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Papua New GuineaYour place in the guide
A direct path for those who have already chosen the next stop of the trip. 47 destinations and 80 cities in Japan.
Explore by destinationIllustrative images. The pictures in this guide are illustrations based on the real place, not photographs, and may differ from it.
Today's highlights
Semboku is the inland municipality of Akita that includes Kakunodate, the castle town with its samurai district and weeping cherry trees, Lake Tazawa—the deepest lake in Japan—and Nyuto Onsen, a group of hot-spring inns in the forest of Mount Komagatake. The center is in Kakunodate, next to the Shinkansen station.
Capital of Shimane, Matsue is crossed by canals between two large bodies of water. It has the original dark-walled castle, a National Treasure, the moats you can tour by boat, the samurai quarter of Shiomi Nawate with Lafcadio Hearn’s house, and the sunset over Lake Shinji. The Adachi Art Museum is about 25 km away.
Yufu is the municipality that includes Yufuin, the hot-spring village in a green basin beneath Mount Yufu, about 25 km from Beppu. It has ryokan scattered among rice paddies, Yunotsubo Street with shops and cafés between the station and Lake Kinrin, which often gives off mist on cold mornings, and the trail up Mount Yufu.
Hiraizumi is the town of 12th-century temples in southern Iwate, a UNESCO World Heritage site. On Chuson-ji Hill stands the Konjikido, the gold-covered hall holding the remains of the Fujiwara lords; near the station Motsu-ji preserves a Pure Land garden around a large pond. Takadachi Hill, linked to Yoshitsune and Basho, overlooks the Kitakami River.
Hakone is the hot-spring resort of the western Kanagawa mountains, in a volcanic caldera with Lake Ashi at the bottom. At the valley entrance, Hakone-Yumoto concentrates the bathhouses; above on the slopes are the museums of Gora and Sengokuhara, the fumaroles of Owakudani and, on the lake’s southern shore, the shrine’s red gate and the barrier of the old Edo road. Mountain train, funicular, ropeway and boats form a circuit.
Kumamoto is the capital of the eponymous prefecture, in central Kyushu, on the shinkansen line. It has Kato Kiyomasa’s castle, under reconstruction after the 2016 earthquakes and visited via elevated walkways, the Suizenji Garden fed by spring water, and the Shimotori and Kamitori shopping arcades. It is the gateway to the Aso caldera.
Nachikatsuura is the coastal town on the southeast of the Kii Peninsula that brings together Kumano Nachi Taisha, the Seiganto-ji temple and Nachi Falls, 133 meters high in the mountains, and the fishing port of Katsuura, with hot springs and a tuna market. Nearby Shingu, about 15 km away, is home to Kumano Hayatama Taisha, the third of the great shrines.
Old merchant town on the eastern shore of Lake Biwa, Omihachiman has the Hachiman-bori canal with white-walled storehouses, the merchant houses of Omi, the Himure Hachimangu shrine and Mount Hachiman, accessible by ropeway. Azuchi, now part of the city, preserves the ruins of Nobunaga’s castle.
Ishigaki is the main town of the Yaeyama Islands, with the airport and the port where boats depart for Taketomi, Iriomote and the smaller islands. The island has coral reefs, Kabira Bay with light-green water over white sand, and Cape Hirakubo with the lighthouse at the northern tip. Ishigaki beef and Yaeyama music are part of town life.
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