Explore
204 places across Japan and South Korea
Suga Shrine Steps
The staircase from the last scene, on an ordinary street.
Shibuya Scramble Crossing
Three thousand people crossing at once, every two minutes.
Shimokitazawa
Vintage shops and tiny live houses, no cars.
Café de l'Ambre
A coffee-only counter that has been aging beans since 1948.
Kanda Myojin Shrine
A 1,300-year-old shrine that blesses laptops.
Nakano Broadway
Four floors of collectors selling to collectors.
Yanaka Ginza
A single shopping street the war and the developers both missed.
teamLab Planets TOKYO
Walk barefoot through knee-deep water and projected light.
Ghibli Museum, Mitaka
Miyazaki designed it so you would get lost in it.
Hikawa Shrine, Motoazabu
The shrine behind Sailor Moon, on a hill in Azabu.
Shinjuku Golden Gai
Two hundred bars, most seating six people.
Nezu Shrine
A miniature torii tunnel without the Kyoto queue.
Kissa You
The omurice that collapses when you cut it.
Daikanyama T-Site
A bookshop worth crossing the city for, open until midnight.
Fushimi Inari Taisha
Ten thousand gates up the side of a mountain.
Philosopher's Path
Two kilometres of canal, cherry trees and small temples.
Kiyomizu-dera
A wooden stage on the hillside, built without nails.
Nishiki Market
Kyoto's kitchen, four hundred metres long and one shop deep.
% Arabica Kyoto Arashiyama
A latte on the river bank at the foot of the mountains.
Kurama to Kibune
A two-hour mountain crossing between two villages.
Gion Shirakawa
The quiet half of Gion, along a willow-lined canal.
Hōnen-in
A thatched gate, two sand mounds, and almost nobody.
Kyoto International Manga Museum
A converted school with 300,000 volumes you may read on the grass.
Dotonbori
The canal with the running man and the mechanical crab.
Kuromon Ichiba Market
Six hundred metres of grilled scallops and knife shops.
Shinsekai & Tsūtenkaku
A 1912 vision of the future, preserved by neglect.
Nakazakichō
Pre-war houses turned into one-room cafés, ten minutes from Umeda.
Osaka Castle
A reconstructed keep on genuinely enormous stone walls.
Amerikamura
Osaka's streetwear quarter, loud and secondhand.
Hōzenji Yokochō
A stone alley of old kitchens, a block from the neon.
Sensō-ji
Tokyo’s oldest temple, and it never stops moving.
Nakamise-dōri
Two hundred metres of shopfronts leading to the temple.
Kappabashi Kitchen Street
Where Tokyo’s restaurants buy everything.
Tokyo Skytree
The tallest thing in Japan, by some distance.
Sumida Park Riverside
The river walk with the Skytree on one side.
Tomioka Hachimangū
The shrine where sumo became a public sport.
Fukagawa Fudōdō
Drums, fire and a wall of ten thousand crystals.
Kiyosumi Garden
A stroll garden built on famous stones.
Blue Bottle Kiyosumi-Shirakawa
The warehouse that turned Kiyosumi into coffee country.
Tsukishima Monja Street
Seventy shops cooking the same runny pancake.
Ryōgoku Kokugikan
The national sumo stadium, and the streets around it.
Sumida Hokusai Museum
The Great Wave, in the district where he lived.
Ueno Park
Four major museums, a zoo and a thousand cherry trees.
Tokyo National Museum
The country’s collection, in one building.
Ameyoko Market
A postwar black market that never closed.
Yushima Tenmangū
Where Tokyo goes to pray for exam results.
Yanaka Cemetery
A cherry avenue running through the old city’s graves.
Kayaba Coffee
A 1938 corner kissaten, still doing the egg sandwich.