Day by Day Japan plans a first trip to Japan the way a friend who lives here would: one day at a time, with the trains and the prices written down.

Each route is a real day or weekend: where to go first, how long the walk or the train takes, what the ticket costs and where to eat on the way. Prices come from the operator's or the place's own published fares and carry the date they were checked; where we have not checked a price, the route says so instead of guessing. If it rains, the route has a plan B.

Around the routes sits the week in Japan. Every few hours the site reads the Japanese city and food press and the English-language desks in Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka and Fukuoka, and puts the places they name on one map. Headlines stay in the language they were written in, every story links to its source, and we quote no more than a line.

The routes and notes are written by one editor under a pen name, Sora Nakamura, drafted with AI assistance from checked material and read before they go out. Day by Day Japan is independent: no advertisers, no affiliate links, no bookings.

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MATCHAGo

A spectacular slope with state-of-the-art facilities! "Ishiuchi Maruyama Ski Resort" in Niigata Prefecture

September 18

It's about 80 minutes by Shinkansen from Tokyo. Once you exit the tunnel, you'll arrive at the snow country of Yuzawa, where the whole area is covered in pure white snow.

Autumn & seasons Things To Do

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A spectacular slope with state-of-the-art facilities! "Ishiuchi Maruyama Ski Resort" in Niigata Prefecture

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