Travel Highlights 2025
Last year I had only been at Japan Guide for a few months before writing my year's travel highlights, so this year I'm excited to be able to share a fuller set of spots with you!
These are the eight that stood out to me most from the past year.
#8: Kuwana
We're going backwards, so I'm starting with Kuwana! To be perfectly honest, I had never heard of the city before going, as it is in a prefecture I had never visited before, called Mie. I visited for their Ishidori festival, which involves a heck of a lot of taiko drumming through the day and night. Each of the city's neighborhoods has their own "saisha", or festival cart, which has drums and gongs on it that are paraded around the city well into the wee hours of the night. When I visited, it was actually the hottest day of the year so far, so I remember sweating buckets as I also visited the gardens of Nabana no Sato, and a few other spots. But it was worth it for the atmosphere, and I highly recommend the festival if you're around in August!
#7: Mount Fuji and Lake Kawaguchiko
Next up was another solo trip, this time to create a pair of Instagram Reels about Mount Fuji, along with a blog post about my trip. This year, some regulations around hiking the iconic mountain were changed, including a change in the fees to enter the hiking zone. The change came about in an attempt to handle some of the problems caused by the multitude of hikers. The fee-based hiking starts from the 5th Station, halfway up the mountain, but I wasn't there to actually hike. So I took my recordings from various places around the mountain instead. It was a lovely day, so that stunning image of Mount Fuji over the water at 5am lives rent-free in my head, and I'm happy for it to stay there!
#6: Okayama
Next up was a video trip to Okayama with our videographer Thomas. The most memorable part for me was our visit to Kurashiki, because I've never seen such a beautiful canal area like it elsewhere in Japan. Even though it was winter, it was still very nice, and the cool air and clear skies gave it a fresh feeling.
#5: Chichibu
My trip to Chichibu was a little different to a normal project, because although it was a video, it was just a day trip. I went with our videographer Aimee, and it was a very atmospheric and calm day. It was very foggy up at Mitsumine Shrine, which gave it a mystical feel. When we had lunch by the shrine there were even some deer nearby, adding to the magic. Then we went back to the town center and I got to visit one of my favorite watering holes - the Highlander Inn Chichibu. I'd only visited once before, but I love the atmosphere with the whisky lining the walls of a renovated old house.
#4: Hiroshima Prefecture
My trip for the Hiroshima Island Hopping video, however, was quite the opposite to the short and calm Chichibu trip, as I was out there for five days in total, flitting all over the prefecture. For this one, every one of the videographers (Charly, Thomas and Aimee) joined at some point, and I was the only one there for the full five days. It was intense! But it makes it to my top five because I learnt so much about the prefecture I didn't know before, and I got to visit the rabbit island (Okunoshima) and the sunny shores of Etajima, all in good company.
#3: Fukuoka
My trip to Fukuoka was a solo one, which is what usually happens when it's an article with no video attached. I love the southern end of Japan, and don't get to visit too often, so I was excited to head down there, especially when I heard it was a food-centred trip. When I arrived, I went straight to one of the many yatai (food stalls) the area is known for, and stuffed my face with noodles and local specialties. The next day was a bit more refined, and I got to see the rolling hills of tea, and taste some local sake.
#2: Ferry to Beppu
It seems my top three this year are all solo trips, because number two was my trip to Beppu. This was an interesting one because I had heard a lot about the onsen of Beppu, but never been, and what's more, I got to visit by a luxury ferry! It was a strange sensation, because it was essentially a floating hotel. My room had a balcony which I went out on as we passed under the Akashi-Kaikyo bridge, and it was so windy I thought my phone was going to fly out of my hands as I took a picture. I then did a little tour of the sightseeing hot springs in Beppu, and it was fun to see all the different types.
#1: Cherry Blossom Reports
And that brings us to my number one - which was the cherry blossom reporting! Specifically, the two trips that stand out in my mind were to Hanamiyama in Fukushima, and the Uminonakamichi Seaside Park in Fukuoka (I told you I liked Fukuoka). Living near Tokyo, the cherry blossoms can feel a little overdone if all you do is visit Ueno to be surrounded by crowds and have nowhere to sit and enjoy them. But going off the beaten path to all these different spots was very exciting for me.
Every cherry blossom trip was intense, don't get me wrong, because I would visit more than one spot a day, then have to write and publish the report on the same day, so it was a lot of trains and walking and photography. But I liked Hanamiyama because it was just a huge walking route with all sorts of breeds of cherry blossom and other spring flowers. And I liked Fukuoka's seaside park for similar reasons - it's a massive park that you can cycle around, and it had a field of Baby Blue Eyes right next to the cherry blossoms, where I sat and had my lunch. Those two trips in particular made me stop and think, man, I love what I do.
