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 8
Shinsekai and Tsūtenkaku Guide: Retro Osaka, Kushikatsu and Japanese
Shinsekai is Osaka's retro entertainment district, a grid of neon, old games arcades and kushikatsu shops beneath the Tsūtenkaku tower. The streets are free to wander, the tower has two observation decks and a lucky Billiken, and the kushikatsu counters are the best place in Osaka to hear the local dialect.
11 min readUmeda Sky Building Guide: Floating Garden Views and Japanese to Use
The Umeda Sky Building is two 40-storey towers joined at the top by a ring-shaped observatory, the Kūchū Teien, or Floating Garden. It is ten minutes' walk from Osaka Station, open into the evening, and one of the best places in the city to watch the sun go down and the night view, yakei, come on.
10 min readSumiyoshi Taisha Guide: Arched Bridge, Old Halls and Shrine Japanese
Sumiyoshi Taisha is one of the oldest and most important shrines in Japan, and the most loved in Osaka. It is free to enter, a short ride south of Namba, and famous for its steep vermilion arched bridge, its four National Treasure halls in an architectural style older than Buddhism in Japan, and a hunt for three lucky stones.
11 min readKobe Guide: Kitano, Harborland, Chinatown and Japanese to Use
Kobe is a port city squeezed between the mountains and the sea, half an hour from Osaka. In one day you can walk from the Western merchants' houses of Kitano down through Chinatown to the harbour at Harborland and Meriken Park, and use your Japanese at every stop.
11 min readArima Onsen Guide: Gold and Silver Springs and Japanese for the Bath
Arima Onsen is one of Japan's oldest hot-spring towns, tucked into the mountains behind Kobe. It is famous for two kinds of water: the rust-brown kinsen, gold spring, and the clear ginsen, silver spring. Its public baths make it an easy day trip from Kobe or Osaka, and a perfect place to learn the Japanese of the onsen.
12 min readHimeji Castle Guide: White Heron Castle and the Japanese to Use
Himeji Castle is the finest original castle in Japan: a white, many-roofed keep on a hill, never destroyed by war or fire, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is a short walk from Himeji Station, easy to reach from Osaka or Kobe, and a visit means climbing steep wooden stairs in your socks, with plenty of Japanese to read on the way.
11 min readKōyasan Guide: Temple Lodging, Okunoin and Japanese to Use
Kōyasan is a mountaintop town of more than a hundred temples in Wakayama, the centre of Shingon Buddhism since the ninth century. The reason to go is to sleep in one: a shukubō temple stay with a vegetarian dinner, an early morning service and a walk through the great cemetery of Okunoin.
14 min readKumano Kodō Guide: Nakahechi Trail, Hongū and Japanese to Use
The Kumano Kodō is a network of pilgrimage trails through the mountains of southern Kii, walked for over a thousand years on the way to the three grand shrines of Kumano. The Nakahechi route to Kumano Hongū Taisha is the classic walk, and the village inns and quiet forest paths make it a very Japanese-speaking journey.
13 min readNachi Falls and Kumano Nachi Taisha Guide: Tips and Japanese to Use
Nachi Falls drops 133 metres through ancient forest in southern Wakayama, the tallest single drop in Japan, and it is worshipped as a god in its own right. Above it stand Kumano Nachi Taisha, one of the three grand shrines of Kumano, and Seiganto-ji with its vermilion pagoda, one of the most famous views in the country.
13 min readShirahama Guide: White Beach, Seaside Onsen and Japanese to Use
Shirahama is Kansai's classic beach and hot spring resort, with a bay of white quartz sand and one of the three oldest hot springs in Japan. Soak in a rock pool beside the Pacific at Sakinoyu, watch the sun set behind the arch of Engetsutō, and practise your onsen Japanese in the town's public baths.
12 min readIse Jingū Guide: Gekū, Naikū, Oharai-machi and Japanese to Use
Ise Jingū in Mie is the most sacred Shinto shrine in Japan, home of the sun goddess Amaterasu, and its plain wooden halls are rebuilt every twenty years. Visit the Outer Shrine first, cross the Uji-bashi to the Inner Shrine, then eat your way along the old pilgrims' street of Oharai-machi.
13 min readHikone Castle Guide: Original Keep, Genkyūen and Japanese to Use
Hikone Castle, on the shore of Lake Biwa in Shiga, is one of only twelve castles in Japan whose keep has survived since the Edo period, and one of five designated National Treasures. It is an easy trip from Kyoto, with a beautiful daimyō garden below the walls and a very famous cat mascot.
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