A Japan Journey of the Tourists, by the Tourists, for the Tourists —
A journey to discover the charms of Japan is not something simply handed to you. It is a unique story waiting to be woven, where travelers themselves take center stage and experience everything through all five senses.
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Azuchi Castle Ruins: Oda Nobunaga’s Vanished Fortress on Lake Biwa
Quick answer: Azuchi Castle (安土城) was the spectacular hilltop headquarters of the warlord Oda Nobunaga, built between 1576 and 1579 overlooking Lake Biwa in what is now Shiga Prefecture — and considered the first…
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Hikone Castle: One of Japan’s Last Original Samurai Fortresses
Quick answer: Hikone Castle (彦根城) is one of only twelve Japanese castles that still has its original wooden keep, and one of only five castle keeps in the entire country designated a National Treasure.…
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Iga: The Birthplace of Japan’s Ninja
Quick answer: Iga, in mountainous western Mie Prefecture, is one of the two historical heartlands of the ninja (along with neighboring Koka) — a region of small, isolated valleys whose semi-independent local clans, the…
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Ise Grand Shrine: The Pinnacle of Japan’s 100,000 Shinto Shrines
Quick answer: Ise Jingu is considered the spiritual home of Shinto and the highest-ranking shrine among Japan’s roughly 100,000 shrines, centered on two main sites — the Naiku (Inner Shrine), dedicated to the sun…
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Inuyama Castle: Japan’s Oldest Surviving Original Tower
Quick answer: Perched on a cliff above the Kiso River, Inuyama Castle’s keep dates to the 1600s and is the oldest surviving original tenshu (castle tower) among Japan’s twelve castles that still retain their…
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Atsuta Shrine: Guardian of the Sacred Kusanagi Sword
Quick answer: Atsuta Jingu, whose founding is traditionally dated to 113 CE, ranks as Shinto’s second-most venerated shrine after Ise Grand Shrine — because it is said to enshrine the Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi, one of the…
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Nagoya Castle: The Tokugawa Gosanke Stronghold and Its Golden Shachihoko
Quick answer: Nagoya Castle was built in 1610 on the order of shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu as the seat of the Owari Tokugawa family, the senior-most of the three “Gosanke” branch houses eligible to produce…
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Miho no Matsubara: The Pine-Lined Shore of Japan’s Angel Legend
Quick answer: Miho no Matsubara is a roughly 7-kilometer stretch of pine-lined coastline on a peninsula in Shizuoka City, famous both for its classic view of Mount Fuji across Suruga Bay and for the…
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Toro Ruins: Stepping Into a 2,000-Year-Old Rice-Farming Village
Quick answer: The Toro Ruins in Shizuoka City preserve the remains of a Yayoi-period farming settlement from roughly the 1st to 3rd century CE — the first place in Japan where archaeologists ever found…
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Kunozan Toshogu: Where Tokugawa Ieyasu Was First Laid to Rest
Quick answer: Kunozan Toshogu is the shrine built on the direct orders of Tokugawa Ieyasu, on a hilltop overlooking Suruga Bay near Shizuoka City, where the founder of the Tokugawa shogunate was buried within…
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Takayama Jinya: Japan’s Last Surviving Edo-Period Government House
Quick answer: Takayama Jinya is the only Edo-period provincial government office (jinya) still standing anywhere in Japan, used continuously as a seat of local administration from 1692 — when the Tokugawa shogunate took direct…
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Shirakawa-go: Inside Japan’s Snow-Country Gassho-Zukuri Village
Quick answer: Shirakawa-go is a small mountain village in Gifu Prefecture famous for its gassho-zukuri farmhouses — steep, thatched-roof structures built to shed the region’s heavy snowfall and once used to raise silkworms in…