Gotoku-ji
The Setagaya Temple Where the Beckoning Cat Got Its Start
The Ii family's Edo temple in Setagaya, where shelves of white beckoning cats surround the Shofuk...
Hanazono Shrine
Shinjuku's Guardian Shrine, Steps from Golden Gai
Shinjuku's guardian shrine since before 1603, squeezed between Yasukuni-dori and the bars of Gold...
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...
Inokashira Park
Kichijoji's Pond Park, Where the Kanda River Begins
A park built around a long spring-fed pond five minutes from Kichijoji Station, opened in 1917 as...
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...
Michi-no-Eki Niseko View Plaza
Farm stalls under Mount Yotei
Where Route 5 meets the Iwanai–Toya road in Niseko, local farmers sell their own vegetables besid...
Michi-no-Eki Tara
Ariake Sea seafood on the oyster-hut road
A seafood and citrus stop on Route 207, facing the Ariake Sea. More than ten oyster-grilling huts...
Minobusan Kuon-ji
Nichiren's Mountain Temple, Up 287 Steep Stone Steps
Head temple of the Nichiren Shu school, where Nichiren lived from 1274 and where his ashes rest. ...
Mitsumine Shrine
A Wolf-Guarded Shrine at 1,100 Meters, 80 Minutes by Bus Beyond Chichibu
A mountain shrine at about 1,100 meters in the far west of Chichibu, where wolves stand in for th...
Mount Oyama
Edo's Pilgrim Peak: A Cable Car to Afuri Shrine, Then 90 Minutes Up
A 1,252-meter peak in the Tanzawa range that drew some 200,000 pilgrims a year in the Edo period....
Mount Unzen
A Ropeway to 1,333 Meters and a Lava Dome Formed in the 1990s
The volcanic massif at the center of the Shimabara Peninsula, reached by the one-way Nita Pass ro...
Okinawa Prefectural Museum & Art Museum
Okinawa's Nature, Ryukyu History and Modern Art in One Naha Building
Okinawa's prefectural museum and art museum share one building in Omoromachi, Naha, opened in 200...
Rebun Island
Rebun Island: Flower Trails at the Far End of the Wakkanai Ferry
A long, low island west of Wakkanai, reached only by a ferry of about two hours. From late May to...
Sukayu Onsen
A 160-Mat Mixed Bath Where the Snow Once Reached 5.66 Meters
A single mountain inn at about 890 m in the Hakkoda range, known for the Hiba Sennin-buro, a pill...
Tobu Zoo
White tigers and a wooden coaster in one Saitama park
A zoo and amusement park rolled into one, about an hour from Tokyo on the Tobu line: around 120 a...