# Travel Destinations | Japan Voyage Travel - [Akishino-dera](https://travel.japanvoyage.jp/travel_destinations/akishino-dera): Nara, Temple. A quiet temple a short bus ride north of Yamato-Saidaiji, with a National Treasure main hall from the Kamakura period and the Gigeiten, a goddess of the arts whose Nara-period lacquer head sits on a Kamakura wooden body. Moss covers the woodland where the old Golden Hall and pagodas once stood. Small, and done in under an hour. - [Negoro-ji](https://travel.japanvoyage.jp/travel_destinations/negoro-ji): Wakayama, Temple. Head temple of the Shingi Shingon school in the hills of Iwade, northern Wakayama. Its Daito, finished in 1547 and spared when Toyotomi Hideyoshi burned the temple in 1585, is Japan's largest wooden great pagoda and a National Treasure you can step inside. Entry is 500 yen, and it is about 30 minutes by car from Kansai Airport. - [Minobusan Kuon-ji](https://travel.japanvoyage.jp/travel_destinations/minobusan-kuon-ji): Yamanashi, Temple. Head temple of the Nichiren Shu school, where Nichiren lived from 1274 and where his ashes rest. Most visitors climb the 287 steep stone steps of the Bodaitei to the main hall. The weeping cherry, about 400 years old, draws big crowds when it flowers around the end of March. The grounds are free. - [Byakugo-ji](https://travel.japanvoyage.jp/travel_destinations/byakugo-ji): Nara, Temple. A small hillside temple south-east of central Nara, under a kilometre from Shin-Yakushi-ji, reached by more than 100 stone steps. From the top you look out over the Nara basin. Bush clover lines the steps from late September to early October, and a camellia said to be about 400 years old flowers in red, white and pink from late March. The treasure house holds Kamakura-period statues of Enma and his court. - [Matsuo-dera](https://travel.japanvoyage.jp/travel_destinations/matsuo-dera): Nara, Temple. A Shingon temple on Mount Matsuo at the south end of the Yata hills, which by its own account was founded in 718 and is Japan's oldest temple for warding off bad luck. Okadera in Asuka makes a similar claim to be the first. The 1337 main hall is an Important Cultural Property, the grounds are free, and in May the flower field becomes a free rose garden. The catch is the 2.4 km uphill walk from the bus stop. - [Chugu-ji](https://travel.japanvoyage.jp/travel_destinations/chugu-ji): Nara, Temple. A small nunnery right next to the Yumedono in Horyu-ji's east precinct. It is kept for its main image, a seventh-century camphor-wood bodhisattva sitting with one leg crossed over the other and a fingertip at its cheek. Entry is 600 yen and half an hour is plenty, but do not rush the statue. - [Ofuna Kannon](https://travel.japanvoyage.jp/travel_destinations/ofuna-kannon): Kanagawa, Temple. A white concrete bust of Kannon about 25 meters tall on the hill above Ofuna Station, begun in 1929, abandoned for 23 years and finished in 1960. It is now a Soto Zen temple and a branch of Soji-ji; entry is 300 yen. - [Ushiku Daibutsu](https://travel.japanvoyage.jp/travel_destinations/ushiku-daibutsu): Ibaraki, Temple. A monumental bronze Amida Buddha with interior worship spaces and observation windows, set in grounds outside Ushiku. - [Kairyuo-ji](https://travel.japanvoyage.jp/travel_destinations/kairyuo-ji): Nara, Temple. A small temple in the north-east corner of what was Empress Komyo's palace, a couple of minutes from Hokke-ji. Its West Golden Hall holds a five-storey pagoda 4.01 metres tall, listed as a National Treasure building and, the temple says, the smallest such pagoda in Japan. The Kamakura-period Eleven-faced Kannon in the main hall is normally behind a curtain and opened in spring and autumn. - [Saidai-ji](https://travel.japanvoyage.jp/travel_destinations/saidai-ji): Nara, Temple. Once the western counterpart of Todai-ji, now a set of Edo-period halls three minutes from a busy Kintetsu junction. It is known for the Ochamori, where tea is whisked in a bowl over 30 cm across and passed round, and for the Nara-period demons under the feet of its Four Heavenly Kings. Individuals can only join the tea ceremony on a few fixed days a year. - [Nageiredo (Mitokusan Sanbutsuji)](https://travel.japanvoyage.jp/travel_destinations/nageiredo-mitokusan-sanbutsuji): Tottori, Temple. The inner hall of Sanbutsuji temple, built on stilts inside a cliff hollow on Mount Mitoku and the only National Treasure building in Tottori. Seeing it up close means a steep pilgrim climb that the temple will not let you do alone. - [Ikegami Honmon-ji](https://travel.japanvoyage.jp/travel_destinations/ikegami-honmon-ji): Tokyo, Temple. Head temple of the Nichiren school on a hill in Ota Ward, built where Nichiren died in 1282. Free to visit, with the oldest surviving five-storied pagoda in the Kanto region and a steep flight of 96 stone steps at the front. - [Hokke-ji](https://travel.japanvoyage.jp/travel_destinations/hokke-ji): Nara, Temple. A working nunnery on the site of Empress Komyo's palace, just east of the Heijo Palace Site. Its National Treasure Eleven-faced Kannon, one metre tall, is shown only in three short windows a year: 20 March to 7 April, early June, and 24 October to 10 November in 2026. The rest of the year you see a modern copy, so time your visit. - [Shoryaku-ji](https://travel.japanvoyage.jp/travel_destinations/shoryaku-ji): Nara, Temple. A mountain temple about 4 km up a valley road from Route 169, where medieval monks worked out the brewing methods behind modern sake. The starter called bodaimoto is still made here every January, and seven Nara breweries sell sake made from it at the Fukujuin hall. In November over 3,000 maples turn. Outside the leaf season there is no bus, so come by car or taxi. - [Chogaku-ji](https://travel.japanvoyage.jp/travel_destinations/chogaku-ji): Nara, Temple. A quiet temple halfway along the Yamanobe-no-michi in Tenri. From 23 October to 30 November the main hall hangs a hell painting the temple attributes to Kano Sanraku, nine scrolls forming one picture about 3.5 by 11 metres, and on weekend afternoons the abbot talks visitors through it. The rest of the year you see a replica. About 1,000 azaleas flower in late April, and entry is 400 yen. Page 9 of 9. Previous page: https://travel.japanvoyage.jp/travel_destinations.md?destination_type=temple&page=8 --- Source: [Travel Destinations | Japan Voyage Travel](https://travel.japanvoyage.jp/travel_destinations?destination_type=temple&page=9) Last updated: 2026-11-06