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…
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The Nishimera Village Revival
In the Ichifusa Mountain Range of Miyazaki, alongside the Hitotsuse River, seven picturesque hamlets are scattered across a 272 km² area filled with forests, streams, rice fields and vineyards. Collectively,…
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Forest Bathing in the Kaeda Valley
The giant cotton balls overhead slowly parted as Austin and I made our way from the parking lot down the gravel path, as if to reveal to us a secret.…
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Inside One of Japan’s Roadside Sex Shops (NSFW)
I could feel my throat turning to sandpaper as my shirt wrapped its arms tighter around me. Another ball of sweat dislodged from my forehead, hurtled down the slope of…
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The Cape Toi Fire Festival
“I don’t see anything.” “Just wait for the next wave. Ok, now go! Move your hand around!” A tiny spec of blue suddenly appeared under the water. “Woah! I see…
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Takanabe Sunflower Festival
At different times in my life, August has either represented the approaching autumn, or the coming spring. And as if to echo those transitions, it has marked my most exciting…
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The Garden of Love
In Shintomi Town, on the road from Takanabe to Saito, is a garden carpeted in bright, pink flowers. During spring, when the shibazakura (moss phlox) is in full bloom, the…
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Kagoshima’s Art Forest
Charcoal skies and lime lawns—that’s how I remember my first visit to the Kirishima Open-Air Museum last June. Now, eight months later and in the last months of winter, the…
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Nagasaki Lantern Festival
WELCOME TO NAGASAKI! I fist-bumped the air as we drove across the border into Kyushu’s westernmost prefecture—the only one I had yet to conquer on Japan’s third largest island. Ian, Vidy…
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Inside One of Japan’s Abandoned Hotels
In Out of the Silent Planet, C.S. Lewis wrote, “The love of knowledge is a kind of madness.” I must be kind of mad, then, because everyone who knows me…
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The World’s Biggest Bronze Statue (Probably)
Having your own little Kei car in the inaka of Japan is gold—they’re cheap, easy on petrol, and, like all cars, you can jump in on a whim and go…
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