Best 15 Places to Travel in 2026

Japan after dark is a completely different country. The city that operates with such extraordinary precision and such extraordinary politeness during the daylight hours transforms at night into something more complex, more layered, and in many ways more genuinely revealing of the Japanese character than anything available in the sunshine. The neon-drenched energy of Shinjuku at midnight. The lantern-lit alleys of Kyoto's Gion district at 10 PM when the last tourists have gone and the geiko move silently between appointments. The standing ramen bar where a salaryman eats alone at 1 AM with the concentrated pleasure of a man who