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
Shuri Castle
The vermilion palace of the Ryukyu Kingdom: the soul of Okinawa reborn from fire
Kamishikimi Kumanoimasu Shrine
An approach of mossy stone lanterns: one step into the otherworld of 'Hotarubi no Mori e'
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Kouri Island: Heart Rock
The heart-shaped rock of the 'Island of Love' and Kouri blue
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Takachiho Gorge
Columnar joints in the land of myth: rowing a boat to gaze up at Manai Falls
Yakushima
The thousand years of the Jōmon Sugi: meeting 'Princess Mononoke' in a moss forest
Kumamoto Castle
One of Japan's three great castles, built by Katō Kiyomasa: the sharp curve of its 'musha-gaeshi' stone walls, and a keep reborn after the earth…
Dazaifu Tenmangū
Where Sugawara no Michizane, god of learning, rests in peace: the legend of the flying plum and 6,000 plum trees weave a thousand years of cultu…
Glover Garden
The former home of the Scottish merchant Glover looks down over Nagasaki harbour, its group of exotic Western houses telling stories of Japan's …
Sakurajima
An island living alongside an active volcano, just 15 minutes by ferry, where volcanic ash nourishes giant Sakurajima daikon weighing up to 45 k…
Yufuin Onsen
A rural hot-spring village at the foot of Mount Yufu, with morning mist on Lake Kinrin and the shops of Yunotsubo Kaidō — the number-one place t…
Hakata Gion Yamakasa
July 1 – 15, 2026
A 'men's festival' with more than 780 years of history: at 4:59 a.m. on 15 July, kakiyama floats weighing about a tonne charge some 5 km to crie…
Hakata tonkotsu ramen
Milky pork-bone broth, very thin noodles, and kaedama — a refill of noodles.
Nakasu yatai, Fukuoka
The last stronghold of Japan's yatai culture: ramen, oden and toasts with strangers by the river at dusk.
Nagasaki Peace Park
11:02 a.m., 9 August 1945: an atomic bomb exploded 500 m above this ground.
Dejima
For two centuries of national seclusion, Japan's only window on the West: a small fan-shaped artificial island.