japan – Julian Worker Travel – A few ideas for your next trip in every direction

In the footsteps of Hokusai on Mount Fuji

Katherine Rundell explores the scenes immortalised in the artist’s masterpieces, from the chestnut fields of Nagano to Fuji itself

Stairway to heaven: hiking ancient pilgrimage trails in southern Japan

Mountainous Kumano is the holy ground of Japan and pilgrims have been trekking there for centuries. Shrines, mist, forests and waterfalls combine to create an entrancing hike

Vegging out: why eating Okinawa-style is the healthy option

Okinawa in Japan is fabled for its residents’ longevity. A fact attributed to a diet of ‘major on vegetables, minor on meat’. Now the island’s restaurants are making it available to visitors, too

Japan’s food halls: the perfect place to pick up presents and picnics

Japanese department stores are places of wonder, where staff greet customers with low bows and the basements are temples to elaborately packaged delights

Cherry blossom around the world – in pictures

From Harrogate to Tokyo cherry blossom is in full bloom at the peak of spring

In the pink: Osaka and Kyoto’s cherry blossom beauty – in pictures

Japan’s sakura (cherry blossom) season gave photographer Will Fearon plenty to contemplate and capture on his travels through the country

Japan’s standing-room-only steak houses

At Ikinari restaurants, in Tokyo and several other cities, low cost but high-quality cuts of beef – including prized wagyu – are eaten at communal standing stations

Perfect touch: man-made works that dovetail with nature – in pictures

From a red bridge emerging from mist in rural Japan to a tiered stream stepping down a hillside, Toshio Shibata’s photographs – gathered for a new exhibition in New York – take a positive view of our impact on the landscape

Kyushu island, Japan: shrines and shugendo on the Kunisaki peninsula

A walking holiday on the Japanese island takes in rice-covered valleys, forests of cedar and bamboo, and the spirit of shugendo – though fortunately not its testing rituals

Nicolás Obregón: ‘Tokyo is a million cities … and it’s full of secrets’

A city that can be ‘Blade Runner and old Japan all at once’ inspired Blue Light Yokohama novelist Nicolás Obregón – who is in thrall to Tokyo’s towers, street food and quiet corners