If Japanese landscape gardeners looked toward mountains and river valleys for inspiration in creating the rock arrangements that form the power grids of their gardens, infusing natural elements with Taoist and Buddhist principles, it is likely that Okinawans cast their eyes over the seas ...

Journalist Pete Hamill's anthology of 13 Tokyo-based stories bring a cast of multicultural characters, united by their lives in the metropolis, to life.

Engagingly written and well-researched, Victoria Abbott Riccardi's culinary memoir, "Untangling My Chopsticks," traces her year immersed in Kyoto's kaiseki culture.

Winter is a fine time to visit Yunishigawa. The months from December to the first week of March sees the enchanting Kamakura Festival, when hundreds of kamakura (snow huts) are constructed along the Yunishigawa river, in forest recesses and in the precincts of temples ...

Autobiographies tend to reveal only as much as the subject chooses to share. Here, Junichiro Tanizaki is surprisingly forthright in detailing his inner life, especially those pertaining to the germination of his sexuality.

Marion Poschmann's "The Pine Islands" follows two haunted travelers on their journey across Japan, guided by the poems of Matsuo Basho.

Saiichi Maruya's "A Mature Woman" takes on misogyny, power harassment and corruption with a witty, satirical touch.

At Minshuku Miyagi, no two family-style meals are ever the same, but self-taught chef Masashi Miyagi is guaranteed to whip up innovative Okinawan dishes for his guests.

The oldest surviving quarter of Toba, Mie Prefecture, pins its hopes on crafts and small businesses to stay afloat.

Writers in Kyoto is an English-language literary salon formed by writer John Dougill in 2015 to create a "sense of community" for writers connected to Japan's imperial capital.