Hidden Gems Across Japan
1,610 spots
Ogata Village Polder Museum
Lake Hachirogata was the second-largest lake in Japan. Between 1957 and 1977 it was drained — a national project using D…
Kanpuzan Rotating Observatory
Kanpuzan is a lava dome at the neck of the Oga peninsula, 355 metres high and covered entirely in grass — no trees, just…
Nyudozaki
The northern tip of the Oga peninsula, where a treeless grass headland runs out to low cliffs and stops. There are no tr…
Akita Nairiku Line
The Akita Nairiku Line runs ninety-four kilometres north to south through the middle of the prefecture, from Takanosu to…
Goshogake Onsen
Goshogake sits at about a thousand metres on the western flank of Hachimantai in an area of active geothermal ground, an…
Tamagawa Onsen
Tamagawa produces nine thousand litres a minute from a single source at 98 degrees and pH around 1.2 — the largest singl…
Kisakata Kujukushima
Basho came to Kisakata in 1689 and wrote that Matsushima seems to smile while Kisakata seems to grieve. What he saw was…
Mototaki Fukuryusui
Rain and snowmelt on Mt. Chokai sink into the volcanic rock, travel underground for decades, and come out here — not ove…
Kosaka Mine Office
Kosaka was, at the start of the twentieth century, the largest producer of silver in Japan and later of copper, and in 1…
Korakukan
Korakukan was built in 1910 as a welfare facility for the Kosaka mine, which was then one of the richest in Japan, and i…
Isedotai Site
Isedotai has four stone circles, which is unique in Japan — every other Jomon circle site has one or two. They sit on a…
Oyu Stone Circles
Two stone circles, Manza and Nonakado, stand on a river terrace in Kazuno, each a double ring of river cobbles carried u…
Masuda Uchigura
Masuda's merchants were rich on tobacco, silk and finance, and they built their storehouses inside their houses. An uchi…
Harako-meshi
Harako-meshi is rice cooked in the stock from simmering salmon, with the flaked salmon on top and salmon roe over that.…
Izunuma and Uchinuma
Izunuma and Uchinuma are shallow lowland marshes covering about four square kilometres on the Semboku plain, and because…
Tashirojima
Tashirojima is a small island off Ishinomaki with an ageing population of well under a hundred and a great many cats. Th…
Narukokyo Gorge
The Otani river has cut a gorge about a hundred metres deep through the volcanic rock west of Naruko Onsen, and the side…
Katanuma
Katanuma is a crater lake above Naruko Onsen and one of the most acidic lakes in Japan — acidic enough that nothing live…
Seri Nabe
Seri is Japanese parsley, one of the seven spring herbs, and Miyagi grows more of it than anywhere else in the country.…
Rairaikyo Gorge
The Natori river cuts a gorge twenty metres deep through rock at Akiu, right at the entrance to the hot spring village,…
Chitei no Mori Museum
In 1988, digging for a new school in the Tomizawa district of Sendai, archaeologists found a forest floor from twenty th…
Aburafu Don
Aburafu is a stick of wheat gluten that has been fried in oil rather than baked, a Toyoma speciality made here since the…
Toyoma Old Town
Toyoma was the seat of a branch of the Date and then a Meiji administrative centre, and it kept the buildings from both…
Minamisanriku 311 Memorial
Minamisanriku lost a large part of its town and a large number of its people in March 2011, including staff at the disas…
Estimated from distance to the nearest airport or shinkansen station. Confirm actual journey times before you travel.