Odekake Club
Issue No. 184 · January 2026 · Tokyo & Lisbon
A travel publication for travelers who want the country behind the postcard. Reporting from 38 regional editors across all 47 prefectures, with a vetted database of 3,200+ neighborhood spots — updated every nine months, and never for sale.
From the Editors
Welcome to the new issue — our 184th since we started this publication in a Shibuya back office in 2019. Six years on, we are still doing the same thing we did in our first month: walking neighborhoods, asking proprietors what they recommend, and writing down what we find so that you do not have to take our word for it.
Odekake Club began because the English-language Japan we kept reading about was a different country from the one Anna and Kenji had spent a decade editing at Condé Nast Traveler and Brutus. The shrines were the same; the kissaten, sento, and family-run ryokan were not. So we built a network — now 38 regional contributors strong, at least one in every prefecture — and a database of 3,200 independently verified spots, re-checked by a regional editor every twelve months.
Every Tuesday at 7 a.m. Tokyo time, that work arrives in your inbox as the Konbini Dispatch: three neighborhood picks, one itinerary, one thing we got wrong last month and how we fixed it. It is free, it has never carried sponsored content, and it is read by 67,400 subscribers with a 52% open rate — numbers we are prouder of than any award.
This month, we are publishing a 14-day reader-tested route from the San'in coast to the Izu Peninsula, a long read on Tokyo's last surviving dagashi shops, and our annual update to the kissaten index in Kansai. We hope you make it to the end.
— Anna Whitford & Kenji Mori
Founding editors, Odekake Club K.K.
Daikanyama, Tokyo
The Konbini Dispatch · Free, weekly
Three neighborhood picks from a regional editor, one walked itinerary, one correction. Read by 67,400 subscribers. Zero sponsored content. Unsubscribe in one click, any time.
On the ground · All 47 prefectures
Our regional network is the largest in English-language Japan publishing. Every prefecture on this list has a working editor within the last 30 days; the rest of the 47 are covered by verified long-form guides updated within the last nine months.
Reader-tested itineraries
Every itinerary we publish is walked in full by at least two contributors within the last 18 months — including the detours, the rainy-day pivots, and the trains that did not run. No theoretical routes. No AI-generated outlines.
Flagship route · January 2026
A counter-intuitive grand route that begins in Tottori and ends on a black-sand beach in eastern Izu, avoiding the Tokaido spine entirely. Walked three times between March and November 2025; priced and timetabled for the 2026 spring schedule.
Open the full itinerary →
5 nights · Tokyo neighborhoods
A neighborhood-level Tokyo itinerary built around walkable streets, two dozen independent shops, and the kissaten our editor actually goes to.
7 days · Slow ryokan circuit
Built in partnership with 86 family-run ryokan. No luxury pretensions, no onsen rankings — just the ones our editors send their own families to.
10 days · For the food-obsessed
From a 90-year-old soba counter in Kanazawa to the standing bars of Osaka's Kyobashi, with prices, opening hours, and a translator phrase card.
The vetted database · 3,200+ entries
We do not list every spot in Japan — only the ones a regional editor has walked into in the last year, paid for themselves, and written up with a clear recommendation. Every entry carries a verification date and the contributor who checked it.
01
812 verified entries
Standing bars, neighborhood pubs, and the rare 30-seat institution where the menu is still handwritten. Cross-checked against current opening hours and seasonal menus.
Browse the izakaya index →
02
416 verified entries
Old coffee shops, most founded between 1948 and 1985, where the hand-drip is still poured by the original owner or their apprentice. Catalogued with house roasts and jazz preferences.
Browse the kissaten index →
03
274 verified entries
Public bathhouses, from Tokyo's retro Showa-era sento to the mountain onsen our editors return to each winter. Includes access notes for tattooed travelers and family hours.
Browse the sentō index →
04
186 verified entries
Family-run inns vetted in partnership with 86 regional properties. Every entry has been slept in by a contributor within the last 18 months — no third-party descriptions.
Browse the ryokan index →
05
504 verified entries
Independent shops, ceramic studios, indigo ateliers, and stationers where you can buy the thing on display. Sorted by neighborhood with opening hours and English-language booking notes.
Browse the boutique index →
06
238 verified entries
Morning markets, depachika, and the weekend street markets that rotate by neighborhood. Each entry lists the day, the season, and what is actually worth queuing for.
Browse the market index →
All entries are independently verified by a regional editor within the last twelve months and fact-checked in-house for transit, pricing, and seasonal closures. Read our editorial policy →
The network · 38 regional editors
Odekake Club is the only English-language Japan publication with an active editor in every prefecture. Forty-one thousand of you read us each month, for an average of six minutes twelve seconds — 3.4× the industry benchmark for travel publishers — because the network is the product.
Selected press & awards