East Asia · Japan
"Cherry blossom timing is everything."
Ryokans in Kyoto. First-class shinkansen routing that locals actually use. The difference between a Japan trip and a Japan experience — it comes down to the details.
Honshū · Kyoto, Tokyo & Beyond
A civilisation that perfected the art of noticing. Arriving is easy. Seeing it takes longer.
Maruyama Park, Kyoto — April
KODAK PORTRA 400 · 17 ▶
Field Notes
"Arrived at dusk. Slippers at the entrance. Yukata laid out. The sound of the garden. You begin to understand why people come back."
KODAK PORTRA 400 · 18 ▶
Ryokan garden, Kyoto — November
Five moments in Japan
The ryokan arrival ritual
Slippers at the genkan. Yukata laid on the futon. A kaiseki dinner that takes two hours and involves no decisions. The best ryokans reduce existence to its essentials — and somehow that feels like luxury.
Cherry blossom timing
The bloom window is ten days, sometimes less. The Japan Meteorological Corporation publishes forecasts to the day. Get the timing right — Maruyama Park, Philosopher's Path at dusk — and it's the most beautiful thing you'll see in your life.
The Tokaido Shinkansen, properly
First class, left side, south of Mishima. Mount Fuji appears for roughly forty seconds on a clear day. It takes no effort to arrange. Most people miss it because no one told them where to sit.
Fushimi Inari at 5am
Ten thousand torii gates on the mountain above Kyoto. At midday, thousands of visitors. At dawn — mist, birdsound, and the rare sensation of having a famous place entirely to yourself.
The snow monkeys of Jigokudani
Wild macaques in a thermal pool in the mountains of Nagano. January or February, snow on the ground, steam rising. One of the few wildlife encounters on earth that is exactly what the photographs suggest — and somehow still exceeds them.