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
Sensō-ji
Beneath the great lantern of the Kaminarimon: where Edo charm meets Tokyo's everyday bustle
Dōtonbori
Under the neon of the Glico Running Man: the ultimate food battlefield for 'eating yourself bankrupt in Osaka'
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Nara Park
An ancient capital where 1,200 sacred deer roam: the thousand-year Heijō-kyō guarded by deer and the Great Buddha
Himeji Castle
'White Heron Castle', spreading its wings: Japan's first castle to become a World Cultural Heritage Site
Mount Fuji
Japan's sacred 3,776-m peak, the 'once in a lifetime' place to greet the sunrise
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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
Shuri Castle
The vermilion palace of the Ryukyu Kingdom: the soul of Okinawa reborn from fire
Itsukushima Shrine
A great torii that 'floats' on the sea at high tide: a mythical world between the tides
Shirakawa-gō
A snow-country fairy tale of thatched gasshō-zukuri roofs: a farming poem within a World Heritage Site
Shibuya Crossing
Three thousand people cross on a single green light: urban performance art at the world's busiest crossing
Meiji Jingū
A 700,000-m² 'urban forest' in the middle of the city, a tranquil sanctuary of Shinto culture
Tokyo Tower
The 333-m 'red tower of Shōwa', an undying romantic beacon for generations of Japanese
Kiyomizu-dera
The courage of 'jumping off the stage at Kiyomizu', where the ancient capital looks back over a thousand years
Kinkaku-ji
A three-storey pavilion clad in gold leaf, a Pure Land reflected in the Mirror Pond
Fushimi Inari Taisha
A vermilion tunnel woven from ten thousand torii: the god of commerce, guarded by fox messengers
Arashiyama Bamboo Grove
A 'tunnel of light' with sun filtering through the bamboo, its rustling chosen among the '100 Soundscapes of Japan'
Osaka Castle
Toyotomi Hideyoshi's 'castle of the realm': Sengoku drama beneath roofs with golden shachi
East Gardens of the Imperial Palace (site of Edo Castle)
Edo Castle, built by Ōta Dōkan in 1457, later became the residence of the Tokugawa shoguns; today the Honmaru area is open free as a garden.
Higashi Chaya District, Kanazawa
Edo's geisha district across the Asano River: latticed teahouses, stone paving and a thin layer of gold leaf.
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.
Zuihōden
The mausoleum of Date Masamune, the 'One-Eyed Dragon': colourful Momoyama-style buildings deep in a cedar forest.
Nijō Castle
The Tokugawa shogunate's base in Kyoto: the Edo shogunate began here, and ended here.
Tōdai-ji
The Great Buddha cast with the resources of a whole nation by Emperor Shōmu: the world's largest bronze Vairocana, seated in a huge wooden hall.
Izumo Taisha
The shrine of Ōkuninushi, god of good relationships: a giant shimenawa rope and the myth of 'handing over the land'.
Ise Grand Shrine
Japan's foremost shrine, dedicated to Amaterasu: cross the Uji Bridge into two thousand years of forest and prayer.
Goryōkaku, Hakodate
A Western-style star fort: stage of the last battle of the Boshin War, filled with cherry blossom in spring.
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Hida-Takayama
The machiya streets of 'Little Kyoto' and the only surviving Edo-period intendant's office, hidden among the mountains of Hida.
Matsumoto Castle
A black-walled National Treasure keep, one of only 12 original castle keeps left in Japan, backed by the Northern Alps.
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Hakone
A natural barrier on the Tōkaidō: the torii in Lake Ashi, the Edo checkpoint, and Mount Fuji when the sky is clear.
Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park and the Atomic Bomb Dome
After 6 August 1945, the only building left standing near the hypocentre: a ruin that reminds the world of peace.
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Kenroku-en, Kanazawa
The daimyō garden of the million-koku Kaga domain: the Kotoji lantern and snow-roped pines, with a different face in every season.
Nikkō Tōshō-gū
Where Tokugawa Ieyasu rests: the dazzling Yōmeimon gate, the Sleeping Cat and the Three Wise Monkeys, hidden in a forest of towering cedars.