The Rainy Season Edition: Japan Travel Recap

Letters from Japan, May 2025: Japan destination recap, cities, islands, hikes and seasons.

Jun 08, 2025

Good afternoon,

Here in Tokyo, we seem to have been blessed with one last sunny weekend before the rainy season begins. The month-long season, and honestly not a particularly atmospheric one, is a good excuse to pause travel plans and spend weekends at home, fueling the appetite for future travels.

It is also an excellent time to feel guilty about rarely following through on my plans to visit the alleys of Shinjuku after work to photograph the beautiful blend of evening lights (a reason alone to live in the Far East), the rain, and the gorgeous umbrellas it brings out. The cinematographic beauty that this intentionally seductive lighting adds to even the most mundane tasks, like a quick run to the grocery store, is what I will miss most if I ever leave Japan. Narrow alleys, dimly lit streets, store signs that look more special than they actually are thanks to all the kanji, and, of course, the freedom to enjoy all the nighttime beauty without worrying about safety.

Well, while there are no plans to move from Japan at the moment—unless the immigration office decides otherwise, as we’ve just applied to renew my work visa—the rainy season is still as good an excuse as any for a bit of nostalgia. So, before the real summer begins, bringing with it a slightly busier travel schedule1 (Okinawa to escape the humidity in the water, and Hokkaido to do the same up in the mountains), I thought this month’s letter could take a short pause from introducing new destinations and instead offer a recap of the places already covered in this newsletter, organized by theme. I hope this summary proves helpful for those planning a trip to Japan and looking for a bit of destination inspiration.

So, in that spirit, here’s a look back (complete with unsolicited commentary, since I’m apparently unable not to ramble when it comes to travel) at all the places featured in past letters, supported by additional content and photos from the website, organized by four categories: cities explored, islands visited, hikes taken, and seasons adored.2

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Cities

I suppose the city category should start with the capital, Tokyo, and I’m more than happy to do so. If I had to summarize my feelings toward my home base in Japan in one word, it would surely be gratitude. Having had my fair share of experiences with other metropolises, I deeply appreciate Tokyo for offering all the conveniences of urban life in the most efficient way, while still maintaining a surprisingly rural charm and a sense of community in many of its corners. With its visual and cultural eccentricities, I find it impossible to write it off as just another giant city.

Tokyo is a city that I never particularly cared for when I visited Japan as a tourist, but one that I fell deeply in love with while living here. So, the January 2025 letter, "The Giant with a Big Heart," was a bit of a love letter to this impossibly gentle city of 15 million people, offering a glimpse into my daily surroundings and some of the sights in my neighborhood.

But despite all my deep affection for Tokyo, beloved Kyoto has appeared in the newsletter far more often, simply because I have a better grasp of it from a visitor’s perspective. In a recent March letter, I wrote about a three-day Sakura viewing trip to Kyoto and its surrounding areas, including Mount Yoshino, which felt more like a hallucination than a real place with its tens of thousands of cherry trees, creating a dream-like scenery.

Another post about Japan`s old and so far longest-serving capital was a diary of an autumn day spent in the city (an annual ritual), covering some of my favorite fall color viewing stops in Kyoto.

There was also a special paid subscriber travel diary series covering the Kyoto Trail, the 84-km hiking route that encircles the city on three sides through its mountains, and which I believe is not hyped enough. It’s a fantastic way to experience the city from an entirely new perspective, like being let in on a secret that allows you to circle some of its most visited landmarks via hidden paths, almost in a voyeuristic way.

In terms of cities, there is undoubtedly much more to Japan than Kyoto and Tokyo, a fact the Japanese government would also like us all to know, as part of its efforts to divert some of the visitor traffic to less-visited parts of the country. In March 2024, I wrote about three other cities in Japan, some already well-known, such as Nagasaki, and others just a little less so, like Hirosaki and Matsumoto, which are all historically significant and serve as perfect gateways for gorgeous nature outings.

Islands

Japan has around 14,000 islands off its “mainland.” Around 400 of them are inhabited, and many are well worth stealing time from the mainland for. And if you think the island-nation mentality is strong on mainland Japan, wait until you get to these smaller islands.

I will never manage to visit all of those tiny islands worthy of a trip, but last summer I finally made it to one of the remotest ones: a tiny island off the northern coast of Japan’s northernmost not-so-tiny island: Rebun Island in Hokkaido. The July 2024 letter focused on impressions of this island, which I referred to as the most picture-perfect place in Japan. This was followed by a post on the website offering planning tips, including access info.

As a big fan of Kyushu, its islands have also often found their way into this newsletter and website. I spent a considerable amount of time in Yakushima, to the point where I could once devote a whole three days to car road walking to circle the island, which is otherwise known for its ancient forests, hiking trails, moss-covered landscapes, and Kyushu`s highest peak, the fantastic Mount Miyanoura.

The January 2025 letter was about Kyushu’s islands, covering not only Yakushima, but also the “islands of prayers,” Amakusa, home to Japan’s largest civil rebellion, and Ojika, known for its kominka houses and the (literally) hauntingly inviting Nozaki Island nearby.

The Goto Islands, another Kyushu island off the coast of Nagasaki, which I adore for the rare combination of natural beauty, historical sites, and charming fishing-village atmosphere, got their own #traveldiaries series during an eight-day walking trip across the islands.

And then, of course, Okinawa—with its 49 inhabited islands, which are, in this case, islands off an island off an island. Mainland Okinawa is fun and rich in sights, but if you’re looking for beaches that can easily compete with those in Thailand, though the accommodation options simply can’t, you’ll need to venture off the mainland to those tiny 49 islands. Last September, I wrote about a long weekend on Tokashiki Island, my favorite summer destination in Japan known for its Kerama blue waters and beaches, where I once, after a typhoon, got a very low-dose glimpse of how Robinson Crusoe might have felt.

All these islands were also covered in an earlier island-focused #sundaypost, along with a few others, such as Sadogashima, off the coast of Niigata.

Hikes, Walks, and Rides

You might have already noticed that hiking-focused trips make up about 90% of my travels. I suspect there’s a bit of physical and definitely a mental addiction involved, encouraged by the fact that hikes so often offer the best photographic opportunities.

Many of the hikes covered in this newsletter were already part of the above recap under different categories, such as the "Hiking the Kyoto Trail" in the Cities section, the "Rebun Island hikes" in the Islands section, and, of course, Yakushima.

In addition to the above, there was also a monthly letter devoted to Japan’s pilgrimage routes, covering sections of the Kumano Kodo, a UNESCO World Heritage site recognized for its network of ancient pilgrimage trails, as well as the Shikoku 88-Temples walk. While Japan is home to outstanding outdoor experiences, I think its landscapes fall short of the otherworldly scenery found in places like New Zealand. But what Japan has to offer is something as moving as otherworldly landscapes: the opportunity to combine outdoor experiences with deeply cultural and spiritual ones, and pilgrimage routes are the perfect way to experience that.

Shikoku was featured for the second time in a more recent edition—the April letter—covering my walk along the island’s southern coast, known for its dramatic cliffside landscapes, as well as a cycling trip along the Shimanami Kaido, which I did right after the walk.

While I occasionally covered specific hiking trails in this newsletter, the website is much richer in terms of specific hiking-related posts covering Kuju Mountains, Daisetsuzan National Park in Hokkaido, Mount Aso, Japan’s largest active volcano, and Kamikochi in Nagano, among many others. In one regularly updated post, I listed some of my favorite hikes in Japan, including easy walks and also multi-day trails.

Seasons

Although my writing and photography are not comprehensive enough to cover all 72 micro-seasons of Japan, I’ve aimed to highlight the major ones, whether marked by a flower, the color of a leaf, or the good-old four-season divide.

The February 2025 letter was devoted to winter trips in Japan, inspired by a visit with my mother to the famous Kanazawa, Shirakawa-go, and Takayama trio. As a die-hard fan of the season, there was also the travel diaries series covering a week-long December trip to Biei, in the heart of Hokkaido, where the iconic winter landscape made you forget about -20 Celsius temperatures.

In one particularly confessional letter, where I shared my views on the questionable beauty of Japan, I ironically wrote about fall color viewing trips to ever gorgeous Oku-Nikko and Mount Tateyama in Toyama Prefecture. The Tohoku travels recap post also focuses mainly on autumn foliage trips, though the region is just as beautiful in winter. There are many other fall color destinations listed in this post on the website - Japan Fall Colors: When Country Comes Back to Life.

Heartbreakingly elusive Sakura season was also featured in one of the recent issues, which came after a three-day trip to Kyoto.

Aside from the Okinawa and Hokkaido posts, there is not much summer content on the newsletter or the website. That sure has something to do with the fact that summers in Japan are not made for living, breathing organisms. I’m sure you’re better off wherever you are.

So, that concludes this link-heavy recap of past letters and posts. Thank you for bearing with me. As always, feel free to email me, drop a comment below, or use the chat option in Substack if you have any questions about the destinations featured above.

I will be back in about a month or maybe a little sooner, with the June edition.

Until then,

Burcu

The only trip in May took me outside of Japan, to Belgrade, Serbia, for work. What a visually layered and fascinating city. On the way back to Tokyo, I also got to spend 24 hours in Istanbul.

A quick summary of the post categories on Letters from Japan, as this letter includes links to all. Monthly letters are sent to all subscribers, typically introducing new destinations in Japan (and occasionally others) inspired by recent travels. They’re more observational and personal, and not very rich in planning details. Sunday posts appear only on Substack (not emailed) and take a more blog-like approach, often covering several places in one go, like the favorite hot springs post. Travel diaries, available to paid subscribers, provide day-by-day accounts of trips—sometimes written during the trip, sometimes just after. These include not only personal impressions but also more detailed planning guidance. There’s also a Japan Trip Planning section, which shares practical advice in a Q&A format, such as how to book the Shinkansen, with no destination-specific focus, unless necessary. Then there is the website, which I try to keep as updated as possible, covering both Japan and other destinations, as well as a photo gallery.