The Japan Alps and the North Chubu Coast
Escape from Japan's cities to this central alpine region for snow-topped mountains, coastal cliffs, open-air hot springs, and superb... (more)
Kobe's diversity is largely attributable to its harbor. The port was a major center for trade with China dating back to the Nara... (more)
You walk through 11 centuries of Japanese history when you walk through Kyoto. Of course, the city has been swept into the industrialized... (more)
Kyushu couldn't be more varied, with active yet accessible volcanoes, thermal spas, endless fields of rice and potatoes, forested... (more)
Nagoya, Ise-Shima and the Kii Peninsula
Nagoya punches well above its weight. The present-day industries of Japan's fourth-largest city are a corollary of its monozukuri... (more)
Nara is a place of synthesis, where Chinese art, religion, and architecture fused with Japanese language and Shinto traditions... (more)
Okinawa means "rope along the open sea," a fitting name for this chain of 140-plus coral-fringed, subtropical islands stretching... (more)
People in Osaka don't say konnichi-wa, they yell Mo kari makka? (Are you making any money?). Osaka became a merchant town at the... (more)
Leave modernized Japan behind: cross the sea to rushing rivers, sky-high mountains, historic villages, funky cities, local craftworks... (more)
Tokyo is a city of constant stimuli. Complex, big, and always on the move, it's a place where opposites attract, and new trends... (more)
Like disparate siblings born of a set of common genes, the two coasts of Western Honshu have distinctly different personalities... (more)