# Travel Destinations | Japan Voyage Travel - [Urakami Cathedral](https://travel.japanvoyage.jp/travel_destinations/urakami-cathedral): Nagasaki, Historic site. Nagasaki's Catholic cathedral, rebuilt in 1959 after the atomic bomb brought down the old brick church about 500 meters from the hypocenter. A fallen bell-tower dome still lies in the stream below. - [Yagyu](https://travel.japanvoyage.jp/travel_destinations/yagyu): Nara, Historic site. A farming village in the hills east of Nara city that produced the Yagyu clan, sword instructors to three Tokugawa shoguns. You can see the family temple Hotoku-ji with more than 80 Yagyu graves, a chief retainer's house on tall stone walls, and the Ittoseki, a boulder about 7 m across split clean in two, which legend says Yagyu Sekishusai cut while fighting a tengu. The catch is the bus: about seven a day from Nara. - [Yunotsu](https://travel.japanvoyage.jp/travel_destinations/yunotsu): Shimane, Onsen. A one-street onsen town running down a narrow valley to a small Sea of Japan harbour, once the port that shipped silver from Iwami Ginzan and one of the 14 component parts of that World Heritage Site. Shimane Prefecture says it is the only onsen town in Japan chosen as a Preservation District for Groups of Traditional Buildings. Come for the two old public baths, Motoyu and Yakushi-yu, and Iwami kagura at the town shrine on Saturday nights. Quiet, with little to do after dark beyond that. - [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. - [Asahi Group Oyamazaki Villa Museum of Art](https://travel.japanvoyage.jp/travel_destinations/asahi-group-oyamazaki-villa-museum-of-art): Kyoto, Museum. A former hillside villa brings domestic architecture, craft and modern gallery spaces together above Yamazaki. Gardens and Tadao Ando’s additions make the museum itself part of the experience, an easy cultural stop between Osaka and Kyoto. - [Echizen Ono Castle](https://travel.japanvoyage.jp/travel_destinations/echizen-ono-castle): Fukui, Castle. Above Ono’s old castle town, a reconstructed keep crowns wooded Kameyama. Stone foundations and wide basin views reward the climb, while rare morning cloud conditions create the famous distant impression of a castle floating in the sky. - [Egami Church](https://travel.japanvoyage.jp/travel_destinations/egami-church): Nagasaki, Historic site. A small white wooden church with pale blue window frames, built in 1918 by Tetsukawa Yosuke for descendants of Hidden Christians on Naru Island in the Goto chain. Raised on a high floor against the damp of a spring-fed valley by the sea. Part of the UNESCO Hidden Christian Sites. Advance notice is required, the grounds close on Mondays and the third Sunday of each month, and you need a boat and then a car or taxi to get there. - [Higashiyama Zoo and Botanical Gardens](https://travel.japanvoyage.jp/travel_destinations/higashiyama-zoo-and-botanical-gardens): Aichi, Zoo. Nagoya's big zoo and botanical garden on a hill in Chikusa Ward: Shabani the western lowland gorilla, koalas, and a 1936 steel-framed glasshouse that is an Important Cultural Property. Adults pay 800 yen; junior high school students and younger are free. - [Hirado Castle](https://travel.japanvoyage.jp/travel_destinations/hirado-castle): Nagasaki, Castle. Hirado Castle occupies a sea-facing hill across from the old trading port. Its reconstructed keep provides a wide view of the strait, while the castle grounds connect the Matsura family’s rule with this outward-looking corner of Nagasaki. - [Jindai-ji](https://travel.japanvoyage.jp/travel_destinations/jindai-ji): Tokyo, Temple. A temple founded in 733 in wooded Chofu, ringed by soba shops and home to the oldest National Treasure Buddha in eastern Japan. Entry is free, but there is no station: it is a bus ride from Chofu, Kichijoji or Mitaka. - [Matsue Vogel Park](https://travel.japanvoyage.jp/travel_destinations/matsue-vogel-park): Shimane, Theme park. A flower and bird park on the north shore of Lake Shinji, built around a heated greenhouse of about 8,000 m² where begonias and fuchsias bloom all year. Owl shows, a daily penguin walk and a shoebill. A good rainy-day stop near Matsue. - [Michi-no-Eki Kamiamakusa Sunpearl](https://travel.japanvoyage.jp/travel_destinations/michi-no-eki-kamiamakusa-sunpearl): Kumamoto, Michi no eki. A roadside station on Route 266 on Oyano island, close to Tenmon Bridge, the first of the Amakusa Five Bridges. Local fish goes into the restaurant's seafood bowls, and the shop sells the islands' seafood and produce. - [Michi-no-Eki Kii-Nagashima Manbo](https://travel.japanvoyage.jp/travel_destinations/michi-no-eki-kii-nagashima-manbo): Mie, Michi no eki. A Route 42 station named after the ocean sunfish. On weekends and holidays a stall outside grills sunfish and shark on skewers, and the shop stocks dried fish and other East Kishu foods. - [Nishimikawa Placer Gold Mine](https://travel.japanvoyage.jp/travel_destinations/nishimikawa-placer-gold-mine): Niigata, Historic site. The placer gold field around the hamlet of Sasagawa in south-west Sado, which Sado City calls the island's oldest gold mine and which worked until 1872. It is one of the component parts of the Sado Island Gold Mines, inscribed in July 2024. You walk marked routes of one to two hours past hillsides cut away for gold, old water channels, a shrine with a noh stage and the headman's house. It is a lived-in farming village with no toilets, bins or buses. The Sado Nishimikawa Gold Park, a gold-panning museum about 3 km down the valley, is a separate facility. - [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. Page 80 of 83. Previous page: https://travel.japanvoyage.jp/travel_destinations.md?page=79 Next page: https://travel.japanvoyage.jp/travel_destinations.md?page=81 --- Source: [Travel Destinations | Japan Voyage Travel](https://travel.japanvoyage.jp/travel_destinations?page=80) Last updated: 2026-10-20