Travel tips and the latest updates.
Japanese green tea changes with the seasons — the first spring flush, the cold-brew of high summer, and an aged autumn cup. Here's the year, one pour at a time.
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The free WiFi won't save you the moment you step off the train. Here's the honest guide to keeping the internet in your pocket in Japan — eSIM, pocket WiFi, or a SIM.
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Keeping cool is one thing; staying safe is another. Here's how we watch for heatstroke on a Nagoya summer day — the early signs, the official heat alert, and the small habits that keep a trip on track.
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Travelling Japan in mid-August? Obon 2026 (roughly Aug 13–16) fills the trains and closes small shops — but it's also the country at its most beautiful.
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How is Japanese green tea made? Follow a single leaf through steaming, rolling and drying — and see why matcha takes a completely different road.
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Sencha and matcha come from the very same plant, yet they're grown, made, and drunk in completely different ways. Here's the difference, in plain language.
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The humble konbini is quietly the most useful building in Japan — foreign-card ATMs, genuinely good food, luggage forwarding, and a stack of superpowers for travellers.
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Dragging a suitcase up station stairs? Locals don't. Here's how takkyubin sends your bags on ahead, usually for about ¥2,000.
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Nervous about your first Japanese onsen? Here's the etiquette that actually matters — washing first, the little towel, and honest advice if you have tattoos.
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Cards and phones cover the big cities now — but Japan's small towns, shrines and mountain buses still run on cash. Here's how much to carry.
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The history of Japanese tea is a 1,200-year story — monks, emperors, a warrior's tea room, and one farmer who gave the country the green cup it drinks today.
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One tap-and-go IC card works on nearly every train, subway, bus and konbini till in Japan — and you can now get one before you even land.
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A local's guide to the small towns and countryside of central Japan — quiet Hida villages, a castle town, a pottery lane, all an easy trip from Nagoya.
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A local's guide to the best things to do in Nagoya — the castle and the shrine, the food you came for, easy day trips, and how to get around cheaply.
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Central Japan's best summer festivals, with 2026 dates: hand-held fireworks in Toyohashi, a river of lanterns in Tsushima, and an all-night dance up in Gujo.
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A friendly Takayama travel guide — the old town of Sanmachi, morning markets, Hida beef, the festival, and how to get there from Nagoya.
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The best time to visit central Japan, season by season — what the weather in Nagoya, Gifu and Mie actually feels like each month, and what to wear.
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People keep asking us what the Tokai region actually is. The short answer — three prefectures, Aichi, Gifu and Mie, gathered around Nagoya.
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Fuji's trails open in early July, but the rules changed. The ¥4,000 permit, the reservations and the 2 p.m. gate, explained before you lace up your boots.
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July and August in Nagoya are hot and, more to the point, sticky. A handful of small local habits — and one official app — make the heat genuinely manageable.
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Two changes land on July 1 — a higher departure tax and visa fees that jump about fivefold — and tax-free shopping shifts in November. Here's what each one means for your trip.
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An hour or so from Nagoya, a hot-spring hillside in Gamagori lights up 50,000 hydrangeas until 9pm — and mid-to-late June, right now, is the time to go.
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That passport-at-the-register discount changes on 1 November 2026. From then you pay full price and claim the tax back when you fly out — here's how to be ready.
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Most visitors never hear about ukai — fishing with birds, by firelight, on the Nagara River. It runs nightly all summer, and Gifu is closer than you think.
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Everyone warns you about Japan's June rain. After years of running tours through it, here's why we quietly love it — and how to travel it beautifully.
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Arranging medical trips taught me something simple and a little life-changing about how Japan looks after its people. Let me share it.
Read more →I'm not usually someone who gets moved by statistics. A few of these genuinely stopped me. Let me walk you through them.
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Easier to read, with prices and access right where you need them — now in English and Vietnamese too.
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