Sipping sake: a dispatch from one of Japan's oldest breweries

I felt an instant pang of regret on my most recent Target shopping spree. 

While omakase—which means “I'll leave it up to you” in Japanese—is typically a serious and studious meal comprised of small courses decided on by the chef, Sushi By Scratch Restaurants riffs on the dining format by infusing it with some, well, fun.

After moving from North Carolina to Okinawa in 2022, my family was overwhelmed but fascinated by our surroundings. One familiar monument made us feel right at home: McDonald's two golden arches. 

For about the price of a typical single-family home in Mississippi, ultra-rich adventurers can spend three weeks traversing the world via private jet thanks on an Abercrombie & Kent "air cruise."

I've had the luxury of sitting underneath glass-dome windows as my Rocky Mountaineer train barreled between Colorado's mountains.

When visiting Tokyo, it’s key to book a luxurious hotel that feels like a serene retreat removed from the crowds. After all, Japan’s sprawling capital is populated by 37 million people, making it the single largest city in the world.

There's pretty much only one reason I ever step inside a 7-Eleven in the US, and it's when I'm craving the artificial sweetness of a blue-raspberry Slurpee. 

With its tech-centric entertainment, ancient temples, lightning fast rail system and traditional art forms, Japan offers a fascinating mix of the new and the old. Between rural Hokkaido and the tropical islands of Okinawa, you’re bound to find something to embrace as a curious backpacker. And with the following insider tips, backpacking Japan can be both memorable and affordable.

Have you ever wanted luck and happiness for an entire year? All you have to do is slip on a fundoshi (a traditional Japanese loincloth), get purified with freezing cold water in the middle of February and join 9000 other Japanese men – with their 18,000 bare cheeks – in fighting over one of two lucky shingi sticks. Piece of cake, right?

Farm-to-table cuisine comes with Japanese influences in the Estonian capital, where local staples like kohuke (a curd-cheese and chocolate dessert) are reanimated with novel flavours like sea buckthorn, green plum and spruce shoots. Fermented and preserved local vegetables take pride of place on the menus of cool, contemporary restaurants, while hearty meat pies, colourful dumplings and Nordic cream buns are venerable favourites.

What makes a food strange? After all, plenty of people shudder at the thought of Scottish favourite haggis, while others wouldn’t touch escargots or frogs’ legs (all of them delicious, by the way).

Kanazawa City has an array of cultural sights, but there’s a thriving folk-craft scene to get excited about, too. Recognized by UNESCO as a City of Crafts and Folk Art, you’ll find a range of exquisite traditional arts and crafts represented in Kanazawa. From Kanazawa gold leaf to delicate embroidery, local porcelain to colourful washi umbrellas, there’s good reason as to why the UNESCO Creative Cities Network has registered Kanazawa as a ‘City of Handicrafts’, with 22 kinds of traditional crafts among the city’s treasures.