45 Best Sights in Side Trips from Tokyo, Japan

Within a block of Ishikawacho Station is the beginning of this street, which follows the course of the Nakamura-gawa (Nakamura River) to the harbor where the Japanese set up shop 100 years ago to serve the foreigners living in Kannai. The street is now lined with smart boutiques and jewelry stores. A network of side streets leading from Motomachi contain a nice selection of cafés and restaurants.

The centerpiece of the park immediately southeast of Landmark Tower is the Nippon Maru, a full-rigged three-mast ship popularly called the "Swan of the Pacific." Built in 1930, it served as a training vessel and although it's now retired, it's an occasional participant in tall-ships festivals. It's also open as a museum, with enough English explanations to help bring its nicely preserved quarters to life. Adjacent to the ship is the Yokohama Port Museum, a two-story collection of ship models, displays, and archival materials that celebrates the achievements of the Port of Yokohama from its earliest days to the present. There are also a couple of boat and gantry crane simulators there, if you fancy a hands-on taste of port life.

Just a 15-minute walk southwest from Atami Station, this geyser used to gush on schedule once every 24 hours but stopped after the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923. Not happy with this, the local chamber of commerce rigged a pump to raise the geyser every five minutes.

This temple, which is especially pretty when its jasmines are in bloom in May, is where the negotiations took place that eventually led to the United States–Japan Treaty of Amity and Commerce of 1858. A museum on the grounds contains more than 300 original artifacts relating to Commodore Perry and the "black ships" that opened Japan to the West. Also don't miss Perry Road, a quaint but short canal-side street leading from the temple's gate toward the port. Some of its old buildings house cafés and restaurants.

If you've budgeted a second day for Nikko, you might want to consider a walk around the lake. A paved road along the north shore extends for about 8 km (5 miles), one-third of the whole distance, as far as the "beach" and campsite at Shobu-ga-hama. Here, where the road branches off to the north for the Senjogahara Marsh, are the lovely cascades of Ryuzu no Taki, literally Dragon's Head Falls. If you don't fancy retracing your steps, Tobu buses running between Yumoto Onsen and Tobu Nikko stop here.

Opened to the public in 1906, this was once the estate and gardens of Tomitaro Hara (1868–1939), one of Yokohama's wealthiest men, who made his money as a silk merchant before becoming a patron of the arts. On the estate's extensive grounds, he created is a kind of open-air museum of traditional Japanese architecture, some of which was brought here from Kamakura and the western part of the country. Especially noteworthy is Rinshun-kaku, a villa built for the Tokugawa clan in 1649. There's also a tea pavilion, Choshu-kaku, built by the third Tokugawa shogun, Iemitsu. Other buildings include a small temple transported from Kyoto's famed Daitoku-ji and a farmhouse from the Gifu district in the Japan Alps (around Takayama). If you need some refreshments while in the gardens, you'll find three tea shops serving tea, Japanese sweets, and light meals like soba noodles.

Shimoda's ropeway takes you to the top of 200-meter (656-foot) Mt. Nesugata, a stone's throw from Izukyu Shimoda Station. From the peak's observation decks you're treated to vistas of Shimoda and its picturesque bay, with clear days allowing views across the water to the Izu Islands. A café at the top serves light meals; there's also a small temple, called Aizendo, where you can try throwing small clay stones through a distant hoop in the hope of achieving a sense of wa (peace and harmony).

Calling this a museum might be a little misleading: it's home to a collection of ramen restaurants (seven currently), each serving a different style of Japan's favorite noodle, all packaged together in a streetscape designed to replicate 1950s Yokohama. While here, you could also try a noodle-making class or create your own instant ramen. There are also a few old-fashioned sweet shops for a post-noodle snack.

This attractive stretch of coast running east and then north out of Shimoda is ideal for some beach time. On an inlet a short distance from town, the white sands of Sotoura Beach provide a calm point for swimming, paddling with kids, or even sea kayaking. A little ways north is Shirahama Beach, an 800-meter (875-yard) belt of sand that has become one of Izu's most popular beach spots: good for swimming and tanning in summer and surfing year-round. For the latter, you'll find several surf shops renting gear near the beach. There are also convenience stores and café–restaurants in the area.

A poetic description says it all and still holds true: "The water," wrote the great 17th-century poet Basho, "seemed to take a flying leap and drop a hundred feet from the top of a cave into a green pool surrounded by a thousand rocks. One was supposed to inch one's way into the cave and enjoy the falls from behind." The falls and the gorge are striking—but you should make the climb only if you have good hiking shoes and are willing to get wet in the process.

This shopping center, on the opposite side of Yokohama Cosmo World, is notable chiefly for its restaurants, which overlook the Minato Mirai area. Try arriving at sunset; the spectacular view of twinkling lights and the Landmark Tower, the Ferris wheel, and hotels occasionally include Mt. Fuji in the background.

This park is perhaps the only positive legacy of the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923. The debris of the warehouses and other buildings that once stood here were swept away, and the area was made into a 17-acre oasis of green along the waterfront. On spring and summer weekends, the park fills up with families, couples, and groups of friends, making it one of the best people-watching spots in town. In the rose garden at the park's center is a fountain, representing the Guardian of the Water, presented to Yokohama by San Diego, California, one of its sister cities.

This amusement-park complex has—among its 30 or so very retro rides and attractions—everything from a four-story water-chute ride to sedate rides for toddlers. The Ferris wheel, which was once the world's tallest, towers over Yokohama. The park is east of Minato Mirai and Queen's Square, on both sides of the river.

This museum houses a collection of roughly 3,500 dolls from all over the world. In Japanese tradition, dolls are less to play with than to display—either in religious folk customs or as the embodiment of some spiritual quality. The museum is worth a quick visit, with or without a child in tow, although the puppet shows that sometimes take place on the fourth floor are especially good for kids. It's just across from the southeast end of Yamashita Park.

If you love the sun, make sure you stop at Yumigahama. It's one of the nicest sandy stretches on the whole Izu Peninsula. Although the water is usually warm enough to swim from June, the crowds come out during Japan's beach season in July and August, which is when the beach has food and drink options as well as lifeguards. The bus from Izukyu Shimoda Station stops here before continuing to Iro-zaki, the last stop on the route. Amenities: food and drink; lifeguards; toilets; parking (fee). Best for: swimming; solitude.