The Chūgoku region’s name roughly translates as ‘middle country’. While Tsuwano, Hagi, and Nagato Yumoto Onsen sit within this area, there’s nothing average about this western corner of Honshu. This is a place where you can walk through hundreds of red torii gates with no one behind you, navigate streets with the same maps samurai used, dip your toes in a foot bath onsen, yukata robe on, before ordering a cocktail looking out across the Otozure River. It feels a world away from Kyoto or Tokyo, yet it’s surprisingly easy to reach. Yamaguchi City, the region’s gateway, is just over two hours from Kyoto. And despite that, Tsuwano, Hagi and Nagato Yumoto Onsen remain under visited, under loved and underestimated. One of Japan’s least populated corners, it’s also one of its most cultur ...

Award-winning travel writer (Telegraph, Times, Guardian, Wanderlust) Paul Bloomfield recently explored western Honshu with us, where history and ghost stories feel ever present. From the sinister medieval bastion of Matsue to Tsuwano’s Edo-era scenes and Hagi’s samurai past, he follows Yamaguchi’s quieter routes, ending in Nagato Yumoto Onsen, a hot spring town where life is returning. You can read more about his trip in The Telegraph. I didn’t see any ghosts in Japan – not exactly. And yet… perhaps it was the fantasies I’d nurtured of being spirited away into a Ghibli-esque world, but on more than one occasion I had a deliciously hairs-standing-on-neck feeling that some kind of spirit, wraith, echo was lurking at my shoulder. Explore our West Honshu Wonders trip idea Japan ha ...

With a major samurai exhibition coming to the British Museum this year, and a new Shōgun series is on the way, The Telegraph writer John Gimlette went looking for the real thing in Japan. He travelled on our Samurai Footsteps itinerary – and found the samurai legacy very much alive. It’s not often we get lost in time. But when we arrive in Japan, we think we’ve landed in 2070. The trains run at 200mph; robots man the information points; you say goodbye to your luggage at one hotel, and it reappears at the next. Japan makes the future look easy. But soon we realise we’re also immersed in the Middle Ages. It’s not just the courtly manners and chivalrous staff. Some things have remained almost unchanged hundreds of years: formal wear, diet, bedrooms (with their rush mats and futons), co ...

So often in Japan, you know an experience is going to be memorable, even before you do it. That visit to majestic Kiyomizudera in Kyoto, for example; the climb up Mount Fuji; a night out in Tokyo’s karaoke bars. Other times, these moments are more accidental. And as National Geographic Traveller writer, Alicia Miller, found on her first introduction to Aomori, on our Japan's Undiscovered North itinerary, it’s these surprises that can become the most memorable moments of all. After a couple of days in the historic samurai town of Kakunodate in neighbouring prefecture Akita – seeing samurai homes, still inhabited by local samurai families, and taking a one-to-one lesson in bushido (‘the way of the warrior’) – I figured a ride on the Gono Line was  going to be a slightly more scenic ...

  Cherry blossoms – or sakura – are one of Japan’s most recognisable seasonal markers, rich in symbolism as well as beauty. What began as a pastime for Heian-era nobles later became a symbol of impermanence for the samurai – a metaphor for dying young in battle, in a burst of glory. Today, sakura still carries cultural weight. As Japan specialist Tyler puts it: “the whole year revolves around the sakura” – with school years ending and new jobs beginning as the petals bloom. It’s peak season for travel and a moment of celebration and coming together for locals. Parks fill with people laying down blue tarps, gathering for picnics beneath the blossoms. Knowing when to go, how to join in, and where to avoid the busiest spots can make all the difference. This is our guide to doing ch ...