In Shinshu, spring doesn’t arrive all at once—it hums its way in.One of the earliest signs is the low, steady ...

In Tokyo, hanami, cherry blossom viewing, feels increasingly out of sync with the rhythm it once kept. The pale blossoms ...

In Shinshu, the long winter begins to loosen its grip sometime in March. Snow retreats in patches, and the distant ...

Up in the northern reaches of Nagano, where the mountains seem to fold gently around the town of Iiyama, there’s ...

As I put on the amado storm screens in preparation for winter, I keep discovering the same stubborn little intruders ...

Winter in Shinshu arrives with a quiet certainty. The rice fields turn pale and dry, the mountains settle into their ...

Autumn in Shinshu begins close to the ground, where the damp earth softens and mushrooms begin to rise through the ...

When early summer arrives in Japan, sidewalks in many old neighborhoods turn a mottled purple. The stains come from fallen ...

After a long, gray October in Tokyo—the wettest one I can remember—I finally returned to Shinshu. Usually, October in Japan ...