• A Quick Guide to Yufuin Onsen Town

    This article is available offline on GPSmyCity. Download the app for GPS-assisted travel directions to all the attractions featured. In Japan, you’d be hard-pressed to find a city or town…

  • Hiking the Yufudake Trail

    The tears came hard and fast. I had just reached the sign marking the last 800 meters of the Yufudake trail, but instead of feeling elated that I was almost…

  • Onta Pottery Village

    In the final months of my last year at university, I took a trip to Hogsback, a small village in the Eastern Cape, to meet a potter named Anton. He…

  • Oita’s Old Merchant Town

    “Simone! There’s even more back here! Come look,” Conor yelled from the other room. We were in the Mamedamachi district (豆田町商店街) of Hita City, browsing through what I thought was…

  • Road Trippin’ Solo, Part 4: The Underwater Cave

    Nature in Japan seems to manifest itself completely at odds with the order and structure of its society; vegetation swallows everything that stands still for too long, bugs and insects grow into…

  • Road Trippin’ Solo, Part 1: Kuju Flower Park

    Two years ago, I would have never considered disappearing into the countryside for four days by myself. Growing up in a city where danger is perceived to be lurking around every…