From Wikitravel

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 1 Understand 2 Hokkaido 3 Honshu 3.1 Tohoku 3.2 Kanto 3.3 Chubu 3.4 Kansai 3.5 Chugoku 4 Shikoku 5 Kyushu 6 Okinawa

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