Shrines, museums, parks, and the spots in between, with the access details worked out.
A Kyoto studio where visitors put on real film-grade armour or hand-painted kimono and take tea in a tea room built for it, a minute from Umekoji-Kyotonishi.
KyotoEntertainment space in Yokohama Bay that treats unko (poop) as a colourful, shareable look, with interactive zones and goods under the unko kawaii brand.
Yokohama · KanagawaThe garden and villa of the Shimazu lords at Kagoshima, laid out in 1658 with Sakurajima and the bay borrowed as its scenery.
KagoshimaMuseum opened in 2005 on the site of an Edo-period magistrate's office, covering Nagasaki's history as Japan's gateway to overseas exchange.
NagasakiA footbridge 375 metres long hanging 100 metres above a dam lake in a gorge in Ibaraki, with a bungee jump from the middle of it.
Hitachiota · IbarakiAshikaga park with pink, purple and white wisteria, a wisteria tunnel, rose and tulip gardens, and night illuminations counted among Japan's three greatest.
Ashikaga · TochigiThis working film studio's theme park offers authentic period-drama settings and the chance to watch real productions on historic full-scale sets.
KyotoHands-on sumo sessions in Asakusa run by former wrestlers for foreign guests: technique demonstrations, a chance to try sumo in costume, and a chanko meal.
TokyoA line of some forty rock pillars running out to sea at Kushimoto in Wakayama, left standing when the softer rock around them wore away.
Kushimoto · WakayamaJapan's first national museum dedicated to Ainu culture and the core facility of Upopoy, promoting understanding of this Indigenous heritage.
Shiraoi · HokkaidoAn outdoor dinosaur park in the woods at Katsuyama in Fukui, three minutes from the prefectural dinosaur museum, with more than sixty life-sized models.
Katsuyama · FukuiA hilltop park above the five lakes of Mikata in Fukui, reached by lift or cable car, with terraces looking over the lakes and Wakasa Bay.
Mihama · FukuiA kilometre of columnar cliffs on the Fukui coast, formed in a rock that produces this shape in only a few places in the world.
Sakai · FukuiOne of the two head temples of Soto Zen, founded in 1244 in the mountains of Fukui and still a working monastery of about 150 monks.
Eiheiji · FukuiA hot spring town in a gorge on the Kinugawa river in Tochigi, once reserved for lords and monks returning from Nikko.
Nikko · TochigiSeven old farmhouses of the Nanbu type moved to a valley in Iwate and kept as a working village, with horses, paddies and a water mill.
Tono · IwateA limestone cave in Fukushima with 600 metres open to walk, holding an unusual range of formations, including a rare disc-shaped shield.
Tamura · FukushimaThe highest of the three mountains of Dewa in Yamagata, sacred to the moon god, with a shrine at the summit that opens only in high summer.
Tsuruoka · Yamagata
