Shrines, museums, parks, and the spots in between, with the access details worked out.
A Rinzai Zen temple at Fukuyama with tea houses, moved historic halls, gardens, and one of the largest collections of Hakuin's Zen painting.
Fukuyama · HiroshimaA daimyo garden begun in 1620 in the centre of Hiroshima, destroyed by the atomic bomb and rebuilt over thirty years.
HiroshimaA six-hectare strolling garden beside Hiroshima Airport, laid out in three zones that stand for the mountains, the countryside and the sea of Hiroshima.
Mihara · HiroshimaA 266-metre hill above Tadanoumi in Takehara, half an hour's walk to a view over Okunoshima and the islands of the Seto Inland Sea.
Takehara · HiroshimaThe restored 1905 residence of the commander of the Kure naval district, with rare gilded leather paper on its walls, and a naval arsenal clock tower.
Kure · HiroshimaA restaurant inn of 1872 in Fuchu, Hiroshima, with a strolling garden of 1918, now on the national register and open to the public.
Fuchu · HiroshimaA wooden theatre of 1927 in the old post town of Joge, the only pre-war wooden playhouse still standing in the Chugoku region.
Fuchu · HiroshimaThe guest hall of a Shingon temple at Tomonoura, built around 1690, whose view over the Seto Inland Sea a Korean envoy called the finest in Japan.
Fukuyama · HiroshimaA five-hectare quarter of Edo and Meiji merchant houses in Takehara, Hiroshima, built on the fortunes of salt and known as the Little Kyoto of Aki.
Takehara · HiroshimaA five-span wooden bridge over the Nishiki River at Iwakuni, its three middle spans arched, rebuilt in the same form since 1673.
Iwakuni · YamaguchiA 1,780-metre toll-free bridge from Shimonoseki to the island of Tsunoshima, crossing cobalt blue water and white sand on the north Yamaguchi coast.
Shimonoseki · YamaguchiA limestone cave under the Akiyoshidai karst plateau in Yamaguchi, a Special Natural Monument with a one-kilometre route and a steady 17 degrees.
Mine · YamaguchiTwo shrines on one site at the western tip of the Shimane Peninsula, rebuilt in the 1630s and holding a National Treasure suit of armour.
Izumo · ShimaneSada Shrine near Matsue: a rare sanctuary of three halls side by side, the gods gathering each November to remember Izanami, and the UNESCO-listed Sada Shinno dance.
Matsue · ShimaneMankusen Shrine in Izumo is said to be the last stop for the gods of Japan before they return home.
Izumo · ShimaneKumano Taisha, Izumo's "birthplace of fire", holds sacred hikiriusu and hikirigine fire-drills, a startling rice-cake ritual, and Susanoo's comb festival for Princess Inada.
Matsue · ShimaneThe floating shrine of Miyajima, built out over a tidal cove, with its great vermilion torii standing in the sea off the sacred island.
Hatsukaichi · Hiroshima
