Off the beaten track in Japan
From MaxTravelz
Off the beaten track in Japan is your guide to interesting places in Japan that don't get many visitors (or at least many foreign visitors).
Contents |
Understand
This is not really an itinerary — unless you have a couple of months and unlimited funds at your disposal — but rather a listing of interesting places scattered around Japan. Find the region you'll be visiting below, and see if you can work in a few of these into your own itinerary. From north to south:
Hokkaido
- Shiretoko National Park — hot spring waterfalls, bears and rugged scenery at the end of Japan
Honshu
Tohoku
- Dewa Sanzan — the Three Holy Mountains of Dewa
- Hirosaki — the self-proclaimed Kyoto of the North
- Shimokita Peninsula — featuring a heavenly mountain valley and the Japanese entrance to Hell
Kanto
- Odaiba — Tokyo's newest district on a reclaimed island in Tokyo Bay, very popular among Japanese but still under the radar for most foreigners
- Kawasaki — dull industrial Tokyo suburb known for the inimitable Iron Penis Festival (April) and its home shrine
Chubu
- Oku-Hida Onsen Villages — luxurious hot springs nestled in the Japan Alps
- Ono — castles and temples without the tourists
- Sado Island — place of exile and gold mines, now featuring the yearly Earth Celebration and the self-proclaimed Alcohol Republic
- Eiheiji Temple — head temple of the Soto Zen school of Buddhism. It was founded in 1244 by Zen Master Dogen.
Kansai
- Mount Koya — secluded hilltop complex of Buddhist temples only a short hop away from Osaka or Kyoto
Chugoku
- Onomichi — pleasant little temple town home to many Japanese authors
Shikoku
- Iya Valley — one of Japan's Hidden Valleys, known for its vine bridges
- Mount Ishizuchi — Shikoku's highest mountain, climbed with iron chains
- Uwajima — a nondescript little rural town with bouts of bull sumo and a shrine devoted to fertility & phalluses
Kyushu
- Yakushima — A mountainous, rain-soaked island, home to giant cedars thousands of years old
Okinawa
- Yaeyama Islands — the beaches of Ishigaki and Taketomi, the jungles of Iriomote and the underwater ruins of Yonaguni