Ireland’s groundbreaking marriage equality vote will be five years old this May – but have you seen one major ad campaign to attract the sought after LGBT tourist market to our shores? Isn’t there more to our attractions than castles, golf, and The Quiet Man? It turns out that there is one country that’s streets ahead of us in terms of outreach to this lucrative global market. The surprise is that it’s on the other side of the planet. On your first visit to Japan, you’ll find it features a very Irish combination of tradition and modernity, a place where the past and the future seem to coexist so seamlessly it will often remind you of home. And if there’s one Japanese city the exemplifies that creative exchange between tradition and modernity it’s Osaka, located in the Kansai region.