JAPAN
Japan
From Kyoto’s thousand-year-old festivals to Hokkaido’s flower fields, discover the Japanese respect for manners, seasons and the gods.
City guides
Start with a city
Every city guide has a timeline, stories of local figures, must-see sights, festivals and local etiquette.
東京 Tokyo
Tokyo
11 places
From the fishing village of Edo to a world city: old temples, neon and working-class shitamachi in one city
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京都 Kyoto
Kyoto
9 places
An imperial capital for over a thousand years: temples, machiya and festivals are the best textbook on Japan
大阪 Osaka
Osaka
7 places
City of merchants and 'Japan's kitchen': eating, shopping and laughing are louder here than anywhere
奈良 Nara
Nara
2 places
Japan's first permanent capital: the Great Buddha, sacred deer and the end of the Silk Road
鎌倉 Kamakura
Kamakura
4 places
The first samurai capital: the Great Buddha, old temples and the Shōnan coast
広島 Hiroshima
Hiroshima
4 places
A city of peace reborn from ruins, and Miyajima out at sea
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福岡 Fukuoka
Fukuoka
4 places
A thousand-year-old port facing Asia: yatai, tonkotsu ramen and the god of learning
長崎 Nagasaki
Nagasaki
3 places
Japan's only window on the West during national seclusion: Dejima, churches and prayers for peace
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金沢 Kanazawa
Kanazawa
2 places
Castle town of the million-koku Kaga domain: a famous garden, teahouse districts and gold leaf
札幌 Sapporo
Sapporo
2 places
A northern new town laid out on Kyoto's grid: the Snow Festival, beer and miso ramen
仙台 Sendai
Sendai
2 places
The 'City of Trees' built by the One-Eyed Dragon, Date Masamune
函館 Hakodate
Hakodate
1 places
One of Japan's first open ports: Western-style slopes, a star fort and a million-dollar night view
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Furano
Lavender fields and the Patchwork Road: a purple dream of northern summer
Otaru Canal
A canal at night lit by gas lamps: a romantic dusk in a northern port town
Tadami Line · First Tadami River Bridge
A railway poem of snow country: the postcard view of a train crossing the Tadami River
Blue Pond, Biei
Cobalt-blue water and dead trees: a dreamscape chosen as a Mac wallpaper
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Oirase Stream
Fourteen kilometres of moss and waterfalls: a poem walked upstream through virgin forest
Nyūtō Onsen
A tour of seven hot springs: milky secret baths under thatched roofs
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Geibikei Gorge
In the boatman's song: a river trip through one of Japan's 100 landscapes
Oze
Wetlands of skunk cabbage: walking the boardwalks into the birthplace of Japanese nature conservation
Ōdōri Park, Sapporo
A 1.5-km 'green carpet' running through the city centre, the grand stage of Sapporo's festivals all year round. Laid out in 1871 as a firebreak,…
Ōmagari National Fireworks Competition
August 29, 2026
First among Japan's three great fireworks competitions, where the country's top fireworks makers compete side by side — with Japan's only 'dayti…
Aomori Nebuta Matsuri
August 2 – 7, 2026
Eastern Japan's greatest night festival: giant warrior lanterns about 5 m tall and 9 m wide parade through the city centre to cries of 'Rassērā!…
Akita Kantō Matsuri
August 3 – 6, 2026
A balancing feat at one of Tōhoku's three great festivals: 'kantō' poles about 12 m long, weighing 50 kg and hung with 46 lanterns, are balanced…
Sendai Tanabata Matsuri
August 6 – 8, 2026
Japan's largest Tanabata festival: giant washi Tanabata decorations hang in the arcaded shopping streets stretching for kilometres from Sendai S…
Goshogawara Tachineputa
August 4 – 8, 2026
The 'tallest' of Aomori's three great Nebuta festivals: giant three-dimensional lanterns about 23 m tall and weighing about 19 tonnes (about sev…
Zuihōden
The mausoleum of Date Masamune, the 'One-Eyed Dragon': colourful Momoyama-style buildings deep in a cedar forest.
Goryōkaku, Hakodate
A Western-style star fort: stage of the last battle of the Boshin War, filled with cherry blossom in spring.