Explore
38 places across Japan and South Korea
Shibuya Scramble Crossing
Three thousand people crossing at once, every two minutes.
Fushimi Inari Taisha
Ten thousand gates up the side of a mountain.
Kiyomizu-dera
A wooden stage on the hillside, built without nails.
Dotonbori
The canal with the running man and the mechanical crab.
Osaka Castle
A reconstructed keep on genuinely enormous stone walls.
Tokyo Skytree
The tallest thing in Japan, by some distance.
Ryōgoku Kokugikan
The national sumo stadium, and the streets around it.
Tokyo Station Marunouchi Building
A 1914 red-brick facade, restored to its full height.
Nihonbashi
Kilometre zero for every road in Japan.
Hachikō Statue
The dog who waited, and Tokyo’s default meeting point.
Shibuya Sky
An open rooftop 230 metres over the crossing.
Kabukichō Ichibangai Gate
The red gate into Tokyo’s loudest square kilometre.
Metropolitan Government Observatory
The best free view in Tokyo, 202 metres up.
Tokyo Tower
Still the more affectionate of the two towers.
Odaiba Seaside Park
An artificial beach facing the Rainbow Bridge.
Kyoto Station Building
The building Kyoto argued about for thirty years.
Arashiyama Bamboo Grove
Four hundred metres of bamboo, and the noise it makes.
Togetsukyō Bridge
The moon-crossing bridge under Arashiyama.
Kinkaku-ji
The gold pavilion, on the pond, with everyone else.
Byōdō-in Phoenix Hall
The building on the back of the ten-yen coin.
Umeda Sky Building
Two towers joined by a hole in the sky.
HEP Five Ferris Wheel
A red wheel bolted to the roof of a shopping mall.
Abeno Harukas
Japan’s tallest building, at three hundred metres.
Osaka Aquarium Kaiyūkan
You walk down around one enormous tank.
Tempozan Ferris Wheel
A bayside wheel that forecasts tomorrow’s weather in colour.
Universal Studios Japan
Super Nintendo World is the reason to go.
Minoo Falls
A 33-metre waterfall, forty minutes from Umeda.
Tōdai-ji
A fifteen-metre bronze Buddha in a wooden hall.
Nara Park
Twelve hundred deer, and they have learned to bow.
Mount Wakakusa
A bald grass hill above the park, with deer on it.
Kōtoku-in Great Buddha
A bronze Buddha that has sat outdoors since a tsunami took its hall.
Yuigahama Beach
A wide grey-sand beach at the end of the shrine avenue.
Shichirigahama
Enoshima on the left, Fuji straight ahead.
Enoshima
A small island you can walk to, with caves underneath.
Hakone Shrine Lake Torii
A red torii standing in the lake.
Lake Ashi
A crater lake with Fuji at the far end.
Ōwakudani
A sulphur valley that still smokes, with black eggs.
Hakone Tozan Railway
A mountain railway that reverses three times to climb.