Japan
Honshū, Japan · Kyoto · Tokyo · Nikko
7 places pinned — click any one for its story.
The place
Japan is an archipelago off the Pacific coast of Asia and one of the world's oldest continuous cultures, fusing ancient temples and tea ceremony with bullet trains and neon megacities. We went for the cherry blossoms — a loop through Tokyo's neon and shrines, the temples of Kyoto and Nara, Osaka's street food, and the mountain shrines of Nikkō.
Places I visited
History & facts for each spot — with a “then & now” archival photo where one exists. Every one has its own page; open it for the full write-up and all the photos.
The imperial capital for a thousand years, and spared the bombing — two thousand temples and shrines, the geisha districts, and cherry blossom the length of the Philosopher's Path.
Full history & photos →Read more on Wikipedia →Archival photo: Kyoto View from Kiyomizudera 1870s — Wikimedia Commons
Rebuilt twice in one century, after the 1923 earthquake and again after 1945 — now the largest city on Earth, and somehow one of the quietest.
Full history & photos →Read more on Wikipedia →Archival photo: Edo Panorama old Tokyo color photochrom — Wikimedia Commons
Mountain shrines in the cedar forest north of Tokyo — Tokugawa Ieyasu is buried at Tōshō-gū under carving so dense it took 15,000 craftsmen to finish.
Full history & photos →Read more on Wikipedia →Archival photo: MLIT-Japan Nikko 1902 floods — Wikimedia Commons
Japan's manufacturing heart and the home of Toyota — the castle's golden dolphins were put back after the whole city burned in 1945.
Full history & photos →Read more on Wikipedia →Archival photo: Nagoya-Hirokoji in the Meiji era — Wikimedia Commons
The country's kitchen — a merchant city that has always cared more about food and comedy than ceremony, under Hideyoshi's great castle.
Full history & photos →Read more on Wikipedia →Archival photo: On the grand canal - Osaka — Wikimedia Commons
The port that opened Japan to the world in 1859 — the first foreign settlement, the first railway, and still the largest Chinatown in the country.
Full history & photos →Read more on Wikipedia →Archival photo: Gezicht op huizen, akkers en een weg aan de Mississippibaai bij Yokohama, RP-F-2013-22-21 — Wikimedia Commons
7Nara
Japan's first permanent capital, from 710 — the Great Buddha at Tōdai-ji sits inside the largest wooden building in the world, with tame deer wandering the park outside.
Full history & photos →Read more on Wikipedia →Archival photo: 1915 Todaiji — Wikimedia Commons