Things to Do in Kansai, Japan

Chugu-ji

A Nunnery Beside Horyu-ji's Yumedono, Kept for One Dark Wooden Bodhisattva

A small nunnery right next to the Yumedono in Horyu-ji's east precinct. It is kept for its main i...

Gojo Shinmachi

Gojo Shinmachi, an Edo-Period Merchant Street on the Old Kishu Road by the Yoshino River

About 750 m of white-plastered merchant houses along the old Kishu Kaido on the north bank of the...

Hokke-ji

Empress Komyo's Nunnery, Where the Eleven-faced Kannon Comes Out Three Times a Year

A working nunnery on the site of Empress Komyo's palace, just east of the Heijo Palace Site. Its ...

Koriyama Castle

Koriyama Castle Ruins: Moat Cherry Trees, an Upside-Down Jizo and a Free Deck on the Keep Base

The ruins of the castle Toyotomi Hidenaga made his seat in 1585, seven minutes' walk from Kintets...

Michi-no-Eki Aito Margaret Station

Farm gelato and flower fields in eastern Shiga

A roadside station on Route 307 that grew out of a farmers' market. Come for the gelato made with...

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...

Kitora Tomb

A Small Asuka Tomb Painted with the Four Guardian Animals and a Star Chart, and a Free Museum Where the Real Murals Go on Show

A two-tier round tomb from the late 7th or early 8th century whose chamber was painted with the f...

Matabei-zakura

A Weeping Cherry Said to Be 300 Years Old, on a Stone Wall in Rural Uda, for About Two Weeks a Year

A single weeping cherry in the hamlet of Hongo, Uda, said to be about 300 years old, 13 metres ta...

Michi-no-Eki Park Shichiri Mihama

Citrus juice and a pebble beach on Route 42

A Route 42 stop in Mihama, a town that sells itself on having mandarins in every season. Its own ...

Michi-no-Eki Tajima-no-Mahoroba

Tajima food shopping at Santo PA

Tajima-no-Mahoroba combines a regional food market, restaurant and food court at Santo PA in Asag...

Ujigami Shrine

Japan's Oldest Shrine Building, in Kyoto Prefecture's Words, Across the River from Byodo-in

A small, free shrine on the east bank of the Uji River whose main hall Kyoto Prefecture lists as ...

Kimpu Shrine

The Shrine at the Top of Yoshino's Okusenbon and the Tower Yoshitsune Is Said to Have Kicked His Way Out Of

A small, old shrine in the cedar woods of Okusenbon, the highest part of Mount Yoshino, to the go...

Tamaki Shrine

A Cedar-Wrapped Mountaintop Shrine at the Far End of Japan's Largest Village

A shrine just below the 1,076-meter summit of Mount Tamaki on the Omine Okugake pilgrimage route,...

Yoshiminedera Temple

Yoshiminedera spreads across Kyoto’s western hills, with terraced temple paths, wide city views a...

Hana-no-Iwaya Shrine

A 45-Metre Rock by the Kumano Sea That the Shrine Calls Izanami's Grave, With No Hall in Front of It

A shrine in Kumano, Mie, with no main hall: what is worshipped is a rock face about 45 metres hig...