MICHI
"Your Local Key to Japan"
道 (michi) — path · way · road
未知 (michi) — the unknown · undiscovered
A path into the unknown.
A guidebook written by people who actually live here.
Our Mission
We help travelers see Japan the way locals do. Most travel media is written for clicks — listicles built from other listicles, recommendations no one has actually visited. MICHI is different. We're an Osaka-based hospitality company writing about the city we live in. Every recommendation comes from people who live and work here — not travel writers passing through, but a Japan-based team with roots in the neighborhoods we cover.
Locally written
Every article is written, edited, and fact-checked by people based in Osaka. We update prices and hours regularly, and we tell you when we're not sure.
No tourist traps
We won't recommend places we wouldn't go ourselves. If a spot is overhyped or only worth it for the photo, we'll say so.
Hidden gems first
Famous spots are well-covered everywhere. We'd rather show you the standing bar two stations away that no English guide has touched yet.
Plain English
We write in clear English, not Japanese-translated-to-English. We tell you whether the place has English menus, takes credit cards, and how to actually get there.
Coverage
MICHI launched in 2026 covering 24 areas across Osaka. We're expanding to Kyoto, Nara, Hyogo, and Wakayama in late 2026, and across Japan in 2027.
- 2026MICHI launches with Osaka coverage (24 areas, 9 categories)
- Late '26Expand to Kyoto, Nara, Hyogo, Wakayama (Kansai region)
- 2027National coverage — Tokyo, Hokkaido, Kyushu, Okinawa
- 2028+Multilingual: Chinese (zh-CN/zh-TW), Korean, French, Spanish
A short history of Japan
Context for the country you're about to walk through.
- 14,000 BCJōmon period — hunter-gatherer culture, the world's earliest pottery.
- 300 BCYayoi period — wet rice farming, bronze and iron arrive from the continent.
- 710Nara period — Japan's first permanent capital. Buddhism becomes state religion.
- 794Heian period — courtly Kyoto, the Tale of Genji, the birth of Japanese aesthetics.
- 1185Kamakura era — samurai class rises. First shogunate.
- 1583Toyotomi Hideyoshi builds Osaka Castle. Osaka becomes the country's commercial heart.
- 1603Edo period — 250 years of peace under the Tokugawa shogunate. Closed borders.
- 1868Meiji Restoration — Japan re-opens, modernizes at speed.
- 1945Postwar — rebuilds in a generation. Osaka's 1970 Expo announces a new Japan.
- 2025Osaka hosts Expo 2025. Inbound tourism crosses pre-pandemic highs.
Why Osaka first?
MICHI is operated by Stay Buddy Inc., a hospitality management company headquartered in Osaka. We've spent years working with international travelers here — what they ask, what they wish they'd known, and what guidebooks consistently get wrong. We're starting with what we know best.
How we work
Every guide on MICHI is built the slow way. Before an article goes live, our Osaka-based team checks the things that actually matter on the ground — we aim to visit at least three venues in person for any recommendation, and we confirm the address, opening hours, price range, and how to get there. When a detail has changed since our last visit, we update it. When we can't verify something, we tell you instead of guessing.
We use AI to help with planning and structure — mapping out what a guide should cover and how to organise it. But the research, the writing, the fact-checking, and the final call on what gets published are all made by people: the Osaka-based MICHI editorial team, led by editor-in-chief Shuhei Makigi. A human reads and verifies every article before it reaches you.
We write about the neighbourhoods we actually live and work in — not from a desk overseas.
Get in touch
Pitch us a story, correct a mistake, or just say hi.
[email protected]