A travel guide to Japan.

What the guide covers

The Japan guide is being prepared by destinations in all regions of the country. The first part gathers Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, Nara, Hiroshima and Miyajima, Mount Fuji and the Five Lakes, Hakone, Nikko, Kamakura and Yokohama, Kanazawa, Takayama and Shirakawa-go, and Kobe and Himeji. Next come Hokkaido, Okinawa, the Japanese Alps, the Kii Peninsula, Kyushu and Shikoku, and then Tohoku, the ski resorts and the onsen towns.

Each destination brings together the towns of the region, what to do in each one, attractions with their own page, when to go and how to get there. Destinations appear on the country page as they are published: while a destination is being prepared, it does not appear in the list.

Provinces and groups

Japan is divided into 47 prefectures, the todofuken: Tokyo is a metropolis, Hokkaido has its own status, Kyoto and Osaka have another name, and the other 43 are ordinary prefectures, each with its own government. The guide organizes cities by these prefectures. To make travel easier, the prefectures appear in nine groups, the same used by the Japan National Tourism Organization: Hokkaido, Tohoku, Kanto, Chubu, Kansai, Chugoku, Shikoku, Kyushu and Okinawa.

Place names appear as they are written in Latin letters in Japan, without macrons over the vowels, like Hokkaido, Kanazawa and Nikko. When there is an established form in Portuguese, it is used, as in Tóquio, Quioto and monte Fuji.

How to travel around Japan

The high-speed train, the shinkansen, links Tokyo to Kyoto and Osaka in about two and a half hours, and continues to Hiroshima and Kyushu, north to Hokkaido and to Kanazawa on the Sea of Japan. Regional trains, subways and buses complete the network, and rechargeable cards such as Suica and ICOCA work on almost all urban transport. For Hokkaido and Okinawa, domestic flights are common. People drive on the left.

The time zone is UTC+9 year-round, with no daylight saving time. Japan stretches more than 3,000 km from north to south: Hokkaido has long snowy winters, the center has four well-defined seasons with the rainy season in June, and Okinawa is subtropical.

Japanese names

Many place names include a word that indicates the type of place: -ji and -dera are Buddhist temples, like Kinkaku-ji and Kiyomizu-dera; -jinja, -jingu and -taisha are Shinto shrines; -jo is castle; -yama or -san is mountain; -ko is lake; and onsen is hot spring. At shrines, the entrance gate is the torii, and at temples it is common to remove your shoes before entering the halls.

Why there are no prices

In Japan, the guide does not show tour or ticket prices because they change frequently. When there is an admission fee, charge or mandatory reservation, such as for climbing Mount Fuji or for some museums, the text notes it, and the amount should be checked before you go.

How the content is made

The information for each place is researched in official sources, such as the Japan National Tourism Organization, prefectural and city governments, shrines, temples and parks and UNESCO, and checked before going live.

The pictures in this guide are illustrations based on the real place, not photographs, and may differ from it. Photos sent by travelers appear separately, as travelers' photos.

If you find any information that differs, write to us: fixing it is quicker than it seems.

All of Cidade Turismo

The guide started in Brazil and now has countries on every continent, in Portuguese, Spanish and English, always with the same organization: routes, destinations and cities.

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