A Year in Japan, in Four Seasons
Letters from Japan, December 2025: year in photos, favorite travel reads, and the results of the Travel Poll.
Good afternoon,
I hope you are having a lovely December. Tokyo is just coming out of a spectacular fall-colors season (one of the most vivid we have experienced in recent years) and easing into the Jingle Bells time of year, with the tune on repeat play in almost every restaurant and store across the country. Despite the country’s cheerful devotion to celebrating what is otherwise a religious holiday as a cultural event, the overall mood can sometimes feel a little too forced, but it is December after all, the one and only festive season, and I’ll take it in any form.
This is the eleventh and final monthly letter of 2025 (for the avoidance of doubt, the months do not work differently in Japan; I just combined the June/July letter into one). Over the past year, there were also a number of additional posts for monthly and annual subscribers, including multi-day itineraries, the One Fine Day city series, and Japan trip-planning guides, all outlined here. As always, thank you for your interest in this newsletter and for reading along this year. Sharing this space with you all has been a truly meaningful experience.
In this final letter of 2025, I come with a quick round-up of the year through four photos paired with the four most-read letters of the year, a brief section on my favorite travel reads of the year (and an invitation to share yours to inspire 2026 reading lists), and the results of the annual nonsensical travel poll from the November letter, which you can still vote for.1 The usual once-a-year holiday discount is also now available until the end of the year.
The Year in Photos
Despite the lack of big trips like last year’s Great Ocean Walk in Australia or 2023’s Great Walks of New Zealand, 2025 ended up being the year I took the most photos. In addition to some truly awe-inspiring scenery, courtesy of Japan’s nature, I think there was also a technical reason behind it.
I had been in a bit of a limbo with my camera equipment for the past few years. After saying a final goodbye to my beloved 12-year-old Canon 5D Mark II in early 2023, I switched to Sony’s highly praised mirrorless system, drawn by its lighter weight. But despite giving the Sony A7II nearly two years, I simply couldn’t get used to the feel of the camera in my hands or to Sony’s cooler color palette. Late last year, I returned to Canon with the R6, one of their more affordable full-frame mirrorless cameras, and immediately remembered the joy of taking photos and the comfort of using a camera that fits like a glove rather than a joystick (sorry, Sony). It’s a system that works better for me, and I don’t plan to leave it again. (This paragraph is not sponsored by Canon, though I wish it were.)
So after this unsolicited behind-the-scenes section, on to this year’s recap, with four photos from four seasons, each accompanying one of the four most-read letters of the year.
Winter - the Snow Country
Snow does look good on Japan, especially at night under those glowing, dense signboard lights, which make snowy cities almost as appealing as mountain or onsen getaways.
The best winter moment of this year came on one of those urban stays during a four-day trip I took with my mother to the Kanazawa-Shirakawa-Takayama area. It was early February, and all three of our stops were entirely covered with snow, skilfully hiding any aesthetic shortcomings these destinations may or may not have and delivering the perfect winter scenery that Japan is rightfully famous for.
During our stay in Kanazawa, after a full day visiting Kenrokuen Garden with its frozen ponds, the city’s museums, and the Omicho fish market, we headed to Il Mare in the Katamachi district for dinner. On the way, we were caught in a sudden snowstorm that, to my surprise - given how common snow is in Kanazawa - filled the main streets with a kind of joyous chaos, while the narrow side streets stayed quiet and wonderfully cinematic. The whole atmosphere felt like a movie set, with color tones that reminded me of the TV show Midnight Diner (perfect comfort watching), so soothing that you want to be part of the frame.
I was very happy to experience such a warm and picture-perfect moment with my mother. Our restaurant was right on the street featured in the above photo, and we watched the snowstorm outside while enjoying a feast served by a lovely chef–assistant duo in a counter-style setting. It was a beautiful night, and in so many different ways, uniquely Japanese (despite the Italian food).
The trip, along with a few other winter destination suggestions in Japan, was the focus of the February Letter - Snow Falling on Cedars, which became the most-read post of this newsletter since its launch. I think we all love winter landscapes, in whichever form they come.
Spring - a Complicated Matter
Spring, as it tends to do, came a little too suddenly, when I could have used a few more weeks of winter to stay in my cocoon.
But I live in Japan, a country that worships the spring and the pink petals it brings, and I was determined to play my part this year and embrace the season properly. In all my five years here, this was the first time I traveled outside Tokyo during the sakura season, adding one more head to the crowds in Kyoto that the city is infamous for, especially at that time of year.
On the three-day trip, I stayed in the city for only one full day and used the other two for side trips: to re-walk some sections of the Kyoto Trail that I first hiked in November 2024, and to visit Mount Yoshino, famous for its tens of thousands of sakura trees.
Despite seeing numerous photographs, I was a little skeptical about the scenery at Mount Yoshino. It looked almost too flawless, too good to be true, and I assumed there would be a catch (like a concrete, abandoned building (not exactly rare in Japan) sitting in the middle of otherwise spectacular scenery). But no: Mount Yoshino, with its tens of thousands of cherry trees, was even more spectacular than in the photos and offered one of the most surreal visual experiences of the year. I was honestly a little too star-struck to enjoy it fully on my first visit, so I hope to return next year and take it all in a little more calmly.
This three-day sakura trip was the subject of the April letter — Sakura in Bloom, Spring in Waiting — which became the third most-read post of the year. Sakura is, and will probably always be, a compelling subject that readers expect to find in a newsletter devoted to travel in Japan - even when it ironically appears alongside the political heartbreak my country experienced this past spring, as it did in that letter.
Summer - the Islands of Confinement
December is the month of joy and gratitude, so I don’t want to bring down the mood of this letter by talking too much about summers in Japan, which have only two redeeming qualities: one is called Hokkaido, and the other is Okinawa, two nature-dominated destinations that shine in the summer.
This year, like every summer, I had one long-weekend escape to my favorite small Okinawan island, Tokashiki, where the humidity was far from pleasant but somehow emotionally tolerable, thanks to the endlessly swimmable and kayakable Kerama Blue waters. July’s letter, a love letter to this tiny island of 700 residents, too cool to care about its own objectively gorgeous scenery, Okinawa: The Reluctant Paradise, was the fourth most-read post of the year.
Small island destinations in Japan are always an adventure. They are not necessarily idyllic in the way one might expect from summer heavens; the architectural choices, shaped by the reality of typhoons, are often rather bland. Over the years, though, I’ve grown to appreciate the contrast between the uninspiring built environment, the residents’ wonderfully unbothered attitude toward the beauty around them, and the truly outstanding nature that surrounds it all.
Autumn - a New Chapter
Then came the autumn season, which I always declare as my favorite in Japan, even though I am possibly just as enamored with the country’s winter.
On a personal level, autumn brought one of the most meaningful experiences of my year - despite being a very anti-travel one. I was offered the opportunity to teach a law class in the English program of the graduate school connected to the research institute where I work. Being able to share a space every Saturday morning with JICA scholars from various governments across Asia and Africa has been a truly rewarding experience, and I am immensely grateful for the opportunity.2 Learning from their perspectives and sharing mine have genuinely been a highlight of my year (and perhaps of this decade of my life, which will reach its first half in less than two weeks), and I honestly had no idea how nourishing such an opportunity could be when I was first offered the position last year. I am still terrified before every class, but the experience continues to feel deeply worthwhile.
As I needed to be in Tokyo every Saturday throughout the autumn except for one weekend, I did not take as many fall-colors trips as usual. And since the season was already heavily covered in previous years, I didn’t structure any of this year’s monthly letters around it either. The second most-read post of this year, and the most-read of the autumn season, therefore ended up being more of a stay-at-home piece: the September letter, Reading Japan: From Hokkaido to Okinawa, where I listed some of my favorite Japan-related reads in a loosely geographical order.
With so many weekends spent in Tokyo, I also put together a One Fine Autumn Day in Tokyo post for monthly and annual subscribers, to accompany last year’s One Fine Autumn Day in Kyoto, a one-day walking itinerary covering some of the city’s most beloved foliage spots. The only weekend we didn’t have class was the first week of November, which allowed me to take my usual fall trip to Tohoku, this time focusing on onsen stays, with four different hot springs in four nights (Tohoku Onsen Hopping).
When I look at the year purely from the perspective of my life in Japan, it was a beautiful one, a year when I felt more settled than before, a little calmer about my travel rhythm, and, helped in part by a work schedule that kept me in the city on most weekends, able to enjoy Tokyo more deeply.
Favorite Travel Reads of the Year
While I adore traveling in Japan, and this year’s travels were mainly domestic, I still miss the centrality of Istanbul and the quick trips that location allowed. So, to stay connected to other places and keep the inspiration alive, I lean on a lot of travel reading, even for places I will probably never visit.
The first book I read this year was one of the best destination-related reads I’ve come across in a long time. Memoirs of Stockholm Sven by Nathaniel Ian Miller tells the fictional story of a recluse from Stockholm who moves to one of the world’s remotest northern settlements, Svalbard, a place I once visited during its 24-hour daylight season and which also appeared in this year’s Travel Poll. The book is a beautiful ode to the pull of dark nature and to a community of misfits. It was one of those books I genuinely didn’t want to end (even though the ending slightly betrayed the understated tone of the rest).
Right after finishing it, I picked up another Svalbard story recommended by a fellow Substacker: A Woman in the Polar Night by Christiane Ritter. A first-person, real-life account of an Austrian woman who spent the winter of 1934–35 on the island to accompany her husband. It is a beautifully and humbly told story of both physical and emotional endurance, with a deeply felt affection for remote destinations.
Another travel-adjacent book I enjoyed this year was Everest, Inc.: The Renegades and Rogues Who Built an Industry at the Top of the World, a recent addition to the many Everest books, but this time focusing not on individual journeys or expeditions, but on the mountain’s commercialization. The book telling the history of guided expeditions to the world's highest peak was quite a page-turner, and I thought it handled both sides of the argument fairly.
What were some of your favorite travel-related reads this year?
Travel Poll 2025 Results
Now on to our last topic. November’s letter took a very sharp diversion from our regular programming and came with a travel poll of 15 absolutely nonsensical (and extremely hypothetical) questions. The poll has been open since November 12th. Some of the results, which you can review here, were expected, like the very close call between East and West if one had to choose only one for the rest of their travels, or choosing the Louvre over the Pyramids to save if we were going to lose one forever (with the Louvre perhaps benefiting from its recent mishap).
Among all the results, though, the one that surprised me the most was how few votes a week on the Moon received compared to a two-year free travel pass on Earth. When I first drafted that question, I was convinced the Moon would be the absolute winner, so I increased the free-travel option from one year to two to give it a bit of a fighting chance. But with 90% choosing the travel pass, I suspect the Moon wouldn’t stand a chance even against a six-month option on Earth. I honestly blame the billionaires for this one; with their self-entitled approach to space, they seem to have turned many of us off the idea entirely.
You can still vote (since, for reasons still unclear, this poll will remain open in perpetuity) or review the results here: Travel Poll 2025.
And that brings us to the end of this year’s, possibly, last letter. I hope you have a lovely holiday season.
We’re lucky to have two weeks off from work, so I will visit Istanbul for one of them, and hopefully spend the other in Hokkaido for some snow walks. I always plan to send an Istanbul-focused letter, but never got to it, so perhaps there may be one final photo-only dispatch toward the end of the year, combining Istanbul and Hokkaido, two of the most contrasting places on earth. As always, thank you for being here. It truly means the world to me.
Until next time,
Burcu
P.S. In addition to the monthly letters, below is a quick recap of the extra itinerary and planning-focused posts available on the newsletter for monthly and annual subscribers. You can access each one here on Substack or on a single page on my website.
One Fine Autumn Day in Tokyo (December 2025)
Tohoku Onsen Hopping: Four Nights, Four Hot Springs (November 2025)
Tokyo Eateries: the Non-Gourmet Version (October 2025)
Autumn Colors Trip to Aomori: Itinerary Suggestion (August 2025)
One Fine Day in Kanazawa (July 2025)
Cycling the Shimanami Kaido in Two Days (June 2025)
Japan Trip Planning Q&A Series (three posts) (February - April 2025)
Winter Trip to Biei in Hokkaido (four posts) (January 2025)
Hiking the Kyoto Trail (five posts) (November 2024)
One Fine Autumn Day in Kyoto (September 2024)
Okinawa Diaries: Tokashiki Island (two posts) (September 2024)
Walking Goto Islands (eight posts) (March 2024)
Substack gave me four options for the poll's duration: 1 day, 3 days, 1 week, or forever. I chose forever, so it looks like this poll will remain open in perpetuity.
Our course focuses on the legislative and contractual frameworks that enable foreign and private investment to build and deliver infrastructure services, including transportation, healthcare, and energy. One of the reasons I get to teach this class is that my own country has considerable experience with these infrastructure investment models - in both good and not-so-good ways.