Explore Japan Through the Eyes of Travelers

All Japan Regions (331)

Kagoshima Prefecture (4)

Nagano prefecture (1)

Wakayama Prefecture (2)

A view by the Miyagawa River in Hida Takayama, Japan (c) Sze-Leng Tan

Miyagawa, Takayama: A Morning By the Crystal River

She was impressed, amazed and fully in the flow of life. A novice traveller to Japan described h...

Japan Sze-Leng Tan

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Ten Study Abroad Programs in Japan

A number of variables shape a student's study abroad experience in Japan: whether you live with a...

Japan Dawn Stanton

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Japan's Cat Island

Tashiro, is a small (3.14-square-kilometre, 7.9-square-mile) island known as Cat Island, 20 kilom...

Japan AFP/Miwa Suzuki

Fans release balloons at a baseball game in Osaka.

Take Me Out To The Ball Game- Osaka Style

Japan is a country that is passionate about baseball.

Japan MaryLou Driedger

The Tokyo district of Rygoku is home of one of Japan's most famous Sumo wrestling facilities. Sumo wrestlers train very strenuously for their six annual basho tournaments, and must consume up to 10,000 calories a day to achieve and maintain their enormous stature. When they're not in training however, they can be seen strolling the city sidewalks wearing blue and white cotton robes called yukata.

A story told with photos.

Japan Robert George

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Minami-Senju, a friend pointed out to me, is Tokyo's ghetto. I was flabbergasted when he told me ...

Japan Stefan Chiarantano

Film Review: The Last Life in the Universe

Is it possible for a film to be, at once, existential, fatalistic and nihilistic without being a ...

Japan Celeste Heiter

Torii gate, on Aoshima Island.Aoshima, Kyushu, Japan

Cruising Kyushu

It's Japan's southernmost main island, the "Hawaii" of the country. Cruising Kyushu takes you way...

Japan Graham Simmons

Perhaps the most anticipated and beloved celebration in Japan is the season known as Ohanami. The word translates as flower watching, and depending upon the weather in mid-spring, sometime during the month of April, the entire nation of Japan bursts into bloom with the ubiquitous sakura, the flowering cherry tree. The sakura create a frosty-pink canopy over city parks and country hillsides alike, and the people of Japan emerge after the long winter to rejoice in this ephemeral season. Beneath a canopy of blossoms, street vendors offer an array of traditional foods, including yakitori, skewers of savory grilled chicken.

The Taste of Japan

A story told with photos.

Japan Robert George

Dead Man's Shoes

It all started because well, I'm what some people would call thrifty and what most would call che...

Japan Frank Lev

Me inside the main glasshouse of Koishikawa Botanical Gardens

Koishikawa Botanical Gardens

In the heart of busy Tokyo, there, Koishikawa Botanical Garden is the perfect place to get away f...

Japan victor wong

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Getting Settled in a Brave New World

In the best of all possible worlds, when you arrive in Japan, you'll be met at the airport by sev...

Japan Celeste Heiter

Edward Espe Brown in How to Cook Your Life

Film Review: How to Cook Your Life

With food as both context and metaphor, documentary filmmaker Doris Dorrie focuses her lens on Ze...

Japan / China Celeste Heiter

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Japan's Myanmar-born designer Zarny Shibuya

Japan accepts few immigrants and struggles to integrate long-term foreign residents. But Myanmar-...

Japan / Myanmar AFP/Kimiko de Freytas-Tamura

After the bombing of Hiroshima a father buried his son with his tricycle.

The Peace Memorial Museum in Hiroshima is an almost eerily quiet place.

Japan MaryLou Driedger

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Japanese people are very modest. This modesty affects the way they use language. Even if someone ...

Japan Frank Lev

Sunomono - Vinegar Salads

A favorite way to begin a Japanese meal is with a light vinegared salad made with cucumbers and o...

Japan Celeste Heiter

The water is coldGive me strength to endure itAs I purge myselfOn the second Sunday of the New Year, wearing nothing more than loincloths called shitaobi and headbands called hachimaki, many Japanese men brave the icy waters of Teppozu Inari Jinja, a Shinto shrine in central Tokyo, to practice a yearly purification ritual.

Japanese Expressions II

A story told with photos.

Japan Robert George<br>Haiku by Celeste Heiter

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The Shadow of Perfection: Kawabata (Part I)

Before Wittgenstein arrived to spoil the party, artists used to populate shabby cafes asking ques...

Japan Kenneth Champeon

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The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo

Located within Ueno Park, it displays Matsukata's French collection that survived the second worl...

Japan Stefan Chiarantano

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ThingsAsian is an Asia travel website with stories contributed by a worldwide community. Although we cover a wide range of topics, our emphasis is on art, culture, history and travel. Our writers, photographers and contributors are real people who tell you the stories of their personal travels and experiences. Some of the countries we currently cover are Burma, Cambodia, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, Macau, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

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