijo, with specific addresses, prices, and hours.
Culture & HistoryOkinawa, Japan: The Island Kingdom That Traded With Southeast Asia While Japan Was Closed
A comprehensive cultural guide to Okinawa covering Ryukyu Kingdom history, Shuri Castle, sacred sites, WWII legacy, local food, crafts, and island-hopping.
Culture & HistorySendai, Japan: Where the One-Eyed Dragon Built a City in the Trees
A travel guide to Japan's most underrated cultural capital — samurai mausoleums, Momoyama architecture, beef tongue inventors, and the quiet dignity of a city that refuses to be forgotten.
Culture & HistoryNagoya Doesn't Need Your Attention: A Guide to Japan's Most Stubbornly Authentic City
A comprehensive culture and history guide to Nagoya, Japan — from samurai palaces and sacred shrines to the birthplace of Toyota, distinctive Nagoya meshi cuisine, and the most stubbornly authentic city in Japan. With specific addresses, prices, and what to skip.
Food & DrinkKobe, Japan: Where Port City Grit Meets Culinary Grace — A Field Guide to Beef Worth the Hype, Sake Breweries Older Than Your Country, and the Chinatown That Refuses to Assimilate
An Irish food writer's deep dive into Kobe's layered culinary culture — from certified Kobe beef and 400-year-old sake breweries to the egg-heavy takoyaki predecessor that Osaka forgot.
Solo TravelKyoto Solo: The City's Quiet Corners, Counter Seats, and the Art of Being Alone in Japan's Ancient Capital
A practical, in-depth guide to navigating Kyoto as a solo traveler — where to stay, how to eat alone, which temples reward silence, neighborhood breakdowns, specific addresses and prices, day trips, and what the guidebooks get wrong about safety and transport.
Culture & HistoryNara: Where Sacred Deer Bow Before a 15-Meter Buddha in Japan's Forgotten First Capital
A comprehensive culture and history guide to Nara, Japan's first permanent capital. Covers Todai-ji, Kasuga Taisha, Naramachi, Horyu-ji, Yoshino cherry blossoms, specific addresses, prices, and what to skip.
Culture & HistoryTokyo: Where 400-Year-Old Temples Share Blocks with Demolition Sites
A field guide to Tokyo's architectural layers — from reconstructed temples and surviving wooden neighborhoods to metabolist ruins and the neighborhoods disappearing under redevelopment. With specific addresses, prices, and what to skip.
Culture & HistoryNagasaki: The City Where Japan's Door Stayed Half-Open for 200 Years
From Dejima's Dutch traders to the atomic bombing and rebirth — a guide to Japan's most internationally shaped city, with specific addresses, prices, and opening hours.
Culture & HistoryOsaka's Merchant Soul: Castles, Street Food, and the Gritty Heart of Japan's Second City
Japan's third-largest city was built by merchants, not emperors. Explore a castle with three centuries of reconstructions, ancient shrines that predate Buddhist influence, food markets that have operated since the Edo period, and a street culture that still measures success in full stomachs.
Food & DrinkOkinawa: Where Spam Meets Imperial Pork, Bitter Melon Divides Families, and Every Meal Tells a War Story
A comprehensive food guide to Okinawa's rebellious island cuisine—Agu pork, goya champuru, Okinawa soba, awamori distilleries, and the American military influence that created taco rice. With specific addresses, prices, hours, and what to skip.
Food & DrinkFukuoka: The City That Simmers Pork Bones for 15 Hours, Serves Ramen at Dawn, and Refuses to Let Street Food Die
A food lover's guide to Fukuoka's yatai stalls, tonkotsu ramen origin, mentaiko obsession, motsunabe hot pots, and the city that protected street food culture while the rest of Japan let it vanish.
Food & DrinkKyoto's Kitchen: What to Eat in the City That Invented Japanese Cuisine
Beyond the temples and gardens lies one of the world's great culinary capitals—kaiseki refinement, tofu mastery, sake brewing since 1637, and the spiritual home of matcha.
Culture & HistoryYokohama: Where Japan First Opened to the World — A Culture & History Guide
A comprehensive cultural guide to Yokohama, from the 1859 foreign settlement and Western-style bluff houses to Japan's largest Chinatown and modern Minato Mirai. With specific addresses, prices, and what to skip.
Food & DrinkNagoya: Where 600-Year-Old Miso Fermentation, Four-Stage Eel Rituals, and ¥480 Morning Coffee Shops Create Japan's Most Underrated Food City
A deep-dive food guide to Nagoya, Japan's overlooked culinary capital. Discover Hatcho miso katsu at Yabaton, the four-stage hitsumabushi ritual at Atsuta Horaiken, Nagoya cochin chicken, morning coffee culture, working-class markets, and izakaya nightlife—with specific addresses, prices, and hours.
Culture & HistoryKanazawa, Japan: The Edo-Period City That Time Forgot (And Kyoto Wishes It Could Be)
A comprehensive cultural guide to Kanazawa, Japan's most intact Edo-period city, with samurai districts, geisha quarters, crafts, and exceptional food — including specific addresses, prices, and what to skip.
Culture & HistoryMiso, Snow, and Memory: Sapporo's Story of Beer, Ramen, and a City Built from Scratch
Sapporo was built from a blueprint in 1869, not carved from centuries of history. What emerged was Japan's most navigable city, a frontier experiment that became the birthplace of miso ramen, imperial beer, and one of the country's most honest reckonings with indigenous history.
Food & DrinkOsaka's Kitchen: Where Kuidaore Was Born and the Takoyaki Never Stops
A deep-dive food guide to Osaka, Japan's kitchen — from takoyaki and okonomiyaki to udon, fugu, wagashi, kissaten breakfasts, late-night ramen, Michelin-starred kushikatsu, and hidden izakayas. Written by Sophie Brennan with specific addresses, prices, and the stories behind every bite.
Activity GuidesOsaka Unleashed: From Samurai Castle Dawn to Midnight Neon and the Wild In-Between
Discover the best things to do in Osaka - from Osaka Castle and Universal Studios Japan to Dotonbori, Grand Green Osaka, teamLab Botanical Garden, and hidden local neighborhoods most tourists miss.
Food & DrinkKyoto Food Guide: From Nanzenji's Temple Tofu to Late-Night Ramen in Pontocho
Kyoto's food culture decoded: temple tofu at Nanzenji, counter kaiseki in Gion, soba from a shop that opened in 1465, depachika food halls, Pontocho alley dining, and the seasonal philosophy behind every plate. From ¥900 ramen to ¥25,000 kaiseki.
Activity GuidesKyoto: Temples, Moss, and Midnight Lanterns — A Storyteller's Guide to the Real City
A storyteller's guide to Kyoto's temples, sake district, and hidden neighborhoods — with verified 2026 prices, hours, and the stories most tourists never hear.
Hiroshima, Japan
Tokyo
Tokyo After Dark: Eating in the City Where a ¥900 Bowl of Noodles Will Ruin You Forever
A food critic's no-bullshit guide to Tokyo's ramen counters, izakaya alleys, basement coffee shops, and the eating rituals that make this city unlike any other.
Activity GuidesTokyo Unfiltered: From Senso-ji’s Dawn Bell to Sumo at Ryogoku and Karaoke Towers at Midnight
An activity guide to Tokyo—catch Senso-ji’s monks at dawn, watch grand sumo at Ryogoku Kokugikan, soak in Spa LaQua’s open-air onsen, eat your way through Tsukiji Outer Market, and sing till 5 AM in a Shibuya karaoke tower, with 2026 prices, addresses, and what to skip.
Food & DrinkTokyo Eating: The Neighborhoods, Counter Seats, and 2 AM Bowls That Define Japan's Capital
A food writer's guide to eating Tokyo like you belong—ramen counters, izakaya alleys, sushi at dawn, and the neighborhoods where locals actually eat.