From Samurai Gardens to Subtropical Shores: Japan's Next Great Escape - Kanazawa & Okinawa

With its fast trains, impeccable bento boxes and cities bursting with neon light and color, Japan has become an object of collective obsession in the United States. The iconography we’ve built up around this archipelago nation is so vivid it elicits gasps of joy or jealousy whenever travel plans are mentioned—and lately, it seems like truly everyone is going. Most American travelers, understandably, concentrate their time on the cultural capitals of the main island, Honshu, spending several nigh...