About
Quiet Harbor Path

Notes on the buildings, spaces and silences of Japan

Cookie Policy

Last updated: October 28, 2026

This policy explains how quietharborpath.com uses cookies and similar technologies.

What cookies are

Cookies are small text files placed on your device by websites. They help sites work, remember preferences and measure traffic.

How we use them

Your choices

Non-essential cookies are used only if you click "Accept" in our banner. You can change your choice by clearing cookies for this site, and you can block cookies in your browser settings (Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Edge all provide this under Privacy settings).

A plain list of what we keep

The journal itself saves exactly one thing on your device: a local-storage entry called qhp_ck. It contains a single digit — 1 if you pressed Accept, 0 if you pressed Decline — so that the banner does not interrupt you on every article. It has no expiry date of its own; it disappears when you clear site data or press "Change cookie settings" below. We cannot read it from our server, and it does not identify you.

Analytics and advertising, honestly

The categories above are written so that the banner can govern them, but at present Quiet Harbor Path runs no analytics and no advertising code. Reading an essay about Katsura or the Church of the Light leaves no trace with an outside measurement company. Should that change, this page will first be updated with the name of each service, what it stores, how long it keeps it and where the data goes — and none of it will load unless you have accepted.

Typefaces

The masthead and essays are set in Fraunces and Inter, with Noto Serif JP for the Japanese terms we use, such as 間 and 縁側. These fonts are delivered by Google Fonts, which receives your IP address and browser information when the page asks for them. According to Google, the Fonts service does not set cookies.

Photographs and illustrations

The photographs that accompany our essays are kept on our own server, so opening an essay does not make your browser contact a photo agency or an image host while you read.

The monthly letter

Subscribing to our monthly letter, or writing to us through the contact page, sets no cookie. How we treat your email address and your message is explained in the Privacy Policy.

The "copy link" button

Some essays have a button that copies the essay's address so you can paste it into a message. It writes only that address to your clipboard, and only when you press it. It does not read what is already on your clipboard, and nothing about the click is sent to us.

Links that leave the journal

The credit under each photograph links to the photographer's page on Pexels. That page loads only if you follow the link, and from then on Pexels' own cookie policy applies, not ours.

If you choose Decline

Declining costs you nothing in the journal. Every essay, drawing and photograph reads the same, the letter form still works, and the banner stays quiet because your answer is kept in qhp_ck. If we ever add measurement, a Decline keeps it switched off for you until you decide otherwise.

Reading on more than one device

Many readers begin an essay on a phone and finish it at a desk. Because your answer is kept separately in each browser, the banner will ask once on every device and in every browser you use. We do not connect those answers to one another, and the journal has no accounts that could. A private window forgets your answer as soon as it is closed.

If something here is wrong

Should you find the journal keeping anything on your device that this page does not describe, please write to hello@quietharborpath.com and tell us what you saw. We would rather correct the page, or the code, than leave the two in disagreement.

When this page changes

We will change the date at the top whenever this policy is revised. If the revision changes what is stored on your device, the cookie banner will appear again so you can decide afresh.

More about personal data: Privacy Policy.