Welcome to the Sapporo Snow Festival, called Sapporo Yuki Matsuri in Japanese. Imagine yourself strolling through a winter wonderland. Snow blankets the ground, painting the city a shining white, while the scent of delicious food fills the air.
Trees are decked with twinkling lights, and statues crafted of ice and snow tower over the mingling crowds. At night, the sculptures are illuminated by entrancing, moving colored lights that give the park an enchanted atmosphere.
Many international travelers consider the flight to be the most confusing and nerve-wracking portion of their trip, from booking flights to navigating customs and airport terminals. Fortunately, it doesn’t have to be that way.
We’ve compiled a list of the most important airports in Japan, complete with access information and abbreviation codes, to help your vacation run a bit more smoothly.
The Joetsu Shinkansen connects Tokyo and Niigata, providing access to ski resorts and restorative hot springs along the way. The line has been operating since 1982. It was considered a “pet project” of Prime Minister Tanaka Kakuei, who desired to connect his hometown of Niigata with the capital, Tokyo. Part of the line follows the course of the Tohoku Shinkansen to Omiya.
The haunting whistle of a vintage train is so ingrained upon our collective consciousness that even the youngest of children often recognize the sound. Before the advent of the bullet train and the modern railway system, the steam locomotive, or SL train, was the fastest way to get around.
Japan has preserved many of these trains, some dating back to the nineteenth century. You, too, can experience the nostalgic thrill of the steam locomotive. Grab your Japan Rail Pass, and have fun exploring the following SL trains.
Do you relish filling your Instagram feed with dazzling travel photos? Where can you find the best places to capture historic or modern culture, or to make your photos pop? Consider our picks for the coolest places to brush up on your photography in Tokyo.
The following list encompasses ten of the best Instagrammable spots in Tokyo. Don’t forget to use your Japan Rail Pass for fast and easy travel.
Rising above the Tokyo skyline is a structure that looks like a conglomeration of the Eiffel Tower and the Seattle Space Needle. It is one of the tallest structures in the world, and it combines Tokyo’s futuristic character with traditional Japanese values. How?
The Tokyo Skytree was built using the same principles as the Japanese pagoda, a type of tower with many roofs stacked atop one another. Its stability springs from its central pole, called a shinbashira. In the case of the Skytree, this central pole is in the form of a massive concrete tube, fastened to the rest of the tower using fuel dampers invented by NASA. Even in an earthquake, the tower is designed to sway against this pole without sustaining harmful structural damage.
