Tsuwano

This hauntingly beautiful town, tucked into a narrow north-south valley at the foot of conical Aono-yama and its dormant volcanic mountain friends may be the most picturesque hamlet in all Japan. If you catch it on a clear day, the view from the old castle ruins simply takes your breath away. Even when it's cloudy, the mist hangs ghostlike among the trees and ridges. The stucco-and-tile walls are like those in Hagi and Kurashiki, and the clear carp-filled streams running beside the streets can induce even tired, jaded travelers to take a stroll or bike ride backward through time.

It's easy to see how a gifted spirit and intellect could soar here. The towering Japanese literary figure Ogai Mori, novelist and poet, was born (in 1862) and lived here—until he went off and enrolled at Tokyo University's preparatory program in Medicine at the astonishing age of 12!