Hikyo: Japan's Hard-to-Reach Places
Hikyo (秘境) means a secluded place: somewhere getting there is part of the trip. These are shrines, hot springs, villages and islands with no train, a bus a few times a day, or a ferry that does not always dock. Most pages tell you how to get there and, just as important, how to get back.
Akiyamago
Akiyamago: Thirteen Snowbound Hamlets Up the Nakatsu River, and a Riverbed You Dig Your Own Bath In
Thirteen hamlets strung about 20 km along the Nakatsu River gorge, five in Sakae village (Nagano)...
Aogashima
A Village Inside a Double Caldera, Three Hours of Open Sea Past Hachijojima
The southernmost inhabited island of the Izu chain, a volcano with a second cone sitting inside i...
Aoni Onsen
Aoni Onsen: The Lamp-Lit Inn at the Bottom of a Snowbound Valley
A single inn deep in the Aoni valley east of Kuroishi, lit at night by oil lamps instead of elect...
Ashiu Forest
Kyoto University's Old-Growth Research Forest, Where the Best Valleys Need a Guide
About 4,200 hectares of beech and cedar forest at the source of the Yura River, run by Kyoto Univ...
Doai Station
Doai Station: 462 Steps Up from a Platform Inside a Mountain Tunnel
An unstaffed JR Joetsu Line station whose down-line platform sits inside the Shin-Shimizu Tunnel,...
Dorogawa Onsen
A Mountain Inn Town at the Foot of Omine, Where Pilgrims Still Set Out
A street of old wooden inns at about 820 meters in the Omine mountains, built to lodge pilgrims h...
Gokanosho
Gokanosho: Five Refugee Hamlets at the End of Yatsushiro's Mountain Roads
Five hamlets in the mountains of eastern Yatsushiro, said to have been settled by Heike and Sugaw...
Hatenashi Village
A Hillside Hamlet on the Kohechi Trail, a Steep Climb Above Totsukawa Onsen
A small farming hamlet halfway up the Hatenashi Pass in Totsukawa, Nara, where the World Heritage...
Hateruma Island
Japan's Southernmost Inhabited Island, Reached by an Open-Sea Boat That Often Doesn't Run
The southernmost inhabited island in Japan: about 440 people, sugarcane fields, the white sand of...
Hoshi Onsen Chojukan
A One-Inn Hot Spring Where the Water Rises Through the Bath Floor, Four Buses a Day from Sarugakyo
Hoshi Onsen is a single wooden inn, Chojukan, at the foot of the Mikuni Pass. Its big bath, Hoshi...
Hotokegaura
White-Green Tuff Cliffs You Reach by Boat or 100 Metres of Stairs
About two kilometres of white and pale green tuff spires on the far west coast of the Shimokita P...
Ichimaiiwa Rock
A Single Rock Wall 100 Meters High on the Koza River, Four Town Buses a Day
One unbroken face of volcanic rock, about 100 meters high and 500 meters wide, rising straight ou...
Iriomote Island
Iriomote Island: Jungle, Mangrove Rivers and a Ferry That Stays in Port When the Sea Is Rough
Okinawa's second-largest island, nearly all subtropical forest and mangrove, and part of a World ...
Iya Onsen
A Cable Car Down a 42-Degree Cliff to a River Bath in the Iya Valley
A single inn, Hotel Iya Onsen, on the rim of the Iya gorge, with its own cable car that drops 170...
Jinata Onsen
A Free Hot Spring in the Sea Rocks of Shikinejima, Timed by the Tide
Rock pools at the foot of a narrow cleft on Shikinejima's south coast, where iron-rich spring wat...