Japan travel
Practical guides on speaking, grammar, pronunciation, listening, and study planning, written for learners who want to use Japanese in real life.
Japan travel · Page 14
Oirase Gorge Guide: Stream Walk, Waterfalls and Japanese to Use
The Oirase Gorge is a clear mountain stream flowing out of Lake Towada through fourteen kilometres of beech forest, mossy boulders and waterfalls, with a walking path right beside the water. It is one of the most beautiful walks in Japan, and the bus that shadows it means you can walk as much or as little as you like.
12 min readKakunodate Guide: Samurai Houses, Weeping Cherries and Japanese to Use
Kakunodate is a small castle town in Akita whose samurai quarter still keeps its 1620 street plan, with black board fences, old gates and great weeping cherry trees. It is compact, walkable from the Shinkansen station, and full of houses and craft shops where a few polite lines of Japanese open doors.
11 min readZaō Snow Monsters Guide: Juhyō, Ropeway and Japanese to Use
Every winter, on the upper slopes of Mount Zaō above Yamagata, whole forests of fir trees disappear under thick crusts of rime ice and snow, becoming the eerie white shapes the Japanese call juhyō and visitors call snow monsters. A ropeway takes you right into them, and a sulphur hot spring town waits at the bottom.
12 min readAizu-Wakamatsu and Tsuruga Castle Guide: Red Tiles and Japanese to Use
Aizu-Wakamatsu is the samurai city of Fukushima, and Tsuruga Castle, its white keep crowned with red tiles, is the symbol of a domain that fought to the end in the Boshin War of 1868. A visit combines the castle museum, matcha in a tea house linked to the family of Sen no Rikyū, and the hill where the young Byakkotai warriors died.
12 min readteamLab Planets TOKYO Guide: Barefoot Art, Tickets and Japanese to Use
teamLab Planets TOKYO is the digital art museum in Toyosu where you take off your shoes and walk through water, light and a garden of living orchids. It runs on timed tickets that often sell out, and a handful of short Japanese questions make the locker room and the water rooms much easier.
13 min readTokyo National Museum Guide: Galleries, National Treasures and Japanese to Use
The Tokyo National Museum in Ueno is Japan's oldest museum and holds the largest collection of Japanese art anywhere. Its labels, room names and photo signs are a compact course in museum Japanese, and a few polite questions at the ticket desk and in the galleries go a long way.
13 min readToyosu Market Guide: Tuna Auction, Sushi Breakfast and Japanese to Use
Toyosu Market is the wholesale market that replaced Tsukiji's inner market in 2018, and the place where Tokyo's tuna is auctioned before dawn. Visitors watch from glass-walled walkways, then queue for sushi breakfast upstairs, and both are easier with a few words of market Japanese.
12 min readKappabashi Kitchen Town Guide: Knives, Food Samples and Japanese to Use
Kappabashi Dōgu-gai is an 800-metre street between Ueno and Asakusa lined with more than 170 shops that supply Japan's restaurants. It is where cooks buy their knives, plates and noren curtains, and where visitors find handmade knives and plastic food samples, with a few polite shop phrases making every purchase easier.
12 min readNakano Broadway Guide: Mandarake, Collectors' Shops and Japanese to Use
Nakano Broadway is a 1960s shopping and apartment block in west Tokyo whose upper floors are packed with second-hand manga, figures, retro games and idol goods. It is quieter and stranger than Akihabara, and the collectors' shops reward a visitor who can ask about condition and boxes in Japanese.
11 min readSanrio Puroland Guide: Hello Kitty's Indoor Park and Japanese to Use
Sanrio Puroland is the indoor theme park of Hello Kitty and her friends, a short walk from Tama Center Station in western Tokyo. You need both a passport ticket and a visit reservation, and inside you will read, queue and ask in a very particular kind of cheerful Japanese.
14 min readHama-rikyū Gardens Guide: Tidal Pond, Teahouse and Japanese to Use
Hama-rikyū Gardens is a shogun's seaside garden on Tokyo Bay, with a pond that still rises and falls with the tide and a teahouse where you can drink matcha surrounded by skyscrapers. It has a small entry fee, sits a short walk from Shiodome, and can be reached by boat from Asakusa.
13 min readRikugi-en Garden Guide: Poetry Landscapes, Teahouses and Japanese to Use
Rikugi-en is a stroll garden built in 1702 around a pond and hills that recreate scenes from classical Japanese poetry. It is quiet, compact and close to the Yamanote Line, and its signs, teahouse and ticket window are ideal for practising polite, simple Japanese.
12 min readPractical guides
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