Last updated: January 2026
Welcome to Sora Cast. These terms of use govern your access to and use of our website. By using this site, you agree to these terms. If you don't agree, that's fine, but you should stop using the site. We're not trying to be difficult. We just need to set some ground rules so everyone knows what to expect. These terms are written in plain English because we believe legal documents should be readable by humans.
What This Site Is
Sora Cast is an editorial website that publishes neighborhood guides, food recommendations, transit advice, and travel commentary about Japan. All content is provided for informational and entertainment purposes only. We are a media company. We are not a travel agency. We do not sell tours, book accommodations, arrange transportation, or provide travel planning services. We write about our experiences and share our opinions. That's the entire scope of what we do.
The information on this site represents our personal experiences and opinions. We write about places we've visited, food we've eaten, and neighborhoods we've walked through. We make every effort to ensure accuracy, but we are human, and humans make mistakes. Prices change. Restaurants close. Train schedules get updated. We do our best to keep everything current, but we can't guarantee that every detail is accurate at the moment you read it. The world changes faster than we can type.
Not Professional Advice
Nothing on this site constitutes professional travel advice. We're writers sharing our experiences, not licensed travel agents or tour operators. If you need professional travel planning assistance, we recommend consulting a licensed travel agent or the official tourism boards of the destinations you plan to visit. Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO) has excellent resources and their information is more authoritative than ours on matters of visas, regulations, and official travel policies.
We are not liable for any decisions you make based on the information on this site. If you visit a restaurant we recommended and don't like it, that's unfortunate, but it's not our fault. If you follow our directions and get lost, welcome to the experience of exploring Japan. If you spend more money than you expected, we can't help with that either. Travel involves uncertainty, and you accept that uncertainty when you decide to travel. We write about our experiences. Your experiences may differ. That's life.
Copyright and Content
All content on this site, including text, photographs, and design elements, is owned by Sora Cast Media LLC unless otherwise noted. We hold the copyright to all original content. This means you can't copy our articles and publish them on your own site. You can't use our photos without permission. You can't republish our guides under your own name. These things have happened, and they're not okay. We put significant work into creating this content, and we expect people to respect that.
You are welcome to share links to our content on social media, in emails, or on your own website. We appreciate it when people recommend our guides. You can quote short excerpts with proper attribution. If you want to use our content in a way that goes beyond personal sharing, contact us and we'll probably say yes if you ask nicely. We're reasonable people. We just want to be asked.
Our photographs are the property of Sora Cast Media LLC or the individual photographers credited. They are not stock photos and are not available for reuse without explicit written permission. This includes using them as wallpaper, in presentations, or on social media. Just because you can right-click and save an image doesn't mean you should. Sam shoots on film. Those photos represent real work and real expense. Respect that.
User Contributions
If you contact us through our contact form or email, you retain ownership of your message, but you grant us permission to use the content of your message for editorial purposes. This means if you send us a tip about a great restaurant, we might check it out and mention it in a guide. If you correct an error, we'll fix it and credit you on our corrections page. We won't publish your email address or full name without your permission.
Don't send us anything you don't want us to use. Don't submit copyrighted material that you don't own. Don't send spam, promotional content, or anything illegal. We reserve the right to ignore any message that falls into these categories. We read every email we receive, but we don't respond to spam, sales pitches, or anything that seems automated.
External Links
Our site contains links to external websites, including train company sites, tourism boards, and occasionally booking platforms. We don't control these sites and aren't responsible for their content or practices. We link to sites we believe are reputable, but the internet changes quickly, and a good site can become a bad one overnight. Click external links at your own discretion. Use the same judgment you would use clicking any link on the internet.
Some of our external links may be affiliate links. This means we might earn a small commission if you make a purchase after clicking our link. We only use affiliate links for services we genuinely use and recommend. We always disclose affiliate relationships when they exist. Affiliate commissions help fund the site and don't cost you anything extra. If you don't want us to earn commission, you can navigate directly to the service without clicking our link. We're fine with that.
Disclaimer of Warranties
This site is provided "as is" without any warranties of any kind, either express or implied. We don't guarantee that the site will always be available, that it will be free of errors, or that it will be secure. We do our best, but we're a small team with limited resources. Sometimes things break. Sometimes we make typos. Sometimes a page loads slowly. We're working on it. If you find a bug, let us know and we'll try to fix it.
We specifically disclaim any implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, non-infringement, and any warranties that may arise out of course of dealing, course of performance, or usage of trade. If you don't know what any of that means, don't worry about it. Your lawyers do. This is standard legal language that basically says we're not making promises we can't keep.
Limitation of Liability
To the maximum extent permitted by law, Sora Cast Media LLC shall not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, including lost profits, lost data, or business interruption, arising out of or relating to your use of this site. Our total liability for any claim arising from your use of the site shall not exceed the amount you paid us to use the site, which is zero dollars, because the site is free. We're sorry if that's not satisfying, but it's the reality of providing free content on the internet.
Governing Law
These terms are governed by the laws of the State of Texas, United States of America, without regard to its conflict of law provisions. Any dispute arising from these terms or your use of the site shall be resolved in the courts of Travis County, Texas. If you're not in Texas and this jurisdiction seems inconvenient, well, we're in Texas and it works for us. We chose Texas because that's where our company is registered. It wasn't a strategic legal decision. It was a "we live here" decision.
Changes to These Terms
We may update these terms from time to time. Changes will be posted on this page with an updated date. Your continued use of the site after changes constitutes acceptance of the new terms. If you don't agree with the changes, stop using the site. We'll try to make any significant changes obvious, but it's your responsibility to check this page periodically. The date at the top tells you when we last updated these terms.
Severability
If any provision of these terms is found to be invalid or unenforceable by a court of competent jurisdiction, that provision will be struck and the remaining provisions will continue in full force and effect. This is standard legal language that means if one part of these terms doesn't hold up in court, the rest of the terms still apply. We hope it never comes to that, but we have to mention it anyway.
Severability
If any provision of these terms is found to be invalid or unenforceable, that provision will be struck and the remaining provisions will continue in full force and effect. This is standard legal language that means if one part of these terms doesn't hold up in court, the rest still apply. We hope it never comes to that.
Contact
If you have questions about these terms, contact us at:
Sora Cast Media LLC
1100 Congress Ave
Austin, Texas 78701
USA