Kansai (Kyoto, Osaka, Nara)5 places
- The Kumano KodōAn ancient network of pilgrimage trails winding for days through the misty cedar forests and mountains of the Kii…
- KyotoJapan's old imperial capital, spared the wartime bombing, holding more than a thousand years of temples, Zen gardens…
- Mount Kōya (Koyasan)On a mountaintop wrapped in cedar forest sits a thousand-year-old monastic town, and at the far end of its graveyard a…
- NaraJapan's first permanent capital, where more than a thousand sika deer wander freely through a park of eighth-century…
- Saga-Toriimoto — Otagi & Adashino NenbutsujiWalk straight through Arashiyama's famous bamboo grove without stopping, keep going uphill for forty minutes, and you…
Chubu (the Japan Alps)4 places
- Kamikōchi & the Japan AlpsA pristine highland valley in the heart of the Northern Japan Alps, where a clear turquoise river winds through marshes…
- KanazawaA wealthy old castle town on the Japan Sea coast that came through history intact, with one of the country's three…
- The Snow Monkeys of JigokudaniIn the mountains of Nagano, wild monkeys have learned to do what no other wild monkeys on Earth do: sit up to their…
- The Tateyama–Kurobe Alpine RouteA crossing of the Northern Japan Alps by cable car, trolleybus and ropeway, over a pass where the spring snow is cut…
Chugoku4 places
- Naoshima, the Art IslandA small fishing island in the calm Inland Sea that a publishing magnate and a great architect turned into one of the…
- Onomichi & the Shimanami KaidōA cat-filled hillside temple town where you rent a bike and pedal out across the Seto Inland Sea itself, island to…
- Shimane — Izumo & MatsueThe prefecture with the fewest foreign visitors in Japan, on the Sea of Japan coast — holding the shrine where, in the…
- Hiroshima & MiyajimaThe city rebuilt from the world's first atomic bombing, where a skeletal ruined dome is kept exactly as the blast left…
Kyushu & Okinawa4 places
- The Yaeyama IslandsThe far southwest end of Japan — closer to Taiwan than to Okinawa's main island, and 2,000 km from Tokyo — where the…
- YakushimaA near-circular island of mountains and rainforest off Japan's southern tip, drenched in rain and moss, where cedar…
- Beppu, Yufuin & the Oita Onsen CountryA city that steams. Beppu sits on more hot-spring water than anywhere else in Japan, and on a cold morning the vapour…
- The Gotō IslandsAn archipelago off Nagasaki where Japanese Catholics hid their faith for two and a half centuries of prohibition —…
Kanto (Greater Tokyo)3 places
- TokyoOne of the world's largest cities, and one that works: a sprawl of distinct neighbourhoods stitched together by…
- Mount Fuji & HakoneJapan's highest mountain and its great sacred symbol, a near-perfect volcanic cone that has been painted and climbed…
- NikkōA mausoleum complex of impossible gold and lacquer set in a cedar forest two hours north of Tokyo — and the one place…
Hokkaido1 place
- DaisetsuzanJapan's largest national park, an active volcanic plateau in central Hokkaidō that the Ainu called Kamuy Mintar — the…
Tohoku1 place
- Aomori & the Top of HonshuThe top of Honshu — three hours from Tokyo on the same bullet train everyone rides south, and one of the snowiest…