e-stay

Travel insights from a tour conductor — today's destination: Saijo Inari, in Okayama Prefecture, western Japan. Ranked alongside Kyoto's Fushimi Inari and Aichi's Toyokawa Inari as one of Japan's "Three Great Inari" sites (a claim that v...

Travel insights from a tour conductor — today's destination: Kumamoto Castle, one of Japan's three great castles and a fortress that has outlasted samurai armies, devastating earthquakes, and the fires of civil war. More than 400 years o...

Travel information brought to you by a licensed tour conductor writer. This time, we explore one of the most dramatic battlefields of Japan's Warring States period: the site of Bitchu Takamatsu Castle in Okayama City, Okayama Prefecture....

Travel insights from a tour conductor — today's destination: Oshino Hakkai, a cluster of eight crystal-clear spring ponds in the village of Oshino, Yamanashi Prefecture. Oshino Hakkai (literally "the eight seas of Oshino") is fed entirel...

Travel insights from a tour conductor — today's destination: Yoshida Tainai Jukei (吉田胎内樹型), a UNESCO World Heritage site hidden in the lava forests of Yamanashi Prefecture. This ancient lava tree mold was once the starting point of...

Travel insights from a tour conductor — today's destination: Suizenji Jojuen Garden (水前寺成趣園, Suizenji Jōjuen), a nationally designated scenic site and historic landmark in central Kumamoto City. Fed entirely by spring water rising ...

Travel insights from a tour conductor — today's destination: Kabukiza Theatre, the beating heart of kabuki in Tokyo's glamorous Ginza district. With its sweeping curved roof and ornate facade rising above one of the world's most expensiv...

Travel insights from a tour conductor — today's destination: the Yoshida Trail, the most popular route up Mount Fuji. Japan's highest mountain has four main climbing routes, and the Yoshida Trail on the Yamanashi side is the one more tha...

Brought to you by a licensed tour conductor writer. This time, we explore Kibitsuhiko Jinja (吉備津彦神社), the Ichinomiya — the highest-ranked shrine — of the former Bizen Province, enshrined in Kita Ward, Okayama City. This ancient san...

Written by a licensed tour conductor, this travel guide takes you deep into the history and significance of Shuri Castle (Shurijo) in Naha, Okinawa. Severely damaged by fire in 2019, the castle has been undergoing painstaking reconstruct...