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An ALMANAK is still, at heart, a guide: a way to make sense of seasons, places and the choices that fill your calendar. January continues to lean into that spirit, stretching from Japan’s snow country to the cellars of Burgundy and back to the bars and dining rooms that define our cities right now.
January’s travel arc runs strongly through Japan, where snow, trains and the city lights all tie EAT >, DRINK >, SKI >, CAFE >, and STAY together into one long itinerary. Our travels in December and January across Japan have resulted in reviews of some of the finest places to eat, drink, ski and play.
STAY > In Tokyo, ANDAZ Tokyo Toranomon Hills is framed as one of the city’s most polished luxury lifestyle hotels, a high‑rise refuge wrapped around the upper floors of Toranomon Hills, where timber, stone and soft light meet floor‑to‑ceiling views of Tokyo Tower, the bay and the government quarter. The tone is deliberately calm: business‑district efficiency softened with warmth and play, service on first‑name terms, and a design language that leans residential rather than ostentatious.
The TRUNK(HOTEL) YOYOGI PARK is a design-led, boutique bolthole on the edge of Yoyogi Park that channels low-key Tokyo cool, rooftop glamour, and neighbourhood warmth in equal measure. This is a place for those who want Shibuya’s energy within walking distance, but prefer to wake up to trees, terrace light, and the scent of wood-fired pizza drifting up from below.
EAT > The city’s dining continues that cinematic feeling. Abysse in Ebisu is cast as a quietly dramatic fine‑dining room where French technique, Tokyo elegance and Japan’s coastal abundance converge around seafood and the seasons. Sushi Mizukami in Chiyoda offers a contrasting kind of intensity, a nine‑seat counter in Ichibancho where Edomae tradition, long‑honed technique and a Kyoto‑like calm combine into one of Tokyo’s most focused sushi experiences. Still on Tokyo Sushi, Akasaka Sushi Ito in Minato’s back streets joins that run of Tokyo counters, delivering a quietly confident, classically framed sushi experience that is refined without ever tipping into showy theatre. Deeply rooted in old‑school traditions, it is the sort of place where counter craft, calm service and well‑judged value make it as compelling for a languid lunch as for a more celebratory omakase dinner.
Beyond the capital, Uonuma Cuisine Murangozzo in Yuzawa is positioned as an essential snow‑country table, a place to understand Uonuma through hyper‑local produce, thoughtful technique and deep hospitality just moments from the shinkansen tracks.
Up in Iwate, Sushi Nagata at Appi Kogen brings that same omakase precision to the mountains, a compact, low‑lit counter on the second floor of the ANA Crowne Plaza Resort where Sanriku’s deep‑sea richness is handled with measured, almost ceremonial care. It feels more like a city sushi‑ya that has quietly migrated to the slopes than a typical hotel restaurant, and it reinforces the idea that serious fish can live comfortably alongside serious powder.
SKI > mountains as journeys, not just vertical
January’s SKI coverage stays in Japan but stretches the palette: From the town of Yuzawa there are eighteen ski resorts all within a short trip, each with a distinct style, terrain and personality. Naeba Resort, Ishiuchi Maruyama, GALA Resort, Yuzawa Kogen, Maiko and Kagura each are sketched less as interchangeable “resorts” and more as distinct moods within a broader snow culture.
Ishiuchi Maruyama is introduced as one of Niigata’s classic big‑hill resorts, with long, rolling fall‑line runs, serious night skiing and a sleek new lift‑and‑terrace scene that makes it feel more polished than its old‑school roots suggest, all within easy reach of Tokyo.
Naeba Ski Resort wrapped around its classic 1970s hotel, is painted as a big, buzzy playground combining race heritage, family‑friendly terrain and straightforward Joetsu Shinkansen access from the capital, turning it into an easy weekend habit as much as a destination. while Naeba Prince Hotel leans into its sprawling, slightly surreal, ski‑in/ski‑out identity, with an upgraded Club Floor finally giving Naeba a more premium edge.
Up to the north of Honshu near the cities of Morioko & Amori, Appi Kogen is presented as simply “Appi” – a resort known for champagne powder, broad ski‑in/ski‑out convenience and a mix of Western and Japanese food options that quietly nudges it toward “Ski Bali”‑style ease without losing local character. On the accommodation front, ANA Crowne Plaza Resort Appi Kogen delivers a classic slope‑side, big‑resort experience with generous hot springs and broad facilities,
Across these mountains, the through‑line is the same one December sketched in North America and Europe: modern ski travel is as much about atmosphere, access and ritual as it is about snow depth or vertical metres.
DRINK > bars with a sense of place
Off the mountain, January’s DRINK stories continue to chase bars that understand their own context, from onsen valleys to CBD laneways. In Akiu, near Sendai, Great Dane Brewing is drawn as a Midwestern‑style brewpub dropped into one of Tohoku’s storied hot‑spring valleys, a Wisconsin‑born, Sendai‑brewed outpost where craft beer, pine‑lined hills and a low‑key road‑trip energy come together.
Cheers
Crispin
EATS >
