Things to Do in Kansai, Japan

Yamato-Koriyama Goldfish Town

Yamato-Koriyama's Goldfish Town: Tanks Along the Shopping Street, a Free Goldfish Museum and the Dyers' Canal Street

The old castle town below Koriyama Castle has bred goldfish for about 300 years and still has aro...

Akishino-dera

A Small Temple of Moss in Northwest Nara, Kept for Japan's Only Old Gigeiten Statue

A quiet temple a short bus ride north of Yamato-Saidaiji, with a National Treasure main hall from...

Kairyuo-ji

A Four-Metre Five-Storey Pagoda Kept Indoors Since the Nara Period, Next Door to Hokke-ji

A small temple in the north-east corner of what was Empress Komyo's palace, a couple of minutes f...

Michi-no-Eki Mizuho-no-Sato Sarabiki

Kyotamba soba and produce on Route 173

Mizuho-no-Sato Sarabiki pairs a produce market with soba made from Kyotamba buckwheat on Route 17...

Mount Katsuragi

A Ropeway Up to the Azalea Slopes of Mount Katsuragi, Above Gose

A 959 m mountain on the Nara-Osaka border above Gose, with a wide grassy summit plateau that turn...

Mount Sanjogatake

Sanjogatake and Ominesan-ji: the Shugendo Summit Closed to Women, Open 3 May to 23 September

The 1,719 m main peak of the northern Omine range, where Shugendo traces its beginning, with the ...

Odaigahara

A Rain-Soaked Plateau at 1,600 Meters, Reached by One Bus a Day

A high plateau on the Nara and Mie border with some of the heaviest rainfall in Japan, a 1,695-me...

Osaka Cathedral (St. Mary's, Tamatsukuri)

Osaka's Catholic Cathedral, With Hosokawa Gracia and Takayama Ukon at the Door

The cathedral of the Catholic Archdiocese of Osaka-Takamatsu, built in 1963 on ground linked to t...

Tenkawa Daibenzaiten Shrine

A Benzaiten Shrine for Performers in the Omine Valleys, Where Noh Is Still Staged

A shrine to Benzaiten, goddess of water, eloquence and the performing arts, in the village of Ten...

Tsukigase Plum Grove

About 10,000 Plum Trees on the Slopes of a River Gorge in Far-East Nara City

Around 10,000 red and white plum trees on both sides of the Nabari river gorge (called the Satsuk...

Yoshino Mikumari Shrine

Hideyori's 1604 Shrine to the Water God and Guardian of Children, High on Mount Yoshino

A shrine to the god who shares out the water, in the upper reaches of Mount Yoshino and part of t...

Byakugo-ji

Stone Steps Up the Foot of Mount Takamado to a View Across Nara, with a 400-Year-Old Camellia

A small hillside temple south-east of central Nara, under a kilometre from Shin-Yakushi-ji, reach...

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...

Michi-no-Eki Kii-Nagashima Manbo

Grilled sunfish skewers on the Kumano-nada coast

A Route 42 station named after the ocean sunfish. On weekends and holidays a stall outside grills...

Yoshiminedera Temple

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