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KOAlil.comJapan travel, in EnglishBy an editor born in JapanAutumn 2026
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Everything I have published, newest first.

A giant white New Year postcard slides into an oversized red Japanese postbox on a quiet residential street at sunriseGetting aroundNew Year Cards in Japan: The 2027 Posting Dates Have MovedCutaway of a wooden mountain inn in snow, each small room holding one rented item: futon, pillow, kotatsu, stove, and a rice pot on a gas ringOff the mapOsawa Onsen Tojiya: ¥3,780 a Night, Futon Rented by the PieceA hall of identical paper shopping bags leading to a glowing orange self-service kiosk, with one bag tipped over beside a half-eaten sweetGetting aroundJapan Tax-Free Shopping from 1 Nov 2026: Pay Tax, Get It BackScreenprint-style illustration of a local bus driving toward a gorge of red maple trees at dusk, with bus route lines converging from the sides and one dotted route ending in mid-airBefore you landKorankei by Train and Bus, November 2026: No Yakusa BusScreenprint of a retro trolley train pulled by a small diesel locomotive crossing a steel bridge over a gorge with maple leaves, while a sleek glass-roofed train waits belowGetting aroundSagano Romantic Train: Current Cars Retire 29 December 2026Screenprint of a snowy gassho-zukuri roof silhouette framing a glowing village at dusk, with a striped road barrier lowered across the snowy road belowBefore you landShirakawa-go Light-Up 2027: No Tickets at the Gate, How to BookScreenprint-style illustration of a giant decorated bamboo kumade rake raking in gold coins as two silhouettes clap at a lantern-lit shrine marketThe unspokenAsakusa Tori-no-Ichi 2026: What the Rakes and Clapping MeanScreenprint-style illustration of a passenger ferry leaving a harbour at dusk below a hillside house of red and tinted glassGetting aroundTeshima Yokoo House Night Tour 2026: Last Boats Off TeshimaScreenprint-style cross-section of a slim Tokyo building showing a hotel room, a rental apartment and capsule bunks, joined by one orange band.Before you landTokyo’s Hotel Tax Goes to 3% in April 2027, Minpaku IncludedScreenprint-style illustration of a small wooden Japanese bathhouse with a noren curtain behind a round stone pool of turquoise hot-spring water, thin white steam rising from the water, with a stepped green hillside of tiny bathhouses behindOff the mapBeppu’s ¥100 Neighbourhood Baths and the Ones You Can’t EnterScreenprint-style illustration: a red lacquered bowl of ozoni with small cut pieces of mochi, chopsticks and a cup of green tea in a band of winter morning light.The unspokenMochi at New Year: Tokyo Fire Department’s Choking WarningScreenprint-style illustration: a covered shopping arcade at winter dusk with a row of closed shutters and New Year decorations, and one doorway still glowing open.The unspokenJapan’s New Year Closures: Offices Shut 29 Dec, Banks 31 DecScreenprint-style illustration: a large Japanese kitchen knife with a wooden handle floats across an airport window; inside its blade a traveller stops at a customs counter before bag drop.The unspokenBuying a Japanese Kitchen Knife: The Part After the ShopScreenprint-style illustration: a giant blank rail pass card stands like a gate over a railway line as a regional limited-express train passes through it into the countryside.Before you landJR Pass Alternatives: The Regional Passes Most Sites Don’t MentionScreenprint-style illustration: an avenue of giant geometric cedar trees and a wooden shrine gate opening onto a sunlit mountain pasture with grazing cows.Off the mapTogakushi Shrine: The Half Everyone SkipsScreenprint-style isometric cutaway of a Japanese neighbourhood bathhouse: washing stations with stools and mirrors, a tiled hot bath, and a dotted line showing wash first, then soak.The unspokenSento and Onsen: How to Use a Japanese Bath HouseScreenprint-style illustration: a night bus, a car ferry, a local train and a small plane move along bold diagonal colour bands while a white shinkansen sits at the edge.Getting aroundSkip the Shinkansen: 7 Cheaper Ways to Cross JapanScreenprint-style illustration: a pair of slippers, a rolled oshibori towel on a tray and a cup of green tea set out on the wooden step of a Japanese inn entrance.The unspokenWhat Is Omotenashi? Why Japanese Almost Never Say the WordScreenprint-style illustration: a waiter holds out a small tray of coins toward a traveller walking away down a narrow Japanese restaurant street at evening.The unspokenWhy Japanese Waiters Chase You Down the Street — And Why You Shouldn’t Tip in Japan

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01 · Planning & moneyBefore you landPasses, SIMs, taxes, cash.4 stories 02 · TransportGetting aroundTrains, buses, ferries, real costs.5 stories 03 · Etiquette & cultureThe unspokenWhat everyone expects and nobody says.7 stories 04 · Hidden spotsOff the mapPlaces I go. Nobody paid me.3 stories