If you want to experience a different side of Japan than the one most tourists find, you should look outside the big cities. In lesser-known rural areas and remote islands, you can try life as a sake brewer for a few days, go canoeing and snorkeling in beautiful UNESCO areas, take part in daily life in a local village and go on a guided bike tour of a popular onsen town.

One of Japan’s best places to stay at when travelling is an onsen. Saunas as well are a happy addition to many onsen, giving people a full range of relaxation opportunities. We recently spoke with Eetu-Antti Hartikainen, a PhD student at Hokkaido University in Sapporo, about saunas and sauna culture, so let’s get into it and learn a bit about ‘sa-katsu’!

JR East and JR West have announced an extension of the Hokuriku Shinkansen line from Kanazawa in Ishikawa Prefecture to Tsuruga in Fukui Prefecture, which officially opened on March 16, 2024. Here are a few fun things that you can do along the way!

Kaitlyn Ugoretz, an instructor and associate editor at the Nanzan Institute for Religion and Culture in Nagoya, takes us through a journey of the many different colours of torii gates you can find in Japan!

Japan has always been a popular destination, so it’s not really surprising that the number of people going there is already surpassing pre-Covid levels. The vast majority of tourists travel round by train – making use of the amazing rail network with the star attraction, of course, being the bullet train (shinkansen).