In 680, Emperor Temmu ordered a great temple to be built as a prayer for the recovery of his ill wife. When he died eight years later, she had regained her health and as the new Empress Jito took on the task of finishing the temple, to be called Yakushiji. It was dedicated in 697, in the short-liv...
This is another of Yokohama’s narrowly themed museums (along with a tin toy museum and the Anpanman Children’s museum, among others) but for anyone with even a passing interest in dolls, the museum is just astounding. Bisque, papier-mache, china, cloth and celluloid dolls all crowd side by side her...
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,...
Straddling the border of Aikita and Aomori prefectures in Japan’s northern Tohoku region, the Shirakami Sanchi is the largest stand of old-growth beech forest in East Asia.
About 1,300 square kilometers of beech forest remain here. A near perfectly preserved core portion of the forest, amounting to...
To celebrate the 1,100th anniversary of their city, the people of Kyoto built the enormous Heian Jingu. For the 1,200th anniversary they built Kyoto Station. If these are any indication of things to come, it really makes you wish you could be around for the 1,300th anniversary. One can only imagine ...
One of Kyoto’s oldest temples, the ‘Clear Water Temple’ has its origins in the activities of Enchin, a priest of the Hosso sect in Nara who arrived in the area in or around 778 AD in answer to a vision in which he was instructed to seek out the clear source of the upper reaches of the Kizu River. Re...
Tucked deep in the Northern Alps of Gifu Prefecture, the Oku Hida Onsen Villages are actually five separate alpine hot springs, and an absolute delight to anyone who takes pleasure in hot water, mountain scenery and the sound of high rivers rushing over stone.
The five villages are Hirayu, Fukuc...
Akihabara, world famous as one of the most concentrated shopping areas in the world for electronics goods of every possible type and description, has taken on a second role in the last 15 years as the center of Japan’s increasingly influential otaku, or geek culture. For both of these reasons, it ca...
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...
Tsukemen is cold ramen-style noodles with a dipping sauce on the side. The version most popular in Hiroshima, typified by shops like Bakudan, uses an angry red, fiery dipping sauce that can be adjusted from relatively mild to idiotic. Many Hiroshima natives claim this as a local dish. Many peopl...
Though it’s not much to look at after Todaiji, Gangoji has an impressive history. Originally built in Asuka and relocated to Nara when the city became the capital in 710, Gangoji (or at least its predecessor in Asuka) is one of Japan’s oldest Buddhist temples.
Gangoji once had extensive grounds,...
Wedged between the island-studded Seto Inland Sea and the steep, forested hills rising from the coast, the little town of Onomichi is one of Hiroshima prefecture’s real treasures. The fact that most of it can be seen in a day makes it a perfect day trip for visitors to the area, or a stopover for th...
Okayama Prefecture's most famous festival is its Naked Festival. But for those with a taste for the slightly odd, there is a lesser known festival in Okayama that you should probably consider attending.
Aida-cho is a beautiful little town, set among the green hills of eastern Okayama, one of severa...
Some time in the eighties, and into the nineties, sushi suddenly became a status dish in North America. Similar to Wine Appreciation for an earlier generation, sushi became almost overnight a culinary shibboleth separating the in-crowd from the In-N-Out crowd. Although the situation is improving dai...
