Destinations

Check our extensive guides to destinations and places to visit all over Japan to help you travel and get around, and find what to do and see in each location.

Find the best points of interest you can visit by train, how to get there, main attractions and off the beaten tracks suggestions in Japan’s four islands.

Dotonbori: Access and things to do

Dotonbori has been called the heart of Osaka. It is Osaka’s most famous tourist attraction, known for its bright and extravagant neon lights, which pierce the night and reflect off the surface of the Dotonbori Canal. This “bright heart” of Osaka is a colorful must-see anytime you travel through Japan’s Kansai region.

Dotonbori is also renowned for its variety of bars and restaurants. Is the Dotonbori nightlife calling to you? Check out this handy travel guide to learn all you need to know for your next trip to Dotonbori.

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Fushimi Inari-Taisha: The Shrine of the Thousand Torii Gates

To your left and to your right are massive red beams with blackened footings. Above you, too, are red beams with sparklings of sunlight filtering through in between. The color, called shuiro in Japanese, is said to represent the sun. The torii gates tower above you, but lessen in number as you ascend the mountain.

When you reach the Yotsutsuji intersection, halfway up the mountain, all of Kyoto sprawls before you in a breathtaking panorama. This is what a trek on the hiking trails of Kyoto’s Fushimi Inari shrine is like.

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The 10 best spots in Tokyo for Instagram photos

Do you relish filling your Instagram feed with dazzling travel photos? Where can you find the best places to capture historic or modern culture, or to make your photos pop? Consider our picks for the coolest places to brush up on your photography in Tokyo.

The following list encompasses ten of the best Instagrammable spots in Tokyo. Don’t forget to use your Japan Rail Pass for fast and easy travel.

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Tokyo Skytree: Visiting Tokyo’s Tallest Tower

Rising above the Tokyo skyline is a structure that looks like a conglomeration of the Eiffel Tower and the Seattle Space Needle. It is one of the tallest structures in the world, and it combines Tokyo’s futuristic character with traditional Japanese values. How?

The Tokyo Skytree was built using the same principles as the Japanese pagoda, a type of tower with many roofs stacked atop one another. Its stability springs from its central pole, called a shinbashira. In the case of the Skytree, this central pole is in the form of a massive concrete tube, fastened to the rest of the tower using fuel dampers invented by NASA. Even in an earthquake, the tower is designed to sway against this pole without sustaining harmful structural damage.

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Kanazawa travel guide: Access and things to do

Kanazawa is known as ‘Little Kyoto’, though it is a unique destination in its own right. The capital of Ishikawa Prefecture, it offers a huge number of historical attractions, Buddhist temples, and interesting museums, as well as fascinating samurai and geisha districts.

Kanazawa’s best-known attraction is the 17th-century Kenrokuen Castle. This impressive piece of historic architecture boasts one of the country’s very best landscape gardens and it draws visitors from both across Japan and abroad.

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