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Follow unhurried travel journals that favor lingering conversations, local routines, and quietly unfolding days.
Why Subscribe to Tortoise Journals?
This is where I tinker with thoughts, words and emotions too big to bottle but I’ll certainly try. A place for experimentation that I have a feeling just might work out.
If you like thoughtful travel stories with a personal lens, slow travel essays and guides for savoring places instead of collecting checkpoints, you’re in the right place.
Latest Stories from Our Newsletter
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Flash Fiction: Critter
“My daughter with a broom held over her head — crash! — there went a pane and a half dozen critters into the air.”
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Hakone
“A mist hovered over the great lake in the early morning… spilling over my shoes, and muffling sounds from the forest and distant ropeway crowds.”
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The Black Kite Above the Kamogawa
Along the Kamogawa’s banks, their courtship displays unfold in full view. Curtailing through the air on an invisible field line, they dance.
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Where I Learnt to Go Slowly
“Kyoto is quiet. Broken only by the gear shift of a passing bike… Kyoto, you see, will always leave you a little surprise tucked away.”
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As If I’d Been Here Before
“Walking through Japan is a delight to the senses. The put-put rumble of a kei truck, a sun-browned hand resting on the open window edge, the waft of kicked soil and fuel at its heels.”
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On a Southbound Train to Nagasaki
“By midday, I go in search of castella cake… Nagasaki dims. Rain falls in sheets and a river opens in the hilly streets.”
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Learning the Language of the Wind
“Walking through town feels like a game of hide-and-seek with the air… The result is wind that doesn’t just pass through the city, but actively participates in it.”