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 16
Ashikaga Flower Park Guide: Great Wisteria, Lights and Japanese to Use
Ashikaga Flower Park, in Tochigi, is home to a great wisteria said to be around 160 years old, whose branches hold up a purple ceiling the size of hundreds of tatami mats. It has its own railway station, a fee that changes with the flowers, and a winter illumination that fills the park with millions of lights.
13 min readChichibu Guide: Shrines, Moss Phlox Hill and Japanese to Use
Chichibu is a mountain town in Saitama, about eighty minutes from Ikebukuro by limited express, ringed by forested peaks that have been places of worship for centuries. It pairs painted shrines and a hillside of pink moss phlox with one of Japan's great float festivals, and every part of the day, from buying an express ticket to asking the way to the flowers, is a chance to speak Japanese.
15 min readOkutama Guide: Gorges, Nippara Cave, Lake Okutama and Japanese to Use
Okutama is the far western corner of Tokyo, a land of steep forested valleys, clear rivers and a cave where the temperature never changes. It is still inside the Tokyo boundary, reached by a local train, and the infrequent mountain buses make it a place where asking the right question in Japanese really matters.
14 min readOze National Park Guide: Marsh Boardwalks, Skunk Cabbage and Japanese to Use
Oze is a high moorland in the mountains where Gunma, Fukushima, Niigata and Tochigi meet, crossed by kilometres of wooden boardwalk. It is free to enter, open from late spring to autumn, and one of the best places in Japan to use a little trail Japanese with the rangers, hut staff and walkers you meet.
14 min readKurobe Gorge Railway Guide: Torokko Train, 2026 Reopening and Japanese to Use
The Kurobe Gorge Railway is a narrow-gauge torokko train that runs twenty kilometres up one of Japan's deepest gorges in Toyama, in open carriages above an emerald river. After two seasons cut short by the 2024 earthquake, the whole line to Keyakidaira reopens from 1 October 2026, and buying the ticket and asking about seats is a perfect first conversation in Japanese.
14 min readNagatoro Guide: River Boats, Iwadatami Rocks and Japanese to Use
Nagatoro is a small river town in the Chichibu area where the Arakawa cuts through a gorge of layered rock, and boatmen pole wooden boats down its rapids. It is an easy day from Tokyo, and the boat ticket office, the ropeway and the shrine give you plenty of short, practical exchanges in Japanese.
13 min readTakeda Castle Ruins Guide: Sea of Clouds, Stone Walls and Japanese to Use
The Takeda Castle ruins crown a hilltop above the town of Asago in Hyōgo, a ring of bare stone walls that seems to float when autumn mist fills the valley below. It is a small entry fee, a steep short climb and an early alarm, and the whole trip is full of chances to ask about buses, weather and the view in simple Japanese.
13 min readMiyama Kayabuki no Sato Guide: Thatched Village, Buses and Japanese to Use
Miyama Kayabuki no Sato is a farming village in the hills of northern Kyoto Prefecture where nearly forty houses still wear steep roofs of thatch. People live and work in almost all of them, so a visit is a quiet walk through someone's home village, and a gentle place to ask your first polite questions in Japanese.
14 min readMount Mitake Guide: Cable Car, Wolf Shrine, Rock Garden and Japanese to Use
Mount Mitake is a sacred mountain on the western edge of Tokyo, with a cable car to a village of pilgrim lodges and an old shrine guarded by a wolf. Behind the summit, a mossy stream valley called the Rock Garden links two waterfalls, which makes it one of the easiest real mountain days from the city, and full of chances to ask the way in Japanese.
14 min readKinugawa Onsen Guide: Gorge Baths, Suspension Bridge and Japanese to Use
Kinugawa Onsen is a hot spring town strung along a rocky river gorge north of Tokyo, two hours from Asakusa by limited express. It is an easy first onsen trip: a free footbath outside the station, hotels that welcome day bathers, and a river gorge to walk between soaks, each with its own few lines of Japanese.
13 min readZenkō-ji Guide: Nagano's Great Temple, Dark Crypt and Japanese to Use
Zenkō-ji is the great temple that the city of Nagano grew up around, home to a hidden Buddha that no one has seen for centuries. Its grounds are free and open early, and a walk through the pitch-dark passage under the main hall is one of the most memorable things you can do in any Japanese temple, with a few short lines of Japanese to go with it.
13 min readSado Island Guide: Gold Mine, Tub Boats and Japanese to Use
Sado Island, off the coast of Niigata, is a large, green island of old gold mines, fishing villages and round wooden tub boats. Few overseas visitors make the crossing, which means real conversations with ferry staff, bus drivers and boat women, and a good reason to learn a few lines of Japanese first.
13 min readPractical guides
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