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. Every price names who published it (the operator, the place itself, or the magazine or guide that printed it) and the date; where nobody printed a price, the route says so instead of guessing. Where a stop closes on set days, the route says what to do instead.

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.

← Day by Day Japan Archive

The Japan Times LifeTokyo

Residents in Yatsushiro face well water issues following July earthquake

September 28

Yatsushiro's public water supply coverage rate is only 52.1%, leaving nearly half of local households reliant on well water as an essential lifeline.

JAPAN

Read at The Japan Times Life ↗

One letter a week, in your inbox.

Latest

Residents in Yatsushiro face well water issues following July earthquake

More from The Japan Times Life on Day by Day Japan

TokyoRavens throw Cowboys for Loop in Brazil with walk-off field goal The Japan Times Life

TokyoFrom geisha face paint to servers, Sakai Chemical emerges as AI linchpin The Japan Times Life

TokyoPowerful U.S. missile system to be stored at Okinawa’s Kadena Air Base The Japan Times Life

TokyoHigher defense spending won’t unsettle markets, government adviser says The Japan Times Life

TokyoBOJ rate hike in October is a real possibility, ex-official says The Japan Times Life