Field Notes Japan @FieldNotesJapan

Open the map anywhere in Japan and see what's around you. What each place is, its history, and how to get there. All 47 prefectures, in English. fieldnotes-japan.com Japan Joined September 2026

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Field Notes Japan @FieldNotesJapan

3 days ago

You're in Asakusa. What's around you? Tap the locate button and the landmarks around you stand up: Senso-ji's gate, Skytree, the sumo hall. Tap one to read about it, including why Skytree is 634 m. 1,319 notes, all 47 prefectures. fieldnotes-japan.com/en/map/

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Field Notes Japan @FieldNotesJapan

6 days ago

The Sagano bamboo path, Kyoto. About 400 metres of dense bamboo arching overhead into a green canopy. Free by day; evenings to 8 Nov are a ticketed light-up. At one end stands Nonomiya Shrine, tied to the saio priestesses and to The Tale of Genji. fieldnotes-japan.com/en/spot/arashi…

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Field Notes Japan @FieldNotesJapan

a week ago

Shirakawa-go, Gifu. A World Heritage village people still live in. Steep thatched farmhouses built for heavy snow. About once a year, villagers still rethatch a roof together. Wada House, one of the largest, is lived in and partly open to visitors. fieldnotes-japan.com/en/spot/shirak…

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Field Notes Japan @FieldNotesJapan

a week ago

Todai-ji, Nara. The Great Buddha Hall is one of the world's largest wooden buildings. Inside, a bronze Buddha about 15 metres tall. Outside, nearly 1,700 sika deer roam the park. Uphill to the east, Nigatsu-do overlooks it all. fieldnotes-japan.com/en/spot/todaij…

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Field Notes Japan @FieldNotesJapan

2 weeks ago

Himeji Castle, Hyogo. From outside, the white keep has five storeys. Inside, there are six floors and a basement. Nobody miscounted. On the west side, a 240-metre corridor where a princess's attendants lived. fieldnotes-japan.com/en/spot/himeji…

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Field Notes Japan @FieldNotesJapan

3 weeks ago

One traveler hides in this crowd: red backpack, yellow beanie, blue jacket. He is there exactly once. Shibuya Scramble Crossing. On a busy green light, about 3,000 people cross at once. At 7 a.m. on a Sunday, almost nobody does. fieldnotes-japan.com/en/spot/shibuy…

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Field Notes Japan @FieldNotesJapan

4 weeks ago

Kaminarimon, Asakusa — about 30 million people a year pass under this lantern. One of them wears a yellow beanie and carries a red backpack. Can you find him? How to see this gate with nobody in it: fieldnotes-japan.com/en/spot/sensoj…

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Field Notes Japan @FieldNotesJapan

4 weeks ago

The Blue Pond, Biei, Hokkaido. Nobody designed it. Check dams built to stop mudflows from Mount Tokachi backed water into a forest, and the larches drowned where they stood. Their pale trunks still stand in it. The blue is what the streams carry. fieldnotes-japan.com/en/spot/shirog…

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Field Notes Japan @FieldNotesJapan

4 weeks ago

Fushimi Inari, Kyoto — head shrine of every Inari shrine in Japan. Behind the main hall, about 800 vermilion gates set close enough to form a tunnel. Beyond them a 4 km trail climbs the 233 m mountain to a crossroads above Kyoto. Free, 24 hours. fieldnotes-japan.com/en/spot/fushim…

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Field Notes Japan @FieldNotesJapan

4 weeks ago

Full note, with the route in: fieldnotes-japan.com/en/spot/mozu-k…

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Field Notes Japan @FieldNotesJapan

4 weeks ago

The largest tomb in Japan is 486 metres long, and you cannot see it. From the ground the Nintoku Mausoleum is a wall of trees across a moat. The keyhole outline only exists from the air. Expect the postcard and you will be disappointed. Expect this, and it is extraordinary.

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Field Notes Japan @FieldNotesJapan

4 weeks ago

Here is the part you cannot see. Note the ordinary streets running right up to the moat. Aerial photograph: Geospatial Information Authority of Japan, Map/aerial photo browsing service. © National Land Image Information (Color Aerial Photographs), MLIT.

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Field Notes Japan @FieldNotesJapan

4 weeks ago

Kusatsu Onsen, Gunma. The hot spring runs down the middle of the town. 4,000 litres a minute, 55°C, cooling through seven open wooden channels. Minerals settle inside the wood as it goes, and are collected as bath flakes. Free, outdoors, never closes. Full note in bio.