Cities

For four consecutive nights every August, the people of a 17,000-strong castle town in Gifu start dancing at 20:00 and […]

Matsumoto rewards anyone who books a night here over a day-tripper, and the reason is the castle at dawn. By

A neighbourhood-by-neighbourhood guide to where to stay in Kanazawa: Korinbo, Omicho Market, Higashi Chaya, the station, and Katamachi. 23 hotels reviewed across luxury, mid-range, and budget tiers, with verified Booking.com and Agoda links and the trade-offs nobody else mentions.

The wild Japanese macaques bathing in the natural onsen at Jigokudani in Yamanouchi, with the practical bits: when to go (winter, first hour), the walk in, Yudanaka and Shibu Onsen at the base, and how it slots into a Japan Alps trip.

A vintage open-sided narrow-gauge train climbs 20km up one of Japan’s deepest gorges from Unazuki Onsen to Keyakidaira. Here is what to book, when to ride, and what the railway looks like in 2026 with the post-quake bridge works.

Most foreign coverage paints Karuizawa as a summer escape from Tokyo and stops there. That’s the version every English guide

A two-day guide to Suwa: the four-shrine pilgrimage, the lake, the Onbashira festival, the bathhouses, and the sake.

Tsumago is the lower post-town on the Magome to Tsumago section of the Nakasendo, the first place in Japan to enforce a no-modern-signage preservation rule, in 1968.

Most foreign visitors think of Nagano as a station you change trains at. The Hokuriku Shinkansen pulls in, half the

The bus pulls into Magome at 11:42, and the half-dozen day trippers who get off scatter immediately into the souvenir

The complete English guide to climbing Mt Yarigatake (3,180m), the spear-shaped icon of the Northern Japan Alps. Four routes, hut bookings, summit ladders, Daikiretto traverse, season and safety.

The Komagatake Ropeway lifts you 950 metres in 7 minutes to Senjojiki Cirque at 2,612m, the foot of Mt Kiso-Komagatake in the Central Alps. A complete guide to the ropeway, the cirque-floor walk, the summit hike, the alpine flora season, autumn colour, and Japans highest hotel.

The wind hit me at the saddle just below Hotakadake-sanso, and the steel staircase, the one bolted into the rock

Both Takayama morning markets, Miyagawa and Jinya-mae, in plain numbers: when to go before the buses arrive, what to actually buy, and the cases for visiting in winter or skipping festival week.

A 4-hour Takayama food walk: where to eat Hida beef five different ways, the four Takayama ramen counters worth a queue, the six working sake breweries, mitarashi dango, and the morning-market breakfast that beats your hotel buffet.