travel/ Jul 3, 2026
The Mountain Takes Reservations
Mount Fuji now runs like a hotel — and that's the most honest thing to happen to it in decades.

Mount Fuji now runs like a hotel — and that's the most honest thing to happen to it in decades.

A ring of woven grass, a paper stand-in, and a culture that schedules its mid-year reset for 30 June.

Once the rains lift, the real season begins — Japanese summer as something you get through, not a holiday.

Father's Day in Japan is Mother's Day's muted sibling — read from the department-store gift counter, where the rule is: give him something to consume.

A Kyoto native on going out in the rain on purpose — and the quieter ajisai temples when the famous ones are heaving.
