Heart of Rural Japan: GIFU — Where Japan Remains

Heart of Rural Japan is a podcast about the Japan most travelers never see. Hosted by Ayami — a rural Gifu native, cultural guide, and founder of Rural Japan — each episode takes you deep into the villages, ancient roads, and living traditions of the Nakasendo highway, in the mountains of Nakatsugawa, Ena, and Gifu. This is not just a travel guide. It's a window into a world that is quietly disappearing. The farming communities, sacred festivals, tea farms, sake breweries, and local Ji-Kabuki theaters that still breathe in the mountains of Gifu.