“Walking across Kintaikyo’s rolling, hill-like arches brings with it that uniquely exhilarating feeling of touching history with every footstep.”

“In a flash, the dancing women transform into demons, their hideous faces glowering in the mist above our helpless heroes as the wood flute unleashes a desperate flourish, and the drums and cymbals thrash a wild frenzy.”

“Walking through the workshops surrounding the museum, one can see other craftsmen at work, too — an engraver, a scabbard maker, a sword polisher, and more. Watching them work felt like peering back through the mists of time.”

“In 1965, the first Japanese jeans, produced by Big John in Kojima, hit stores with smashing success. Soon more Japanese jeans makers joined the fray, and the floundering Okayama textile industry emerged from the shallows with fresh wind in its newly loomed, indigo sails.”

“You may be wondering why anyone would go out of their way to make a delicacy engineered to look so underwhelming? The answer, deliciously enough, is rebellion.”

“As we watched the sunset at last over the shimmering waves of Ushimado, we lost all sense of time and place. Were we travelers along the beautiful Setouchi Sea? Or Mediterranean island hoppers watching the sun sink into the Aegean? Either way—there in that moment, we felt perfectly at home.”