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The First-Timer's Japan Guide

Guides, places, and what's on across Japan, written at street level.

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All Events Places

Historic Site

Asuka-Fujiwara

The Nara-Prefecture ruins where Japan's first centralised state took shape, newly inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2026.

Kashihara · Nara

Temple

Myorakuji Temple

A Tendai temple in the Nagao Hills of Kawasaki, known as the "hydrangea temple" for the 1,000 shrubs that fill its grounds each June, with a June festival.

Kawasaki · Kanagawa

Temple

Togakuin

A Tendai temple in the Kawasaki hills, known as the "azalea temple" for the 2,000 shrubs that colour its slopes each spring, and for its healing prayers.

Kawasaki · Kanagawa

All Events Places

Historic Site

Asuka-Fujiwara

The Nara-Prefecture ruins where Japan's first centralised state took shape, newly inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2026.

Kashihara · Nara

Temple

Myorakuji Temple

A Tendai temple in the Nagao Hills of Kawasaki, known as the "hydrangea temple" for the 1,000 shrubs that fill its grounds each June, with a June festival.

Kawasaki · Kanagawa

Temple

Togakuin

A Tendai temple in the Kawasaki hills, known as the "azalea temple" for the 2,000 shrubs that colour its slopes each spring, and for its healing prayers.

Kawasaki · Kanagawa

Temple

Naritasan Shinshoji

Naritasan Shinshoji in Narita, Chiba, is a head temple of Shingon Buddhism, centred on a Fudo Myoo image attributed to Kukai and a goma fire ritual unbroken for 1,080 years.

Narita · Chiba

Temple

Tsukiji Hongwanji

Tsukiji Hongwanji is a striking Shin Buddhist temple in central Tokyo, blending Indian-inspired architecture, Silk Road motifs, and animal carvings by Ito Chuta.

Tokyo

Temple

Zuiryuji Temple

A 17th-century Soto-school Buddhist temple in Takaoka houses several buildings designated as national treasures and important cultural properties.

Takaoka · Toyama

Temple

The Great Buddha of Takaoka

This bronze statue, one of three famous Great Buddhas in Japan, showcases the casting techniques of Takaoka's celebrated bronze ware industry.

Takaoka · Toyama

Temple

Saijo Inari

Saijo 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.

Okayama

Temple

Jogi Nyorai Saihoji Temple

This Pure Land Buddhist temple in Sendai houses a rare sacred scroll of Amida Buddha that is unveiled only five times each year.

Sendai · Miyagi

Temple

Kongōbu-ji (Mount Kōya)

Mount Kōya is a sacred temple complex where the entire mountain is treated as one unified holy domain dedicated to Shingon Esoteric Buddhism.

Koya · Wakayama

Temple

Tofukuji Temple

Tofukuji is one of Kyoto's great Zen temples, celebrated for its sweeping maple valley and the modern garden surrounding the abbot's quarters.

Kyoto

Temple

Kimiidera

A 1,250-year-old Buddhist temple in Wakayama that holds the second position on Japan's oldest pilgrimage route dedicated to Kannon worship.

Wakayama

Temple

Saimyō-ji

Tendai Buddhist temple with National Treasures and a designated scenic garden, featuring ancient Asuka-period Buddhist paintings discovered on interior pillars in 2020.

Kora · Shiga

Shrine

Tsushima Shrine

Head shrine of a nationwide network of about 3,000 Tsushima temples, worshipping the deities Gozutennō and Susanoo with legendary origins in the third century BCE.

Tsushima · Aichi

Temple

Ryufukuji

Buddhist temple founded in the Kenei era and relocated in 1557, built on former Ouchi clan lands and maintained as a museum to their history.

Yamaguchi

Temple

Banna-ji Temple

This temple, the head of the Dainichi sect, was founded in 1197 on the grounds of the Ashikaga clan residence and is designated a National Historic Site.

Ashikaga · Tochigi

Temple

Saikyo-ji Temple

Saikyo-ji, the head temple of the Tendai Shinsei sect, was founded by Prince Shotoku and reorganized in 1486 as the sect's central training site.

Otsu · Shiga

Temple

Hōryū-ji

This seventh-century Buddhist temple features some of the world's oldest wooden structures and several national treasures, including a five-story pagoda.

Ikaruga · Nara