Each spring, two neighbouring countries become wreathed in cherry blossom. While the flowers may look similar, the meanings they carry - and the ways they’re experienced - tell very different stories. Japan: The quiet weight of tradition In Japan, cherry blossom (sakura) is not just a seasonal celebration – it’s philosophy in bloom. For over a thousand years, these petals have symbolised impermanence, fragility, and the beauty of life’s fleeting moments. The Heian-era nobility turned blossom-viewing into poetry. Samurai saw in its fall a metaphor for the ideal death: graceful, sudden, unresentful. In modern Japan, sakura still carries emotional heft – appearing in literature, graduation ceremonies, and even state messaging during times of national loss. But there’s nothing heavy-ha ...

Four different views of the city, through four different guides. Hiroshima is a place with many stories to tell: those of a city devastated by the world’s first atomic bombing, those of its victims, its survivors, and its aftermath. There are the stories of Hiroshima’s recovery and regeneration: of its significant feudal history as a once-thriving castle town; its history as a port city on the Seto Inland Sea – a place with a distinct culinary identity. And, what really brings Hiroshima’s stories to life are its locals guides. We recently sent freelance writer and editor, Kate Crockett, to Hiroshima. Here, she met with four guides that we’re proud to work with, each with their own deeply personal perspective and experience to offer. This was her experience. The atomic bomb survi ...

A stepping stone across the Seto Inland Sea between Honshu and Shikoku, Ikuchijima is an island where the gentle pace of life gets you the moment you arrive: you can’t help but slow down. Freelance writer and editor Kate Crockett recently explored Ikuchijima as part of her trip with us to Hiroshima. Here, she writes of the island's history of shipbuilding, octopus fishing and, famously, citrus fruits, cultivated on sunny slopes that benefit from little rainfall and a warm microclimate. Setoda: the salt port town Ikuchijima is the approximate mid-point of the 70 km (43-mile) Shimanami Kaido cycle route that connects Onomichi City in Hiroshima with Imabari City on Shikoku, via a series of safe, purpose-built trails and bridges that traverse six Inland Sea islands. Being the midpoint ...

The places in-between: Nagoya Most visitors to Japan could point out Tokyo and Kyoto blindfolded. But Nagoya? Many speed through on the Shinkansen bullet train without even noticing. Yet this is a city that has shaped Japan’s past and present far more than its modest profile suggests. As a city, it houses one of Japan’s most important Shinto shrines. As a region, it gave rise to three of Japan’s greatest samurai – and the global manufacturing giant, Toyota. It’s also one of Japan’s most connected cities – with an international airport, a major port handling nearly 10% of the nation’s trade, and that bullet train line between Tokyo and Kyoto. Historically, it was the strategic seat of Owari, one of the three major branches of the Tokugawa family. Today, its centrality is economic, as mu ...

The places in-between: Nagasaki For 220 years, Japan was largely closed to the outside world. Only those the Shogunate permitted could trade, visit or leave. All trading ports closed – except Nagasaki. The city was one of Japan’s few cultural and commercial exchange points for over two centuries. Today, as a result, it’s one of the most culturally rich places in Japan – in a way that makes it more “foreign” than other cities, while still feeling deeply Japanese. With novel ideas, goods and trade, Nagasaki became the crucible for Japan’s industrial revolution that began in the 1860s – largely down to the alliance between Scotsman Thomas Glover and the company that would become Mitsubishi. As a city, it’s home to Japan’s oldest asphalt road and first steam train; as a prefecture, J ...