Have you seen our latest video on Niigata?  Check it out by clicking here.  Niigata is on the northwestern side of Japan and sits on a large flat plain along the coast.  After departing our family home on Lake Nojiri, we travelled to the Niigata area where we stopped at three unique museums.

As I’ve said before, just about anywhere you go in Japan, if you stop in a modestly sized town, you’re going to encounter a museum or two.  Even some of the smallest towns (and Niigata is not small by any means), you’ll find such museums on local history, crafts or quirky subjects.  South of Niigata, you’ll find three such museums.

We already did a full video on the Shirone Kite Museum which is the largest in Japan.  We include it in this video, but also the Tsubame Industrial Museum which sounds off-putting, but turned out to be fascinating.  Also included is a segment on Nagaoka Fireworks Museum (which happens to be free) and goes into depth about the largest fireworks display/competition in Japan that takes place nearby.  Interestingly, when we visited these museums, we were the only western visitors, and in two of the museums, we were the ONLY visitors.  So this is a great way to escape the crowds of Tokyo, Osaka and Kyoto.  Check out the video here!

The post Niigata Is Nice! appeared first on Uncharted Japan Blog.

Those who follow us know that we love Nagoya, perhaps the most underrated large city in Japan.  But in the last 48 hours this amazing city has suffered a deluge in which up to four inches of rain fell in one hour!  That is mind boggling.  Given that Nagoya is a highly urbanized area with most of the ground surface covered in asphalt and concrete, the water had few places to go, so it rose out of the banks of the rivers and into the streets, buildings and of course down into the underground transportation network.

This video published by the Manila Times includes footage of places we have walked and featured in prior videos.  This includes the area around Oasis 21 on Hisayaodori which is a popular boulevard for shopping and dining.  In the video I identified one of the exit stairs for the subway from which we have exited.  It is surreal to know that we have walked in these spots which are now under water.

Another video from Nagoya TV News includes scenes from inside buildings and water spewing out of maholes in the streets like geysers 20 to 40 feet into the air.  I checked in with a few people we know in Nagoya and fortunately, they made it through okay and the waters have now returned to the banks of the rivers.  The above photo was taken by one of them as he was leaving the library.  So the intrepid Japanese municipal staff and railroads will begin the process of drying out and getting things back in order.  Nagoya will dry out and once again be one of our top choices for visiting while in Japan.  Check out a couple of our Nagoya videos including this one that compares Nagoya to Tokyo!

(video credits: The Manila Times and Nagoya TV News, public domain)

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In June I received an email from Ari and Aki of Japan Travel Pros inviting us to be guests on one of their upcoming podcasts.  It was a thrill to be asked by someone so knowledgeable residing in Japan who considered us worthy of being heard.

Ari is an American living in Japan for quite a few years in Kobe and together with his wife, Aki launched Japan Travel Pros to provide Japan trip consultations, planning, and itineraries primarily for westerners planning trips to Japan.  I visited their website and listened to some previous podcasts, finding them to be very professional and entertaining.  So why not?!

We hopped on a Zoom call one evening here (morning there) and spent over two hours getting to know each other and sharing our personal experiences of Japan travel and why we created Uncharted Japan in the first place.  It was a lot of fun chatting back and forth as though we were in our den, talking with friends over coffee.  The podcast is now out and you can click one of these links to listen on Spotify or Apple podcasts.   We most sincerely appreciate Ari and Aki giving us the opportunity to share our experience about Japan.  Here at Uncharted Japan we are not travel agents, nor do we book anything or lead tours, but if you need a hands on guide to help you with reservations and trip planning, we hope you’ll reach out to Japan Travel Pros!

Thanks Ari and Aki for helping us get the word out about Uncharted Japan!

The post Our First Guest Podcast! appeared first on Uncharted Japan Blog.