Marij Beun

When Nick went to Japan for his third trip in 2022, I came along for the first time. Mostly out of curiosity — I didn’t really know what to expect. What I found was a country that asks you to breathe a little slower. It started at a tea ceremony in Kanazawa, where the master told us a single perfect bowl of tea could take an entire afternoon. And it kept showing up — a quiet temple courtyard in the rain, the tap of woodwork inside a ryokan, the stillness of a coastal village just after sunrise.

We’ve been back twice more since, including the 2024 family trip where Nick proposed at Suzuka Forest Garden, with the plum blossoms in full bloom around us. I write and edit at Guide2Japan.com, with a soft spot for the places you’d skip if your itinerary were any tighter.