naoyasaijo– Author –

Picture this: waist-deep, bone-dry powder snow that squeaks under your boots, 21 lifts and gondolas spread across a mountain nearly the size of a small city, and barely another foreign face in sight. That’s Appi Kogen — one o...

Picture a woman in a white cotton diving suit, no oxygen tank, no wetsuit tech, plunging into the cold Pacific off Japan’s northeastern coast to hand-harvest abalone and sea urchin from the rocks below — a skill passed down through...

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...