Tag - japan-travel

 
Menu
Search
 
May 04, 2024
 

Today's print edition

Home Delivery
Subscribe for more access

JAPAN TRAVEL

Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Feb 20, 2016
Finding salt of the earth on Aguni Island
There had been a delay in our departure for Aguni Island as we waited for a typhoon to spend itself. Two hours later, we finally boarded the ferry at Naha's Tomari Port. As the wind picked up again, and more people retreated into the comfort of the passenger lounge, it was clear that maritime and land conditions in Okinawa were quite different.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Feb 13, 2016
When life deals a bad hand, be a tough cookie and visit Kyoto
"Some men dream of fortunes, others dream of cookies," goes an old saying from a fortune cookie. As for my good friend Dale, who has had a a mean case of winter malaise since he broke up with his girlfriend, he is still dreaming of finding a wife. Thus, on a January morning we set out for Kyoto and Fushimi Inari Taisha Shrine, where we hope a nearby shop that makes fortune cookies will tell Dale his odds in love. He is looking for a boost of morale with an oracle such as "Soon a visitor shall delight you;" but, then, in his current mood he may settle for "All is not yet lost."
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Feb 6, 2016
Mount Nokogiri: a breathtaking climb to enlightenment
It's a moot point for those who live there that the name "Chiba" is, in many minds, synonymous with images of hot-rod gangs, peanut farms, car dealerships, pachinko emporiums, empty lots with chain-link fences and giant electric pylons marching across rice fields — a purgatorial transition between city and countryside.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Feb 2, 2016
Japan's picture ID before World War II
Last year, the number of tourists coming into Japan outnumbered those going out for the first time in 45 years. In absolute terms, it may be the first time that tourism has properly taken off for this country, despite numerous attempts by various ministries and semi-official agencies over the years to promote Japan as a holiday destination.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Jan 30, 2016
The uplifting tones of Okinawan blues
The winter vocabulary of the majority of Japan residents doesn't include the color turquoise. Or aquamarine, azure or the somewhat intellectually pompous "cerulean." This, however, is the palette I attempt to describe with my husband as we turn our tiny rental car onto the bridge leading to Kouri Island, a tiny speck just off the northern coast of Okinawa's Motobu Peninsula.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Jan 23, 2016
Exploring Niigata's snow country
Marred though the view is with power lines and other trappings of modernity, the rainbow that appears at the far end of Tsubame-Sanjo Station seems a rather auspicious beginning. The initial impression that greeted us in front of this largely unpopular station just south of Niigata on the Joetsu Shinkansen line was a panorama of patchy snow, dirtied by tires and car exhaust, pounded down with a light layer of hail. As the clouds break and the multicolor mirage appears, however, I begin to feel slightly optimistic about our escape to snow country.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Jan 9, 2016
The heights and falls of Miyajima Island
My alarm sounded at 6:45 a.m., but I quickly silenced it and rolled over in my futon. I enjoyed a fleeting moment of quietude before the thrumming of rubber soles on pavement and accompanying excited voices crescendoed, a brief multilingual hubbub that then faded away for a minute or two before rising up again. It was starting.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Dec 29, 2015
'Visit Japan: Tourism Promotion in the 1920s and 1930s'
Jan. 9-Feb. 28
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / BACKSTREET STORIES
Dec 26, 2015
Catching the last of the season’s leaves at Shiba Daimon
When I exit the Oedo Subway Line's Daimon Station, I find myself inside an ebullient throng of Chinese tourists headed in the direction of the prominent Jodo-shu (Pure Land Sect) Buddhist Zojoji Temple. The temple's oldest structure, the elegant 1622 red-lacquered Sangedatsumon gate, is a National Important Cultural Property. Its beauty, plus the intriguing dichotomy between temple buildings and Tokyo Tower in the background attracts shutterbugs and tourists from around the world.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Dec 26, 2015
Tokyo digs: It's hosteling, but not as we know it
A line of around 30 people queueing for snacks snakes around the inside of Izakaya Bunka, a Japanese-style pub, during its packed opening night on Dec. 14. Staffers at the Asakusa Ward spot have laid out an impressive buffet-style spread for all in attendance, set in front of a stack of nihonshu (Japanese sake) bottles that the venue's general manager jokingly called "Mount Fuji" in a speech minutes before. Cameramen representing TV morning shows record all of this, while a woman standing at the back urges attendees to take a photo and post it to Instagram. "You'll get one more free drink," she says encouragingly to visitors.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Dec 19, 2015
Bask in the warmth of Iheya Island
I thought I recognized the owner of the Iheya Kanko Hotel, her face fleetingly recalled as it passed over the screen at a Shinjuku showing of the 2012 film "Karakara."
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Dec 12, 2015
The changing view of Onomichi town
Last September, the town of Onomichi in Hiroshima Prefecture became a headline-grabbing topic around the world with its Cat Street View project. In its first two weeks online, this Google-style map of the town, filmed from a cat's perspective, went viral, racking up 1.7 million views. CNN, Huffington Post and Business Insider all ran the story.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Dec 5, 2015
Oku-Nikko: Once home from home for Japan's diplomats
‘One of the principal points to which travelers will direct their steps is the Lake of Chuzenji,” writes Ernest Mason Satow (1843-1929) in “A Guide Book To Nikko,” the first English tourist guide of the area published in 1875. Satow, a British diplomat and Japanologist, arrived in Japan in 1862 at a time when the nation was facing a shift in political power and rule from the shogunate to the Emperor in the form of the Meiji Restoration.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / BACKSTREET STORIES
Nov 28, 2015
The big-ticket gifts of Kumano-dori
As November grows chilly, I warm up with an urban hike to hunt out seasonal gifts for friends and family. Tokyo is a bastion of creativity and craftsmanship, and shopping the backstreets is like touring a gallery of desires you never knew you had. I exit the Ginza Line's Gaienmae Station, and trot off toward Harajuku.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Nov 14, 2015
Nishinoshima: Oki's island of sanctuary
Were it not for the well-nourished faces of the passengers suffused with keen expressions of expectation and purpose, the supine bodies, unpacked food, luggage and blankets strewn across the hard flooring of the ferry's modern equivalent of steerage class resembled those of a migrant ship.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Nov 7, 2015
Aomori's moving castle and other architectural tales
Once every century, Hirosaki in Aomori Prefecture experiences an unusual event — the Hirosaki Moving Castle Project — when the city relocates an entire castle using manpower only.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Nov 7, 2015
Cheers to Hirosaki's latest use of its apples
If you ask someone about Aomori Prefecture, it is likely that the subject of apples would pop up in conversation sooner or later. The city of Hirosaki boasts the title of holding the highest apple crop yields in Japan, producing 160,000 tons of apples per year, and being home to more than 6,000 orchards and 3.12 million trees.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Nov 7, 2015
Sewing the seeds of new craft ideas
'I never thought I'd be taking over my father's position. At first, I wasn't even interested in the tradition of the stitching," says Sadaharu Narita, president of crafts company Hirosaki Kogin Kenkyujo. "But now that I'm in that position, I feel grateful that I can seek out and produce new values for the craft."
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Oct 31, 2015
Sensory overload in Aomori's capital city
I nearly walk by Aomori's Furukawa market on the first pass, expecting something akin to the cacophony of Tokyo's central wholesale fish market (known casually to most as Tsukiji). Sliding open the door to the squat building, however, I am assaulted with the not unwelcome scent of fresh seafood, an encouraging sign that I am in the right place. The ticket booth just inside the door is one more reassurance that this city on the tip of Japan's main island of Honshu still serves up to visitors the freshest fish market-to-table breakfast in the country.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Oct 17, 2015
Fired up about Gifu's pottery industry
Toki, a small town in Gifu Prefecture, 37 km from Nagoya, sits above a huge clay basin. Pottery has been made here since ancient times.
Biden calls ally Japan ‘xenophobic’ along with rivals China and Russia
U.S. President Joe Biden speaks in Syracuse, New York, on April 25.
Yen swings stir talk that Japan is in the FX market once again
An electronic screen in Tokyo displays the yen exchange rate against the U.S. dollar and the graph showing its recent swings, on Thursday.
Harajuku strives to reclaim its former glory — and surpass it
Laforet Harajuku, which celebrated its 45th anniversary last year, has been a witness to the district's evolution over the years.
Weak yen fattens tourist wallets in Japan
People visit the Ameya Yokocho market in Tokyo's Ueno district during the Golden Week holiday on Tuesday.
Japan's May 1 intervention may have cost ¥3.66 trillion, BOJ data suggests
An electronic screen displays a graph showing Japanese yen exchange rates surging against the dollar amid signs of intervention by authorities, in Tokyo on Thursday.
Kishida sets sights on energy and climate in South America trip
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will use a policy speech in Sao Paulo to set out his vision for ties between Japan and South America, almost 10 years after former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe advocated for stronger ties between the two in the same city.
Yellow sand allergy: A health issue made worse by climate change
A screenshot of the Meteorological Agency's satellite image of clouds and yellow sand (in pink) on Sunday.
Climate change, chalky grains and the risks for Japan’s rice farmers
A farmer plants seedlings in Satsumasendai, Kagoshima Prefecture. Japan’s self sufficiency rate for rice is nearly 100%, compared with 38% for food overall, on a calorie basis.
Japan wants you to spend more with ‘luxury tourism’
Performers play a traditional drum unique to Wajima, Ishikawa Prefecture, in the prefectural capital of Kanazawa on March 16 to mark the extension of the Hokuriku Shinkansen line to Tsuruga Station in Fukui Prefecture.
Theaster Gates’ ambitious ‘Afro-Mingei’ brings Black Chicago to Tokyo
Theaster Gates' “A Heavenly Chord” lines up church pews before seven speakers and a Hammond B3 organ, a type of electric organ prevalent in Black American churches.

Podcast

From easily navigable train stations to the helpfulness of its municipal staff, Tokyo has earned high praise for its commitment to accessibility for disabled travelers.
[Rebroadcast] Japan is doing better on accessibility than you may think

Longform

When trying to trace your lineage in Japan, the "koseki" is the most important form of document you'll encounter.
Climbing the branches of a Japanese family tree
By Alex K.T. Martin

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Cultural properties:A Fujiya Hotel insider’s view
Cultural properties:A Fujiya Hotel insider’s view

SPECIAL SUPPLEMENTS note

Read more

SUPPLEMENTS BINDER