A mountaintop monastery town founded in 816 by the monk Kūkai, with more than 100 temples, many offering shukubō (temple lodging), where you eat vegetarian monks' food (shōjin ryōri) and join morning prayers.
Walk through Okunoin, Japan's largest cemetery, among 200,000 moss-covered gravestones under giant cedars, to Kūkai's mausoleum, best at dusk. Kōya-san is about 2 hours from Osaka by train and cable car.
Ancient pilgrimage trails through the forested mountains of the Kii Peninsula, linking three grand shrines, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Osaka's lively entertainment street along a canal, famous for giant neon signs, including the Glico running man, and for street food: takoyaki (octop…
Japan's first permanent capital, where more than 1,000 tame sika deer roam the park; buy deer crackers and they will bow to you.
The head shrine of Inari, the god of rice and business, famous for its thousands of bright vermilion torii gates, donated by businesses, which form t…
A Buddhist temple on a wooded hillside in eastern Kyoto, famous for its wooden stage, built without nails, jutting out over the valley, with views ov…
A path through towering green bamboo in western Kyoto, which creaks and rustles in the wind.
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