From the road
Dispatches
Notes written on trains, mostly — the things forty-three journeys taught us that never fit in an itinerary. Published when the train ride is long enough.
Ramen at six in the morning
On the small heroism of the pre-dawn bowl, and why the best counter in Osaka has no name we can print.
Chasing the blossom front
The sakura forecast is a national institution and a moving target. Planning a spring route around ten uncertain days.
How we choose a viewpoint
Every famous view has a famous crowd. The fifteen-minute rule that finds you the same mountain, none of the elbows.
Two metres wide, a hundred years deep
In praise of the izakaya alley — six stools, one grandmother, and the best yakitori decision-making environment on earth.
The sound snow makes in Otaru
Which is to say: none. A defence of winter Japan, the season everyone skips and nobody who's been ever skips again.
The hour of tea
What actually happens in a tea ceremony, why your knees will survive, and the one thing you should never do with the bowl.
Stories are better collected in person.
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