Unseen Japan

5 stories

Unseen JapanTokyoWhat Happens If You Get Sick While Traveling in Japan? Sick in Japan? Don't panic. Learn where tourists can get care, what it costs, and why travel insurance matters.

September 24

Unseen JapanTokyoShake (鮭) vs. Salmon (サーモン): How Norwegian Salmon Became a Sushi Staple in Japan Curious why there are two names for salmon in Japanese? There's an interesting historical (and scientific!) reason behind that.

September 23

Unseen JapanTokyo“You’re a Woman, So Use Chopsticks”: The Yakitori Fight Over How Women Eat A woman says her boyfriend seemed poised to break up with her for the way she ate yakitori. Does Japan really have a gendered rule for meat on a stick?

September 21

Unseen JapanTokyoIs That Izakaya a Trap? Japanese Eaters Say Watch Out for These Warning Signs What you need to know to avoid the typical izakaya traps: all about touting, snuck-in fees, and fishy business practices.

September 21

Unseen JapanTokyoJapan’s Love Hotels Advertising as Ordinary Hotels is Biting Travelers (Not in the Good Way) Sometimes, love hotels mask themselves as ordinary hotels. Learn the key differences and what to look for when booking your next trip.

September 20

Day by Day Japan plans a first trip to Japan the way a friend who lives here would: one day at a time, with the trains and the prices written down.

Each route is a real day or weekend: where to go first, how long the walk or the train takes, what the ticket costs and where to eat on the way. Prices come from the operator's or the place's own published fares and carry the date they were checked; where we have not checked a price, the route says so instead of guessing. If it rains, the route has a plan B.

Around the routes sits the week in Japan. Every few hours the site reads the Japanese city and food press and the English-language desks in Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka and Fukuoka, and puts the places they name on one map. Headlines stay in the language they were written in, every story links to its source, and we quote no more than a line.

The routes and notes are written by one editor under a pen name, Sora Nakamura, drafted with AI assistance from checked material and read before they go out. Day by Day Japan is independent: no advertisers, no affiliate links, no bookings.