45 Best Sights in Side Trips from Tokyo, Japan

This hillside complex overlooking Hakone has more than the average onsen. In addition to all the water-based attractions, amenities include a shopping mall modeled on a European outdoor market, a swimsuit rental shop, a massage salon, and a game center. The park is divided into two main zones, called Yunessun and Mori no Yu (Forest Bath). When signing in at reception, get a waterproof digital wristband that allows you to pay for lockers and drink machines within the complex.

In the Yunessun side, where you must wear a swimsuit, you can visit somewhat tacky re-creations of Turkish and ancient Roman baths or take a dip in coffee or red wine. It's all a bit corny, but fun. Younger visitors enjoy the waterslides on Rodeo Mountain. In the more secluded Mori no Yu side, you can go au naturel in a variety of indoor and outdoor, single-sex baths.

More than anything else, the country's most famous falls are what draw the crowds to Chuzenji. Fed by the eastward flow of the lake, the falls drop 97 meters (318 feet) into a rugged gorge; an elevator takes you to an observation platform at the bottom. The volume of water over the falls is carefully regulated, but it's especially impressive after a summer rain or a typhoon. In winter, the falls do not freeze completely, but they still transform into a beautiful cascade of icicles. The elevator is just a few minutes' walk east from the Chuzenji Onsen bus stop, downhill and off to the right at the far end of the parking lot.

History meets entertainment at Yokohama's Red Brick Warehouses, just a few minutes from World Porters Mall. Constructed in 1911 and 1913 to accommodate trade, partially destroyed ten years later in the Kanto earthquake, and then used for military storage in World War II before being taken over by the United States upon Japan's surrender, today these two redbrick warehouses are a fashionable hangout. You'll find event spaces and unique shops, as well as cafés, restaurants, and bars (some with balcony seating). There are also seasonal fairs and markets, and the seafront areas are perfect picnic spots.

If you want to avoid the hairpin turns, try the ropeway that runs from Akechidaira Station directly to the 1,372-meter (4,500-foot) Akechidaira lookout. It takes three minutes, and the panoramic views of Nikko and Kegon Falls are priceless.

Running southwest from Shinko Pier to Kannai is Bashamichi, which translates to "Horse-Carriage Street," a name it was given in the 19th century, when it was widened to accommodate the conveyances of the city's new European residents. This redbrick-paved thoroughfare and the streets parallel to it have been partially restored to evoke that past, with faux-antique phone booths and imitation gas lamps. Here you'll find coffee shops, patisseries, boutiques, and places for dinner.

Once Japan's largest Chinese settlement, Yokohama's Chinatown draws more than 18 million visitors a year. Its narrow streets and alleys are lined with some 350 shops selling foodstuffs, herbal medicines, cookware, toys and ornaments, and clothing and accessories. If China exports it, you'll find it here. Wonderful aromas waft from the spice shops. Even better aromas drift from the quarter's 160-odd restaurants, which serve every major style of Chinese cuisine: this is the best place for lunch in Yokohama.

At this hands-on museum, you can create your own instant-ramen flavors and packaging and learn all about one of Japan's biggest culinary exports. Kids love running through the Cup Noodle Park, a playground simulating the noodle-making process, complete with a "noodle net" and "seasoning pool" ball pit.

Edo Wonderland, a living-history theme park on the northeastern outskirts of Nikko, re-creates an 18th-century Japanese village. The complex includes sculpted gardens with waterfalls and ponds and vintage buildings, where actors in traditional dress stage martial arts exhibitions, historical theatrical performances, and comedy acts. You can even observe Japanese tea ceremony rituals in gorgeous tatami-floor houses, as well as people dressed as geisha and samurai. Strolling stuffed animal characters and acrobatic ninjas keep kids happy. Edo Wonderland also has restaurants and small food stalls serving cuisine like yakisoba (fried soba) and dango (dumplings).

Although, like the beaches of Sagami Bay, the tiny island of Enoshima can be mobbed in summer and on sunny holidays, it's still worth a visit outside those times. While the island is only 4 km (2½ miles) around, with a hill in the middle and a long causeway connecting it to the mainland, there's quite a bit to see.

Partway up the hill is a shrine where the local fisherfolk used to pray for a bountiful catch—before it became a tourist attraction. Once upon a time it was quite a hike up to the shrine; now there are escalators, flanked by the inevitable stalls selling souvenirs and snacks. Some of the island's cafés and restaurants have spectacular views of Mt. Fuji and the Izu Peninsula.

To reach the causeway from Enoshima Station, walk south from the station for about 1 km (0.6 miles), keeping the Katase-gawa (Katase River) on your right. To return to Tokyo from Enoshima, take a train to Shinjuku on the Odakyu line. From the island walk back across the causeway, and take the second bridge over the Katase-gawa. Within five minutes you'll come to the Odakyu's Katase-Enoshima Station. Or you can retrace your steps to Kamakura and take the JR Yokosuka Line to Tokyo Station.

The largest of the recreational facilities at Lake Kawaguchi has an impressive assortment of rides, roller coasters, and other amusements, but it's probably not worth a visit unless you have children in tow. In winter, there's superb skating here, with Mt. Fuji for a backdrop. Fuji-Q Highland is about a 20-minute walk southeast from Kawaguchi-ko Station. In addition to the entry fee, there are charges for various attractions, so it's best to get the one-day free pass.

This barrier, a checkpoint on the road with a guardhouse and lookout tower, was originally built in 1618 to inspect incoming and outgoing traffic but was demolished during the Meiji Restoration of 1868. This exact replica was constructed in 1965 and is only a few minutes' walk from the pier, along the lakeshore in the direction of Moto-Hakone. The hilltop guardhouse offers excellent views of Lake Ashi and the surrounding area.

At the cable-car terminus of Sounzan, a gondola called the Hakone Ropeway swings up over a ridge and crosses the Owakudani Valley (aka the Great Boiling Valley) on its way to Togendai. The landscape here is desolate, with sulfurous billows of steam escaping through holes from some inferno deep in the earth—yet another reminder that Japan is a chain of volcanic islands.

Atop the ridge is one of the two stations where you can leave the gondola. From here, a ¾-km (½-mile) walking course wanders among the valley's sulfur pits. Just below the station is a restaurant; the food here isn't great, but, on a clear day, the view of Mt. Fuji is. Remember that if you get off the gondola at any stage, you will have to wait for someone to make space on a later gondola before you can continue down to Togendai and Ashi-no-ko. The good news is that gondolas come by every minute.

Due to concerns about volcanic activity, sections of the ropeway may be closed and buses will run from Sounzan to Togendai. The Hakone Ropeway's English site is not always up-to-date, so check with the tourist information office before you go.

The park—a major landmark in this part of the city, known, appropriately enough, as the Bluff (yamate)—once contained the barracks of the British forces. Come here for spectacular nighttime views of the waterfront, the floodlit gardens of Yamashita Park, and the Bay Bridge. Foreigners were first allowed to build here in 1867, and it has been prime real estate ever since—an enclave of churches, international schools, private clubs, and palatial Western-style homes.

If you have the time and the inclination for a beach picnic, take the 25-minute high-speed ferry (¥2,800 round-trip) from the pier. There are ten departures daily between 7:30 and 5:20 from Atami, though the times can vary if one of the two boats is under maintenance. You can easily walk around the island, which is only 4 km (2½ miles) in circumference, in less than two hours. There is also an obstacle course adventure park, great for travelers with kids. 

Moored on the waterfront, more or less in the middle of Yamashita Park, is the Hikawa Maru. The ocean liner was built in 1929 by Yokohama Dock Co. and launched on September 30, 1929. For 31 years, it shuttled passengers between Yokohama and Seattle, Washington, making a total of 238 trips. A tour of the ship evokes the time when Yokohama was a great port of call for the transpacific liners. In summer, there's a beer garden on the upper deck.

Located on the northern side of Lake Kawaguchi, this museum displays a superb collection of elaborately decorated kimono created by the late Itchiku Kubota. All the work is beautiful, but the standout is an unfinished piece called Symphony of Light, which combines several dozen kimono to depict a seasonally changing Mt. Fuji. It's all housed in a Gaudi-inspired facility that's worth a look in its own right. 

A semi–free-range petting zoo and cactus park might not seem like the best combination, but Izu Shaboten Zoo makes it work. In addition to viewing some of the 1,500 varieties of cactus, you can feed, pet, or otherwise get up close and personal with more than 140 different animals, including the capybara onsen (animals like hot springs too). Next to the zoo is 580-meter (1,903-foot) Mt. Omuro, a distinctive cinder cone volcano worth the hike (or the ropeway fee) for the panoramas from the trail around its crater.

Falling water is one of the special charms of the Nikko National Park area, and people traveling from Toshogu to Lake Chuzenji often stop off to see these cascades. They descend in a series of seven terraced stages, forming a sheet of water about 30 meters (100 feet) high. About 1 km (½ mile) west from the shrine precincts, at the Tamozawa Imperial Villa bus stop, a narrow road to the right leads to an uphill walk of some 3 km (2 miles) to the falls.

Komuroyama is known for its views of Mt. Fuji to the northwest and the 100,000 azaleas that bloom on and around Mt. Komuro in April. You can take a ski-lift style cable to the top of the mountain, which has a lovely view of the sea below.

From Owakudani, the descent by gondola to Togendai (via Ubako) on the shore of Lake Ashi takes 25 minutes. There's no reason to linger at Togendai; it's only a terminus for buses to Hakone-Yumoto and Odawara and to the resort villages in the northern part of Hakone. Head straight for the pier, a few minutes' walk down the hill, where boats set out on the lake for Hakone-machi. With still water and good weather, you'll get a breathtaking reflection of the mountains in the waters of the lake.

A 5- to 10-minute walk north from Kawaguchi-ko Station, the most developed of the five lakes is ringed with weekend retreats and traditional ryokan—many of them maintained by companies and universities for their employees. Excursion boats depart from a pier here on 30-minute lake tours (¥1,000). The promise, not always fulfilled, is to have two views of Mt. Fuji: one of the mountain itself and the other inverted in its reflection on the water. Other attractions near the lake include Fuji-Q Highland amusement park and the impressive kimono collection at the Itchiku Kubota Museum.

Lake Motosu is the deepest, clearest, and farthest west of the five lakes (about 50 minutes by bus from Kawaguchi-ko). As it's also one of the least developed of the lakes, it's a good spot for hikers and nature lovers. If you want to see it without visiting, take a look at a ¥1,000 bill; Motosu is pictured on the reverse side.

Between lakes Shoji and Kawaguchi, Sai is the third-largest lake of the Fuji Go-ko, with only moderate development. From the western shore there is an especially good view of Mt. Fuji. Near Sai-ko there are three natural caves, an ice cave, a bat cave, and a wind cave. You can either take a bus or walk to them.

Many consider Lake Shoji, the smallest of the lakes, to be the prettiest. There are still remnants of lava flow jutting out from the water, which locals perch upon while fishing. The 17-km-long (10.5 miles) Shoji Trail leads from Lake Shoji to Mt. Fuji's Fuji-Subaru Line 5th Station through Aoki-ga-hara (Sea of Trees). This forest has an underlying magnetic lava field that makes compasses go haywire. Be prepared with a good trail map before taking this hike.

The largest lake of the Fuji Go-ko, Yamanaka is 35 minutes by bus to the southeast of Kawaguchi. It's also the closest lake to the popular Yoshida Trail up Mt. Fuji that starts at Fuji-Subaru Line 5th Station, and many climbers use this resort area as a base.

On the northern shore of peaceful Yunoko (Lake Yuno), a series of isolated hot springs were a popular with 14th-century aristocrats. Today, the area is still known for its hot springs—being able to soak in an onsen even when temperatures drop below zero is a major plus—but they are now controlled by separate resorts. Besides the healing and relaxing effects of the baths, visitors come for the hiking trails, fishing, camping, skiing, bird-watching, and mountain-climbing opportunities. Try to avoid the fall season, as it's peak visitor time and there are always delays. 

Although no longer Japan's tallest building—that title now goes to Tokyo's Azabudai Hills Mori JP Tower—this 70-story tower in Yokohama's Minato Mirai is the tallest in Greater Tokyo. The 69th-floor Sky Garden observation deck has a spectacular view of the city, especially at night; you reach it via a high-speed elevator that carries you up at an ear-popping 45 kph (28 mph). The complex's Dockyard Garden is a restored dry dock with stepped sides of massive stone blocks. The long, narrow floor of the dock, with its water cascade at one end, makes a wonderful year-round open-air venue for concerts and other events; in summer (July–mid-August), the beer garden installed here is a perfect refuge from the heat. The Yokohama Royal Park Hotel occupies the building's top 20 stories, and the courtyard on the northeast side connects to Queen's Square, a huge atrium-style vertical mall with dozens of shops (mainly for clothing and accessories) as well as cafés and restaurants.

For an older generation of Yokohama residents, the 348-foot-high decagonal tower, which opened in 1961, was the city's landmark structure; civic pride prevented them from admitting that it falls lamentably short of an architectural masterpiece. The tower has a navigational beacon at the 338-foot level and purports to be the world's tallest lighthouse. At the 328-foot level, an observation gallery provides 360-degree views of the harbor and the city, and, on clear days in autumn or winter, you can often see Mt. Fuji in the distance.

If you want to see Yokohama urban development at its most self-assertive, then this is it. The aim of this project, launched in the mid-1980s, was to turn some three-quarters of a square mile of waterfront property, lying east of the JR Negishi Line railroad tracks between Yokohama and Sakuragicho stations, into a model "harbor of the future." As a hotel, business, international exhibition, and conference center, it's been a smashing success.

Filling galleries directly across from the Landmark Tower are rocket engines, power plants, a submarine, various gadgets, and displays that simulate piloting helicopters.