2026年– date –

Imagine standing before a mausoleum so exquisitely ornate — carved dragons curling around every pillar, gold leaf glinting through the ancient cedar forest — that you have to remind yourself you’re looking at a tomb. Zuihoden is th...

Imagine stepping into a painting: a narrow valley carved by a rushing river, flanked on both sides by four- and five-story wooden inns draped in soft lamplight, snowflakes drifting past gas-lit lanterns, the faint smell of sulfur driftin...

Picture this: you’re behind the wheel of a rental car, windows down, the Pacific Ocean stretching endlessly to your right. Dramatic 200-meter (650-foot) sea cliffs plunge into jade-green waters below, fishing boats dot hidden coves...

Imagine standing before the reconstructed wooden pillars of a 5,500-year-old settlement, realizing you’re looking at something older than the Egyptian pyramids — and that you’re the only foreign tourist here. That’s the...

Picture a coastline where ancient black lava cliffs tumble into the Pacific, where natural lawn meadows roll right up to the cliff edge, and where a sacred island shrine is so densely packed with nesting seabirds that visitors literally ...

Imagine hundreds of dancers moving through lantern-lit streets, their faces hidden beneath black hoods or woven bamboo hats, long silk sleeves trailing through the warm August night — this is the Nishimonai Bon Odori, one of Japan’...

Imagine hundreds of dancers moving through lantern-lit streets, their faces hidden beneath black hoods or woven bamboo hats, long silk sleeves trailing through the warm August night — this is the Nishimonai Bon Odori, one of Japan’...

In western Aomori, every August, something remarkable happens: three giant figures — as tall as a seven-story building — slowly emerge from the doors of a museum and begin moving through the streets. These are the Tachineputa floats of G...

Just steps away from Matsushima Bay’s famous pine-dotted islands lies one of Japan’s most magnificent Zen temples — a place so awe-inspiring that even the great haiku poet Matsuo Basho fell silent upon arriving. Zuiganji Temp...

There is a railway in Akita Prefecture that almost no foreign tourist has ever heard of, and that is precisely what makes it extraordinary. The Akita Nairiku Jukan Railway (秋田内陸縦貫鉄道) winds 94 kilometers (58 miles) through the ver...