Cities
8cities across Japan's regions.
The best-fed city in Japan. Yatai on the river, tonkotsu that Tokyo copied, motsunabe in winter, and an airport five minutes from the centre.
The composed Kansai city. Mountains behind, harbour in front, the best beef in the world on the teppan, and a European-accented port history unlike Kyoto's.
The city you visit is not the city you photograph. Kyoto rewards travellers with a specific craft, a specific temple, a specific hour of the morning.
The city most travellers skip between Tokyo and Kyoto is the one that rewards specialists. Toyota, Noritake, Seki blades, and Japan's best car museum.
Japan's first capital, quieter than Kyoto. The world's oldest wooden buildings, a thousand free-roaming deer, and an early morning worth the overnight.
A city that talks back. Osaka is louder, warmer, funnier, and — for the right passion — deeper than Tokyo. This is the practitioner's guide.
A city of thirty cities. Read Tokyo as a network of specialisms — watches in Ginza, cameras in Shinjuku, cards in Akihabara — and a trip's shape appears.
Tokyo's harbour neighbour — older, quieter, more cosmopolitan. Blue-hour skyline, Japan's biggest Chinatown, and the JDM car meet the world writes about.