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While Kyoto draws visitors to its temples and Tokyo pulls in the pop culture crowd, Osaka is where Japan comes to party. The food stalls along Dotonbori smell like takoyaki and grilled squid. The bar...
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cultureI have lived in Kyoto for a long time. Long enough to remember when a 5kg bag of rice at the supermarket cost ¥2,000 and nobody gave it a second thought. Long enough to have watched Japan go from a cou...
travelJapan is building a pre-entry screening system called JESTA — Japan Electronic System for Travel Authorization. If you hold a US, UK, Australian, Canadian, or EU passport, it will eventually apply to y...
travelJapan Travel Costs 2026: What's Actually Changed and What It Means for Your Trip You've seen the headlines. Japan is raising visa fees for the first time since 1978. The departure tax is tripling. Kyo...
30+ years in Kyoto, Japan
We're James & Akari, a Kyoto-based couple with 30+ years of Japan experience between us. We built Romancing Japan to share the Japan we know — beyond the guidebooks.
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