Welcome

Postcards from Japan is a collection of stories, photos, and videos from the parts of Japan that rarely make it into the guidebooks. Small shrines at the end of forest roads, old post towns, canals and bridges with an unusual story behind them, and the local legends that never quite made it onto the sign by the entrance. Most of these places aren’t famous but that’s pretty much the point.

Japan stretches about 3,000 kilometers from north to south. It changes a lot along the way. Every stretch of that line has its own landscape, its own food, its own way of talking, its own way of doing things. A town just over the hill can feel like a different country, a quiet lane a few minutes from a busy station can feel like a different century. I’ve called Japan home for a good while now, and yet that variety still catches me off guard almost every time I head out.

I travel around by train, bus, and plane, and more and more often on my e-bike, the Beast. Traveling slowly (and with detours) makes a big difference. At highway speed, a village or a roadside shrine is just a blur. But on a bike or on foot, you notice the old stone marker, the side road, the place that looks like it has a story. And it usually does.

Visiting a place is only one half of my exploration. I try to dig into local histories, shrine and temple records, and old sources in Japanese to work out why a place looks the way it does and how it got there. Sometimes the answer is a shogun, sometimes a flood, and sometimes a group of locals who simply refused to let something disappear. Some of these stories are history and some are legend, and in my articles I’ll let you know which is which. I want every article to be accurate, but I also want it to be a good read, something you’d enjoy even if you never plan to go.

If you’d like to know when a new article goes up, you can sign up for my email notifications. If you have a question, spot a mistake, or know a place you think I should see, feel free to get in touch using the contact form below. I read every message.