In the heart of the Japanese Alps, along the Kiso valley, ancient Japan continues to live in the wooden buildings of post town along the ancient Nakasendo trail, one of the 5 great roads of the Edo Period, still walkable today for some sections in Kiso Valley. A journey into…
If you are looking for an unusual daytrip from Tokyo and love to walk in nature, Nokogiriyama in Chiba prefecture is the place for you. Mount Nokogiri is actually just over 300 meters and it’s known for its shape that if you look at it from a distance, the mountain…
In the mountains of Gunma, at 1200 meters above sea level, there is Kusatsu Onsen, a famous onsen town which together with Gero and Arima is one of the three hottest springs of Japan. Kusatsu Onsen is a very popular destination among the Japanese, but still little known by tourists,…
To travel around Japan, other than the fast, clean but expensive Japanese Shinkansen, there is a slower and also a little uncomfortable but much cheaper alternative: night buses. The Japanese night bus network is even more widespread than the high-speed train network, but it requires a bit of adaptability. The…
Ishikagi is the largest of the Yaeyama Islands in the southern part of Okinawa prefecture. Even it belongs to Japan, is definitely closer to the coasts of Taiwan than to those of “continental” Japan (meant as the 4 main islands) and the culture is also very different. I only spent…
Today on the blog I host Veronica, author of the Italian blog Fuji dal Giappone, who in recent days took part in a tour to Obama, in the Japanese prefecture of Fukui, to discover the Saiba Kaido, the ancient way of mackerel! A trip to the saba kaido will take…
Among the most suggested daytrip from Tokyo (Hakone, Nikko and Kamakura), Kamakura is the option that I usually recommend, both because is the easier to visit from Tokyo, but also because it is full of interesting things to see and with a very relaxed and many different from other places…
If the tales of feudal Japan, of clashes between samurai and stories of honor, fascinate you, you will surely know the story of the 47 Ronin. Fictionalized and revisited in a fantasy key, this story was made famous in the Western Countries thanks to the homonymous film (not really connected…
Everyone know Japan for its production of Sake, alcoolic beverage made from rice, but we hardly think at Japan as a wine producer. Actually the Yamanashi prefecture, about a couple of hours from Tokyo, is an area where not only excellent native wine is produced, Koshu, but also different types…
We enjoyed the amazing Tohoku nature few years ago, during our 4-day tour in Tohoku, but at that time we didn’t have enough time to visit Zao, famous for its ski slopes and the incredible Zao Monster. So, when I had the opportunity to explore this area thanks to Guidable…