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.

Perhaps it is the gurgling brooks that feed the town's roadside culverts, the colorful, vaguely Pyrenean window boxes, or the friendly, natural disposition of the locals — Gujo-Hachiman seems a place where people's spirits are pitched a notch or two higher than elsewhere.

Marguerite Yourcenar's literary biography of Yukio Mishima delves into the enigmatic author as well as the social conditions that shaped his rise and fall.

The pleasures of the common Okinawan table are indisputable, but at restaurants like Ryukyu Cuisine Mie or Sui Dunchi guests can experience kyūtei ryōri (court cuisine) created in the spirit of a cherished culinary art.