Japan
Honshū, Japan · Kyoto · Tokyo · Nikko
The place
Japan is an archipelago off the Pacific coast of Asia and one of the world's oldest continuous cultures, fusing ancient temples and tea ceremony with bullet trains and neon megacities. We went for the cherry blossoms — a loop through Tokyo's neon and shrines, the temples of Kyoto and Nara, Osaka's street food, and the mountain shrines of Nikkō.
Places I visited
History & facts for each spot — with a “then & now” archival photo where one exists.
1Kyoto
Kyoto, officially Kyoto City , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in the Kansai region of Japan's largest and most populous island of Honshu. As of 2020, the city had a population of 1.46 million, making it the ninth-most populous city in Japan. More than half (56.8%) of Kyoto Prefecture's population resides in the city. The city is the cultural anchor of the substantially larger Greater Kyoto, a metropolitan statistical area (MSA) home to a census-estimated 3.8 million people. It is also part of the even larger Keihanshin metropolitan area, along with Osaka and Kobe.
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Then · c.1865 
Now 2Tokyo
Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital and most populous city of Japan. The population of the city proper was over 14 million as of 2023. The Greater Tokyo Area, which includes Tokyo and parts of six neighboring prefectures, is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the world, with 33 million residents as of 2025.
Read more on Wikipedia →Archival photo: Edo Panorama old Tokyo color photochrom — Wikimedia Commons
3Nikko
Nikkō is a city in Tochigi Prefecture, Japan. As of 2 December 2020, the city's population was 80,239, in 36,531 households. The population density was 55 persons per km2. The total area of the city is 1,449.83 square kilometres (559.78 sq mi).
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Then · c.1945 
Now 4Nagoya
Nagoya is the capital and most populous city of Aichi Prefecture in Japan. It is the largest city in the Chūbu region, the fourth-most populous city in Japan, and the principal city of the Chūkyō metropolitan area, which is itself the third-most populous metropolitan area in Japan. Nagoya is located on the Pacific coast in central Honshu, and its seaport is the largest in Japan.
Read more on Wikipedia →Archival photo: Burning Nagoya Castle-2 — Wikimedia Commons
Then · c.1916 
Now 5Osaka
Osaka is a designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the second biggest prefectural city, third-most populous city proper in Japan, following the special wards of Tokyo and Yokohama. With an estimated population of 2,816,247 as of October 1, 2025 and a population density of about 12,505 people per square kilometer, it is the largest component of the Keihanshin Metropolitan Area, the second-largest metropolitan area in Japan and the 10th-largest urban area in the world with more than 19 million inhabitants.
Read more on Wikipedia →Archival photo: Sennichimae Osaka ca1916 — Wikimedia Commons
6Yokohama
Yokohama is the second-largest city in Japan by population as well as by area, and the country's most populous municipality. It is the capital and most populous city in Kanagawa Prefecture, with a population of 3.7 million in 2023. The population was the same in 2026, but steadily decreased over 2025. It lies on Tokyo Bay, south of Tokyo, in the Kantō region of the main island of Honshu. Yokohama is also the major economic, cultural, and commercial hub of the Greater Tokyo Area along the Keihin Industrial Zone.
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7Nara
Nara is the capital city of Nara Prefecture, Japan. As of 2022, Nara has an estimated population of 367,353 according to World Population Review, making it the largest city in Nara Prefecture and sixth-largest in the Kansai region of Honshu. Nara is a core city located in the northern part of Nara Prefecture bordering the Kyoto Prefecture.
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On the map
Numbered pins are the specific spots above — click any one for its story.
My photos
