About Us | The Japan Guides

Japan rewards preparation in a way that few other destinations do. Knowing which week the cherry blossoms peak along Kyoto's Philosopher's Path, understanding why you remove your shoes before stepping onto a tatami floor, or realising that Kinosaki Onsen has seven public bathhouses and an unwritten rotation etiquette: these details are the difference between a good trip and a genuinely memorable one. We built The Japan Guides to collect and organise exactly that kind of knowledge.

Who we are

We are a small editorial team with more than a dozen research trips to Japan between us. Our coverage spans all four main islands: Honshu, Hokkaido, Kyushu, and Shikoku, plus extended time in Okinawa. We have navigated Osaka's Dotonbori on a Saturday night and walked Kanazawa's Higashi Chaya district on a quiet weekday morning when it is a different place entirely. We have been to Hiroshima twice, because once was not enough to understand it properly.

Our team covers Japan across three specialist areas. Our Tokyo and Kanto food writer tracks the capital's ramen regions, izakaya neighbourhoods, and the seasonal basement food halls in the major department stores - including the standing bars around Yurakucho and the yakitori alleys tucked beneath the Shinjuku rail lines. Our Kansai cultural researcher maintains the temple and shrine coverage: the inner gate access system at Fushimi Inari, the Gion Matsuri float route and lottery, and which machiya guesthouses in Higashiyama have kept their original shoji screen layouts. Our Northern Japan and Hokkaido correspondent covers the snow country - Sapporo's Odori Park during the February Snow Festival, the ski terrain around Niseko versus Furano, and the rotemburo onsen culture at Noboribetsu and Jozankei.

Our guides are not built from press trips or sponsored stays. Every onsen fee, every shinkansen reservation, and every kaiseki meal has been paid for by us. When we say a ryokan in Hakone is worth the cost, that assessment is based on having stayed there.

What we cover and why

Japan is often reduced in travel content to Tokyo, Kyoto, and Osaka. Those three cities are on this site and they deserve serious coverage. But we also cover Fukuoka, Nagasaki, Beppu, Matsuyama, Kanazawa, Nagoya, Hiroshima, Aomori, Kagoshima, and the Hokkaido cities of Hakodate and Sapporo, among others. Regional Japan has its own distinct food cultures, seasonal events, and reasons to visit that are entirely separate from the Golden Route.

We pay close attention to seasonality because in Japan it genuinely matters. The country's calendar is shaped by hanami in March and April, the humidity of July and August, the momiji autumn foliage season, and the snow festivals of Hokkaido in February. Getting the timing right for a visit to somewhere like Yoshino, where the cherry blossom season peaks in early April and crowds are extreme, requires accurate information rather than generic advice.

Our editorial standards

Every guide on this site is built from direct experience and checked against current sources before publication. Prices are stated with approximate dates so you know when the figure was last verified. Train schedules, museum opening hours, and ferry timetables are cross-referenced with official sources. When we are uncertain about something, we say so rather than guessing.

Our research follows a three-stage process. We visit in person before writing - covering the route, neighbourhood, or attraction ourselves and recording prices, conditions, and practical logistics on the ground. We verify every time-sensitive figure against the relevant official source before publication: the Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO) for entry and visa requirements, the JR Group timetable system for shinkansen schedules and pass eligibility, individual museum websites within the Japan Museums Association network for opening hours and temporary closure schedules, and the Japan Meteorological Agency for seasonal forecasting used in our hanami and momiji timing guides. We update pages when conditions change - exchange rate movements, schedule revisions, permanent closures - rather than leaving stale figures with a caveat footnote.

Japan changes quickly in some areas: yen exchange rates shift, new attractions open, and some smaller establishments close without much notice. We update pages when conditions change or when readers flag outdated information. If you find something that needs correcting, the contact page reaches us directly.

Cultural context is not optional

Most friction that visitors experience in Japan comes from not knowing the unwritten rules: onsen protocol, the logic behind shoe removal, why you do not eat while walking in most cities, how the train reservation system works on the shinkansen network, and why some places are closed on Mondays while others close midweek. We include this context throughout our guides because it is practical information, not cultural colour.

How we fund this site

Certain links on The Japan Guides are affiliate links for tours and activities. When you book through one of these links, we may earn a small commission at no additional cost to you. This is what allows us to keep the site running without paywalls or advertising. We link only to services we have confidence in. For full details, see our affiliate disclosure.

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