About NipponStays

Mount Fuji from the air — one of many reminders that in Japan, where you stay can shape the whole trip.
Mount Fuji from the air — one of many reminders that in Japan, where you stay can shape the whole trip.

NipponStays is written by one person, not a content farm. Here's who that person is and how this site gets made.

Who writes this

Hideaki Yasukawa and his child on the Kosugidani Bridge while trekking in Yakushima
On the trail in Yakushima with my kid — the kind of trip this site is written from.

I'm Hideaki Yasukawa, a Tokyo-based technology architect and lifelong Japan traveler. I was born in Japan, live here, and travel here — roughly 60 hotel nights a year, mostly with my family.

  • 44 of Japan's 47 prefectures visited. Akita, Tottori, and Ehime are still on the list — when I finally get there, you'll read about it here first.
  • I write about places I have actually lived. Born in Kyoto, ten years in Osaka, five in Nagoya, and thirty years in Tokyo — the big-city guides here are written from residence, not research trips. My budget-Tokyo hotel experience is thinner than my luxury-side experience, and the articles say so; on the other hand, I have worked and dined my way through most of Tokyo’s luxury-hotel restaurants over the years.
  • Marriott Bonvoy Lifetime Platinum Elite. Eighteen years at Platinum or above and 822 nights worldwide. I've stayed in enough hotels, in Japan and everywhere else, to know exactly what “from ¥9,000” should get you — and when it doesn't.
  • Winters in Hokkaido. Kiroro is my home mountain — an average of 38 ski days a season over the last five winters, worked around a weekday job and a rental car from Otaru. The Kiroro and Yoichi guides on this site are written from that habit, not from a press trip.
  • Travel content is my former day job. Before NipponStays, I directed owned-media travel content at a major Japanese airline group, building guides for people who travel to and around Japan frequently. The editorial habits on this site — dated fact-checks, named sources, honest expectation-setting — come from that work.
  • Family travel is my default mode. I know which hotels actually fit four people, which station exits work with a stroller, and what a 7-year-old can and cannot do on a ski slope, because I've tested all of it.
  • Trains, airports, and hotel logistics are the things I care about most — walking routes from the correct exit, first-train times for early flights, and whether "5-min walk" is real.

Like many people in Japan, I rediscovered my own country during the COVID years, when overseas trips stopped and domestic ones didn't. That period convinced me Japan's regional destinations are underrated and under-explained in English — which is why this site exists.

Beyond writing NipponStays, I build small travel apps. One is AirportStamp, a free iPhone app for mapping and rating the Japanese airports you have visited (on the App Store).

How this site is researched

Every article follows the same rules:

  • Operating status is verified. No hotel appears here unless its operation can be confirmed from official or primary sources. Closures and renovations get noted when we find them.
  • Prices are floors, not promises. Rates are written as "from ¥X,XXX" and vary by season. We re-check and update them periodically.
  • Photos are mine. The original photography on this site — from Kiroro's slopes to Otowa's abalone pie — was taken on my own trips.
  • First-hand where possible, transparent where not. When I write about a place I know personally, I say so. When information comes from research rather than a visit, the article hedges accordingly and points to official sources.
  • AI assists; a human is accountable. AI tools help with outlining, research collation and first-draft editing. All travel experiences, photographs and recommendations are my own, and factual claims go through a dated verification pass before and after publication. Nothing is labelled "verified" unless we can say when and against what it was checked.
  • Updates are part of the job. Timetables, ticket systems, and hotel line-ups change. Articles carry "as of" framing and get revised when facts change.

How this site makes money

Some hotel and service links on this site are affiliate links (Agoda, Klook, Airalo, Radical Storage, Welcome Pickups). If you book through them, NipponStays may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Recommendations are not for sale: hotels are chosen on merit, and no property or brand has paid to appear here.

Corrections and contact

If you spot an error — a closed restaurant, an outdated price, a wrong exit number — please tell me. Corrections make this site better for the next traveler.

I read everything, and factual corrections are usually applied within a few days.