Last Updated: May 15, 2024
Again & Again
Why You Need to Return to Places in Japan
As I write this, I am on a limited express train heading down from Nagoya to Toba for my 4th meal with the ama divers of Mie Prefecture. Due to escorting some family around (who were unable to visit for several years as a result of Japan’s stringent border policies during the pandemic), I’ve recently been revisiting a lot of my favorite haunts. While making the rounds, I’ve been thinking a lot about how just a single outing to sites like Nikko just won’t suffice.
Since I started creating content many years ago, I’ve been keeping a list of all of the places that I want to visit in Japan. As of today’s tally, the count now tops 5,000 locales. Try as I might, I simply cannot hack off the proverbial heads of the hydra fast enough to keep up with the pace that I discover new allures in Japan. As I’ve written before, I would need an endless number of lifetimes to be able to actually exhaust my bucket list once and for all.
Of course, as anyone who has visited Japan in spring for the cherry blossoms can likely attest, the country has a varied beauty that changes with the seasons. Thus, a mere single visit to a place like Kakunodate in Akita Prefecture will not suffice. To truly cross it off the bucket list, one would need to visit during…
