japansophy

Narita Airport has a reputation problem. Not an unfair one, either. At roughly 60 kilometres from central Tokyo, it is further from the city it serves than almost any other major international airport in the world. For a country whose infrastructure is legendary, that distance can feel like a rude introduction. The good news is that Japan has done what Japan does: engineered its way around the problem. There are more ways to get from Narita into Tokyo than most visitors realise, covering...

There's a reason experienced Japan travellers tend to go quiet when you mention Golden Week. It's not that they won't tell you about it. It's that the look on their face says everything. Golden Week is Japan's perfect storm of public holidays - four national holidays compressed into one week at the end of April and beginning of May, when the entire country seemingly decides to travel at the same time. In 2026 it runs from Wednesday April 29th to Wednesday May 6th. If you're visiting Japan and...

Japan's rail network is one of the wonders of the modern world. Punctual, clean, affordable and extraordinarily well-connected. But it is not a 24- hour service. And for international arrivals, especially those coming off long-haul flights, the gap between your actual exit from the airport and the last departure into town can be alarmingly small. We learned this first-hand arriving at 10:30pm into Haneda from Dubai last year. The flight was an A380 — full to capacity and immigration in Haneda...