Shrines, museums, parks, and the spots in between, with the access details worked out.
A Shinto shrine dedicated to Hachiman Okami, the sun goddess Amaterasu Omikami and Sarutahiko Okami, god of guidance, with four sub-shrines on the grounds.
Kanazawa · IshikawaThe former residence of the Emperor in Kyoto, with centuries of court history, open to the public with guided tours that include the Shishinden hall.
KyotoAn ancient burial mound from the late 4th century and the oldest known tumulus in the Omi region, now a public archaeological park.
Otsu · ShigaMount Koya is a sacred temple complex where the entire mountain is treated as one unified holy domain dedicated to Shingon Esoteric Buddhism.
Koya · WakayamaSeventeenth-century castle with distinctive 20-meter stone walls, rebuilt in 1640 and completed in 1670, ranked among Japan's Top 100 Castles.
Marugame · KagawaOriginal wooden fortress built 1607-1611, one of Japan's few surviving castles and one of the Three Great Lake Castles in its architectural category.
Matsue · ShimaneTrue Pure Land temple in Yatsuo, founded in 1290 atop Maeyama, keeping centuries of Nembutsu practice and Amida Buddha worship in the Honganji tradition.
ToyamaA Sylvanian Families park at Harvest Hill in Osaka that recreates Sylvanian Village with life-size houses, character encounters and interactive activities.
Sakai · OsakaCastle ruins built in 1597 at a strategic river confluence, serving as a northern sentinel monitoring trade routes for over 700 years.
Morioka · IwateShinto shrine in the Kaga region, said to date to 585 when an imperial kami was moved here, and among the region's most historically significant shrines.
Kaga · IshikawaShrine in Hofu founded in 904 for Tenjin, the deified scholar and poet Sugawara no Michizane, with a single building that houses all its main sanctuaries.
Hofu · YamaguchiNational park spanning 993 square kilometres in Hokkaido, with the volcanic caldera lakes Shikotsu and Toya, Mount Yotei, hot springs and mountain areas.
Niseko · HokkaidoSaijo Inari is a 1,200-year-old Buddhist temple and one of Japan's three great Inari sites, preserving a rare form of Shinto-Buddhist syncretic worship.
OkayamaThis Pure Land Buddhist temple in Sendai houses a rare sacred scroll of Amida Buddha that is unveiled only five times each year.
Sendai · MiyagiBitchukoku Soja Shrine consolidated deities of 324 provincial shrines into a single site dedicated to the deity of nation-building and good fortune.
Soja · OkayamaJapan's largest Jomon settlement, spread over 40 hectares, with a reconstructed six-pillared structure from around 2600 BC; a UNESCO World Heritage site.
AomoriUesugi Shrine in Yonezawa honors the formidable warlord Uesugi Kenshin and was rebuilt in 1923 following a destructive fire.
Yonezawa · YamagataThe head shrine of approximately 12,000 Tenmangu and Tenjin shrines throughout Japan, Kitano Tenmangu is dedicated to the deity of learning and culture.
Kyoto
