I tell great stories.

We returned to Tokyo Saturday, Nov. 22 and, after checking into Hotel Fukudaya near Shibuya Station, roamed the grounds of the Imperial Palace. The imperial family still lives inside the palace, so that building’s only open to the public for two days a year, and this wasn’t one of them. Amanda and I love few…

There’s an old Japanese adage that says, “In Kyoto, they go bankrupt by overspending on clothing. In Osaka, they do it by overspending on food.” I don’t know if that’s true, but there’s no question Osaka is one of the world’s leading food cities. Author Michael Booth calls it, simply, “the world’s greatest food city.”…

After a pleasant, three-hour ride aboard a Shinkansen bullet train, we encountered one of Kyoto’s most famous hangouts, Nishiki Market, immediately upon exiting Kyoto Station. It’s a tough place to navigate with three bags each. Imagine a shopping mall at Christmastime, only most stores are street-food-style eateries. It’s narrow, overcrowded and an embarrassment of culinary…

Our next leg, an overnighter in the resort town of Hakone, was the one that worried me most. Our first step was to take the subway to Odawara Station on the southwestern outskirts of Tokyo. From there it’s a 38-minute bus ride up a narrow, switchback road to the bus stop corresponding to the hotel…

Shinjuku means “new station” in Japanese, because back near the start of the Edo period — call it the 1630s — it was the site of a new waystation along the Koshu Kaido, a major highway to the nearby capital city of Edo. These days it’s a ward, or administrative neighborhood, of the city of…

As amazing as Tokyo Disney Resort is, it isn’t Japan. It isn’t even Tokyo. And while our plans to visit Japan began years ago as a fantasy about visiting Disney’s Far Eastern fantasyland, our 2024 trip to Thailand left us doubly hungry for an authentic, Asian adventure. Like most Americans, I had some knowledge of…

After numerous visits to California’s Disneyland over the decades, I could probably navigate that park with my eyes closed. Not so Tokyo Disneyland, which is just like Walt’s original in many ways but just different enough to throw a native Los Angeleno for a loop. Upon passing through the gates, you’re greeted not by the…

There are plenty of people, folks who’ve had the opportunity to visit countries all over the world, who say Tokyo DisneySea is the best theme park anywhere. I, unfortunately, don’t have the life experience to make such a sweeping assessment, but if it turns out they’re right I won’t be one bit surprised. Believe it…

As a couple, our Japan story began a few months before we were married. Call it early 2011. We were interested in going to Disney World in Orlando for our honeymoon. We’d both visited the Most Magical Place on Earth, but our experiences there had been mixed so we were excited to try it under…

… pation for these upcoming entertainment dates. Surely they’ll excite some of you, too, so update your calendars accordingly. SEPTEMBER 9 Only Murders in the Building (season 5 premiere on Hulu)9 The Secret of Secrets (Dan Brown novel release)12 The Long Walk (Stephen King movie release)17 The Morning Show (season 4 premiere on Apple TV+)24…