Hidden Gems Across Japan
1,610 spots
Umaji Village
Umaji has about a thousand people, is ninety-six per cent forest, and is one of the best-known village brands in Japan.…
Ekingura
Hirose Kinzo, known as Ekin, was a Tosa painter of the late Edo period who lost his position after an accusation of forg…
Kure Taishomachi Market
Kure is a bonito port and this market, a covered lane a hundred metres long a couple of minutes from the harbour, is whe…
Aki Nora-dokei and Doi Kachu
In 1887 a young landowner in Aki called Hatakeyama Taichi bought a clock, took it apart to work out how it functioned, a…
Yasui Gorge
Yasui runs up the north of Niyodogawa town and holds the pool that most people mean when they talk about the colour of t…
Nakatsu Gorge
Nakatsu is the Niyodo gorge you can walk into. A 1.3-kilometre path runs up the ravine from the entrance to Uryu Falls,…
Nikobuchi
The phrase Niyodo Blue was coined by a photographer describing this specific pool. Nikobuchi is a plunge basin at the fo…
Kirinomori Daifuku
Shingu, in the mountains of Shikokuchuo, grows tea without agricultural chemicals, and the daifuku made from it has beco…
Yawatahama Champon
Champon travelled from Nagasaki through Kurume to Hita in Oita, and then across the Bungo channel by ferry to Yawatahama…
Mitsuhama-yaki
Mitsuhama-yaki is a layered okonomiyaki, close to the Hiroshima style, which arrived because Mitsuhama and Hiroshima wer…
Mitsu Ferry
A boat crosses eighty metres of harbour between Mitsu and Minatoyama in Matsuyama, on demand, from seven in the morning…
Ohanahan Street
Ozu was a castle town on the Hiji river and kept its Edo street plan, and Ohanahan-dori is the best-preserved lane in it…
Nametoko Gorge
Nametoko is a granite gorge in the Ashizuri-Uwakai National Park where the river runs over continuous sheets of smooth r…
Yusu Mizugaura Terraced Fields
The Uwajima coast is a drowned ria shoreline — steep hills dropping straight into deep water, with almost no flat land.…
Oyamazumi Shrine
Oyamazumi is the head shrine of some ten thousand Mishima and Yamazumi shrines and the deity is the god of mountains, se…
Kurushima Strait Tidal Cruise
The Kurushima Strait is one of the three fastest tidal channels in Japan, alongside Naruto and Kanmon, and the current t…
Kirosan Observatory Park
Kirosan is a 301-metre hill at the southern tip of Oshima, looking down on the Kurushima Strait — one of the three faste…
Iwayaji
Iwayaji is the forty-fifth station of the Shikoku pilgrimage and one of the hardest — the walk up from the road is twent…
Omogo Gorge
Omogo is the gorge at the foot of Mt. Ishizuchi, the highest mountain in western Japan, cut into granite so that the riv…
Futami Seaside Park
The Futami coast faces due west across the Iyo-nada, and the town built a park around that single fact. There is a 380-m…
Shimonada Station
A single unstaffed platform on the Yosan Line with a wooden bench, a corrugated shelter, and the Iyo-nada sea directly b…
Tonaru
Besshi was worked for copper from 1691 to 1973, for two hundred and eighty-two years, and it built the Sumitomo group. T…
Kamihaga Residence
Uchiko's money came from mokuro — Japan wax, pressed from the berries of the haze tree and used for candles, hair oil, p…
Uchikoza
Uchikoza was built in 1916 by eighteen local businessmen who had made money from wax and wanted somewhere to watch kabuk…
Estimated from distance to the nearest airport or shinkansen station. Confirm actual journey times before you travel.