Offbeat Japan

Aogashima is a very mysterious island. Online, always the same photos taken from a helicopter, sometimes photoshopped. But what’s really hidden behind these lava walls?

It’s not an easy encounter. I’d already visited a few years ago, but a gathering storm made it impossible for me to approach these monsters and stroke their silken fur.

I just had to get close to the rusty old flying saucer spotted from above.

Let's go discover this very special haikyo with a man who is equally special, or maybe not.

"Jordy, did you give up the haikyo?" Here’s my answer, distilled into a new Best Of covering the past two years.

Located in the cool depths of a mine, in the heartlands of central Japan, the design of this neutrino detector is mind-boggling.

Hidden below the Tokyo streets is a true superhero – a bitumen-washed facility with state-of-the-art technology and an architectural beauty to put a Corbusier or two in the shade. This is G-Cans, also...

Aokigahara, known as Japan’s suicide forest, is a unique place in other ways. Silent, no wildlife in sight, magnificent trees and shrubs, and really easy to lose yourself in.

Nara Dreamland was an abandoned amusement park. I've just spent a year in Nara (2015-2016), a kilometre from the park, so it's time for me to write a little epilogue.

So everyday, I was walking from Ginza and Shiodome and on the way, here it was: the Nakagin Capsule Tower.