Tabidachi (旅立ち, "setting out on a journey") is an independent guide to Hokuriku, Japan's Sea of Japan coast, and the places along the Hokuriku Shinkansen from Nagano to Tsuruga.
We write for travellers who want more than Tokyo and Kyoto: the Alps meeting the sea at Toyama, Kanazawa's gardens and teahouses, the ryokan valleys of Kurobe and Shibu, the crab and mackerel coasts of Fukui and Wakasa. The places we recommend most strongly, like our standout stays, are ones we have been to ourselves.
| Sources | Official sources first: operators' own sites (JR, the Kurobe Gorge Railway, parks and museums), town and prefectural tourism boards, and booking platforms for prices. We read English and Japanese sources. |
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| Dated facts | Timetables, prices and opening dates change every season. We note when a fact was checked and recheck dated items before each season; where something could not be confirmed, we say so rather than guess. |
| Awards | We quote awards exactly: a MICHELIN Key is for a hotel, a star is for a restaurant, and "Selected" is neither. |
| Corrections | If you spot something out of date, tell us and we will fix it. |
Tabidachi is free to read and carries no display advertising. Some links to hotels, rail passes and tours are affiliate links: if you book through them, the booking site pays us a small commission, at no extra cost to you. They are marked as sponsored links and open in a new tab. Our partners are Agoda (hotels), Rakuten Travel through Rakuten Advertising (ryokan and car rental) and Klook (rail passes, tickets and tours).
Commissions never decide what we recommend. We recommend hotels, passes and tours we would book ourselves, say when something is not worth it, and include places that pay us nothing. Official booking sites such as JR's Eki-net and e5489 are linked without any commission.
Very little. There are no accounts, forms or newsletters, and we set no cookies of our own.
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Photographs used under Creative Commons licences are credited on our photo credits page.