About

I first came to Japan at eighteen. The trip was supposed to last three weeks.

It lasted four months.

At twenty-three I came back properly — moved to Tokyo with one bag and no particular plan beyond staying. That was fifteen years ago. I am still here, still discovering, still occasionally surprised by places I thought I knew.

The Unbeaten Path started as a notebook. Restaurants I didn’t want to forget. A ryokan in the mountains where the owner serves dinner by lantern light. A ramen counter in Kanazawa that seats seven, opens at eleven, and closes when the pot is empty. The quality of silence on the Kumano Kodō three hours after the last tour group has passed.

Notes I kept for myself, then shared with travellers I was guiding, then decided to write properly.

This newsletter is for people who already know Japan — who have been before, perhaps many times, and feel the pull to go deeper. Not contrarianism for its own sake. A genuine belief that the best experiences tend to be quiet ones, and that restraint is its own kind of luxury.

A new issue every week. Free, always.