BEYOND TOKYO

Visitors are flocking to Japan's off-thebeaten-path artistic and cultural hubs.

- GISELA WILLIAMS

There are few countries as dedicated to embedding philosophies of beauty into all aspects of culture as Japan, where the influential concepts of wabisabi (a reverence for patina and transience), kintsugi (repairing cracks with gold to honour imperfections), and shinrin-yoku (forest bathing) originate.

After a strict Covid policy resulted in the country closing its borders for almost three years, David Prior, founder of the bespoke travel company Prior, says that there is an overwhelming demand for trips to Japan. These days, rather than heading straight for the bright lights and buzz of Tokyo, many are choosing to visit the country's slower-paced cultural hubs, like Kyoto and Nikko, or more far-flung locales. Prior points to Kanazawa as an example of one of these emerging bucolic destinations, drawing in-theknow travellers to its artisanal culinary and crafts scenes. The country is also encouraging this trend; there's a push to entice young Japanese creatives to revive communities in the countryside.