Easy walk
Omihachiman: Between Rituals and Canals
Omihachiman, a picturesque Japanese town on the shore of Lake Biwa, rich in history and tradition, combining old-world charm with unique experiences.
Easy walk
The Contrasts of Gion
A famous district, often over-anticipated, where Kyoto shows all of it at once: its elegance, its staging, its rituals, its crowds, and its most ordinary details.
Easy walk
Iwaya-Iwakage: The Sun Beneath the Rock
In the woods of Gero, huge blocks of stone shelter a tiny shrine and a whole stack of stories: Jōmon traces, a monster legend, a solar calendar hypothesis. At Iwaya-Iwakage, the rock is the setting, the archive and the question mark. Here, stones have long memories, and possibly the exact time.
Hidden
The Institute: The Silence of the Cages
An abandoned Japanese institute: rows of rusted cages, operating tables, rooms for animal experimentation. A place where the emptiness keeps everything rather than erasing it.
Easy walk
Namu Daishō Fudōson: Fire at the Edge of the Fields
In Tsuruoka, Yamagata Prefecture, a small Fudō altar stands at the edge of the rice fields, right before the forest takes everything back. A red torii, a wooden pavilion: behind the calm watches Namu Daishō Fudōson, deity of fire.
Off the map
The Stuck Toyota Land Cruiser
Along an abandoned road in the Boso Peninsula mountains, a rare Toyota Land Cruiser Cygnus rests in silence, a true haikyo-car slowly reclaimed by the forest.
Easy walk
Behind the Bars of Nara Prison
Red brick, star-shaped wings, tiny cells and a future luxury hotel: at Nara, confinement simply changed its clientele. A visit to the empty prison before its next life.
Some hiking
Ogijima, the Crooked Island
Ogijima, a tiny Seto Inland Sea island off Takamatsu: a steep village clinging to the slope, sovereign cats, Setouchi Triennale art and an 1895 granite lighthouse.
Easy walk
Megijima: The Demons Have Retired
Megijima, the oni island of the Seto Inland Sea: a beach, an ageing village, stone walls and a startling retro American cinema, 20 minutes by ferry from Takamatsu.
Off the map
Kyu-Sento-ji: At the Crossroads of Beliefs
Discover the mysterious ruins of Kyu-Sento-ji, an ancient mountain temple blending Buddhism and Shinto on the Kunisaki Peninsula.
Easy walk
Eiheiji: Silence in the Ranks
I came to Eiheiji expecting a sleepy mountain temple. I found the opposite: a living Sōtō Zen monastery, taut with discipline, wrapped in cedar, wood and moss.
Hidden
The Mysterious Game Boy Mailbox
Somewhere in the Japanese hills, a giant grey Game Boy sits by a country road, wedged between bamboo and moss. Press Start, and nothing happens.
