Harajuku is a neighborhood between Shinjuku and Shibuya, home to Tokyo’s most important Shinto shrine, its largest park, and a focal point for Tokyo’s youth culture and fashion.
During the 1964 Olympics, Harajuku Station was the main transportation hub for the Olympic Village. After the Olympics,...
Like much of Yokohama's modern waterfront, Yamashita Park is built on reclaimed land. The long, narrow park was built using debrisfrom the Great Kanto earthquake of 1923, which devastated the city. Opened in 1930, the park is a pleasant stripof green affording good views of the Bay Bridge and ocea...
Ritsurin Koen, Takamatsu’s main attraction, is just a twenty minute walk from the city’s waterfront.
At 75 hectares, Ritsurin Koen is Japan’s largest garden enclosing thirteen hills, six ponds and hundreds of beautifully cultivated pines, maples, flowering beds and more. Construction began in 16...
Just west of the grounds of Asakusa’s Sensoji, visitors will come across Hanayashiki, a small and slightly run down amusement park. Don’t just shrug it off, though, especially if you have kids with you who might like a break from shrines and shopping.
If for no other reason, Hanayashiki deserves ...
Nara Koen, or Nara Park, is one of Nara’s most distinctive features. Extending four kilometers east to west and two north to south, the park encloses or borders on most of the city’s main attractions, including Kasuga Taisha, Kofukuji with its five-storey pagoda, and Todaiji. Even without these, N...
The Sara kimono rental shop is in Nara-machi, the city’s picturesque southern district with a wealth of traditional shops and townhouses. For 2,500 yen you can rent a yukata, the casual summer garment, or a more formal kimono for 3,000 yen. It takes about half an hour to get fully dressed and deck...
The Peace Memorial Park and Museum are a part of any trip to Hiroshima, and the city's most widely recognized symbol is the Atomic Bomb Dome. It's a sobering sight, as is the rubble field around its perimeter, a reminder of what six square kilometers of downtown looked like following the blast. The ...
The little town of Koga in southern Shiga ken is famous for being one of the birthplaces of the ninja, Japan’s legendary medieval spy assassins. Today, the Koga Ninja Village welcomes visitors who are interested in the history and arts of the ninja.
Although there’s more than a whiff of kitsch a...
Although its proper name is the Hiroshima Peace Memorial, the shattered ruins of the former Hiroshima Prefectural Industrial Promotion Hall are known around the world as the Atomic Bomb Dome. Designed by a Czech architect and completed in 1915, the building was only 150 meters from the hypocenter wh...
This large, pleasant park, just west of Ueno Station, was established with an Imperial land grant in 1924. Today, the park is enormously popular with Tokyoites, especially during the spring cherry blossom season. Like most urban parks, it has picnic spaces and walkways, and Shinobazu pond is an annu...
Matsue Vogel combines one of the world's largest indoor gardens (about eight thousand square meters) with an aviary to display flowers and birds from across the globe. On hand are thousands of varieties of blossoms, stacked in pyramids, arrayed in patterns on the ground and hanging overhead. The g...
Opened in 1999, Tottori Hanakairo Park, or simply Flower Park, is an immense flower garden spreading across 50 hectares within view of Mt. Daisen. Flowers are in bloom all year round, including lilies, orchids, hibiscus and a rose garden. Near the center of the park, you can stroll through the mai...
