545 Best Sights in Japan

On the second floor of Odaiba's Mori Building, by the entrance to the giant Ferris wheel, this digital art museum is one of Tokyo's hottest attractions and a fascinating, immersive (and supremely Instagram-friendly) wonderland created by a team of animators, architects, designers, and programmers. From a mesmerizing lantern-filled room to gushing digital waterfalls and fantastical forests, this futuristic museum aims to remove the boundaries between people and the world. The exhibition comprises five three-dimensional worlds spread out over the vast 10,000 square meter space: Borderless World, teamLab Athletics Forest, Future Park, Future of Lamps, and EN Tea House where a digital flower blooms and grows on the surface of your tea. This is a very popular attraction so advance tickets are essential. Plan to arrive when it first opens or late afternoon and on a weekday, if at all possible, to avoid crowds.

Wear white so that the projected lights will make your clothing part of the exhibition. Also, many rooms feature mirrored floors so you may want to wear pants or take advantage of the museum's wrap skirts.

Meaning "Temple of the Heavenly Dragon," this sacred spot is well named. In the 14th century, Emperor Go-Daigo, who had brought an end to the Kamakura shogunate, was forced from his throne by Takauji Ashikaga. After Go-Daigo died, Takauji had twinges of conscience. That's when Priest Muso Soseki had a dream in which a golden dragon rose from the nearby Oi-gawa. He told the shogun about his dream and interpreted it to mean the spirit of Go-Daigo was not at peace. Worried about this ill omen, Takauji completed Tenryu-ji in 1339 on the same spot where Go-Daigo had his favorite villa. Apparently the late emperor's spirit was appeased. Construction took several years and was partly financed by a trading mission to China, which brought back treasures of the Ming dynasty.

In the Hatto (Lecture Hall), where today's monks meditate, a huge "cloud dragon" is painted on the ceiling. The temple was often ravaged by fire, and the current buildings are as recent as 1900; the painting of the dragon was rendered by Shonen Suzuki, a 20th-century artist.

The Sogenchi garden, which dates from the 14th century, is one of Kyoto's most noteworthy gardens. Muso Soseki, an influential Zen monk and garden designer, created the garden to resemble Mt. Horai in China, the mythological home of the Immortals. It is famed for its arrangement of vertical stones embanking the large pond and as one of the first gardens to use "borrowed scenery," incorporating the mountains in the distance into the design of the garden. Now a UNESCO World Heritage site, the temple and its grounds are well attended by many admirers. There is also an excellent vegetarian Zen cuisine restaurant, Shigetsu, at the southern end of the temple grounds.

This four-building complex is one of the world's great repositories of East Asian art and archaeology. The museum has some 87,000 objects in its permanent collection, with several thousand more on loan from shrines, temples, and private owners.

The Western-style building on the left (if you're standing at the main gate), with bronze cupolas, is the Hyokeikan. Built in 1909, it was devoted to archaeological exhibits; aside from the occasional special exhibition, the building is closed today. The larger Heiseikan, behind the Hyokeikan, was built to commemorate the wedding of crown prince Naruhito in 1993 and now houses Japanese archaeological exhibits. The second floor is used for special exhibitions.

In 1878 the 7th-century Horyu-ji (Horyu Temple) in Nara presented 319 works of art in its possession—sculpture, scrolls, masks, and other objects—to the imperial household. These were transferred to the National Museum in 2000 and now reside in the Horyu-ji Homotsukan (Gallery of Horyu-ji Treasures), which was designed by Yoshio Taniguchi. There's a useful guide to the collection in English, and the exhibits are well explained. Don't miss the hall of carved wooden gigaku (Buddhist processional) masks.

The central building in the complex, the 1937 Honkan, houses Japanese art exclusively: paintings, calligraphy, sculpture, textiles, ceramics, swords, and armor. Also here are 84 objects designated by the government as National Treasures. The more attractive Toyokan, to the right of the Honkan, was completed in 1968 and recently renovated; it is devoted to the art and antiquities of China, Korea, Southeast Asia, India, the Middle East, and Egypt.

With its riot of colors and carvings, inlaid pillars, red-lacquer corridors, and extensive use of gold leaf, this 17th-century shrine to Ieyasu Tokugawa is one of the most elaborately decorated shrines in Japan.

The Hon-den (Main Hall) of Toshogu is the ultimate purpose of the shrine. You approach it from the rows of lockers at the far end of the enclosure; here you remove and store your shoes, step up into the shrine, and follow a winding corridor to the Oratory (Hai-den)—the anteroom, resplendent in its lacquered pillars, carved friezes, and coffered ceilings bedecked with dragons. Over the lintels are paintings by Tosa Mitsuoki (1617–91) of the 36 great poets of the Heian period, with their poems in the calligraphy of Emperor Go-Mizunoo. Deeper yet, at the back of the Oratory, is the Inner Chamber (Nai-jin)—repository of the Sacred Mirror that represents the spirit of the deity enshrined here. The hall is enclosed by a wall of painted and carved panel screens; opposite the right-hand corner of the wall, facing the shrine, is the Kito-den, a hall where annual prayers were once offered for the peace of the nation.

Behind the Inner Chamber is the Innermost Chamber (Nai-Nai-jin). No visitors come this far. Here, in the very heart of Toshogu, is the gold-lacquer shrine where the spirit of Ieyasu resides—along with two other deities, whom the Tokugawas later decided were fit companions. One was Toyotomi Hideyoshi, Ieyasu's mentor and liege lord in the long wars of unification at the end of the 16th century. The other was Minamoto no Yoritomo, brilliant military tactician and founder of the earlier (12th-century) Kamakura Shogunate (Ieyasu claimed Yoritomo for an ancestor).

Between the Goma-do and the Kagura-den (a hall where ceremonial dances are performed to honor the gods) is a passage to the Sakashita-mon (Gate at the Foot of the Hill). Above the gateway is another famous symbol of Toshogu, the Sleeping Cat—a small panel said to have been carved by Hidari Jingoro (Jingoro the Left-handed), a late-16th-century master carpenter and sculptor credited with important contributions to numerous Tokugawa-period temples, shrines, and palaces. Climb the flight of 200 stone steps through a forest of cryptomeria to arrive at Ieyasu's tomb--worth it for the view of the Yomei-mon and Kara-mon from above.

The centerpiece of Toshogu is the Yomei-mon (Gate of Sunlight), at the top of the second flight of stone steps. A designated National Treasure, it's also called the Higurashi-mon (Twilight Gate)—implying that you could gape at its richness of detail all day, until sunset. And rich it is indeed: 36 feet high and dazzling white, the gate has 12 columns, beams, and roof brackets carved with dragons, lions, clouds, peonies, Chinese sages, and demigods, painted vivid hues of red, blue, green, and gold. On one of the central columns, there are two carved tigers; the natural grain of the wood is used to bring out the "fur." As you enter the Yomei-mon, there are galleries running east and west for some 700 feet; their paneled fences are also carved and painted with nature motifs.

The portable shrines that appear in the Toshogu Festival, held yearly on May 17–18, are kept in the Shinyo-sha, a storeroom to the left as you come through the Twilight Gate into the heart of the shrine. The paintings on the ceiling, of tennin (Buddhist angels) playing harps, are by Tan-yu Kano (1602–74).

Mere mortals may not pass through the Chinese Gate (Kara-mon), which is the "official" entrance to the Toshogu inner shrine. Like its counterpart, the Yomei-mon, on the opposite side of the courtyard, the Kara-mon is a National Treasure—and, like the Yomei-mon, is carved and painted in elaborate detail with dragons and other auspicious figures.

For walking among the splendid and vast virgin beech, pine, and cedar forests deep in the heart of Tohoku, you could not pick a better destination than Towada-Hachimantai National Park. The mountains afford sweeping panoramas over the park's gorges and valleys, crystal clear lakes like Towada-ko, gnarled and windswept trees, and volcanic cones. The park straddles Aomori, Iwate, and Akita prefectures, and sprawls over 330 square miles (855 square km). Hot springs and tiny villages lost in time are secreted here, and the fresh tree-scented air promotes a feeling of true wilderness. Most facilities are closed between mid-November and April.

Enjoying a sushi breakfast at this famous fish market is an integral part of any trip to Tokyo, even now that its famed inner market has been relocated to a nearby island in Tokyo Bay. If you have time for only one market, this is the one to see as the shopkeepers maintain the feeling of the original Tsukiji area. The three square blocks between the former site of Tokyo Central Wholesale Market and Harumi-dori have scores of fishmongers, plus shops and restaurants. Stores sell pickles, tea, crackers and snacks, cutlery (what better place to pick up a professional sushi knife?), baskets, and kitchenware. Hole-in-the-wall sushi bars here have set menus ranging from ¥1,000 to ¥2,500; look for the plastic models of food in glass cases out front. The area includes the row of little counter restaurants, barely more than street stalls, under the arcade along the east side of Shin-Ohashi-dori, each with its specialty. Come hungry and be sure to stop for maguro donburi—a bowl of fresh raw tuna slices served over rice and garnished with bits of dried seaweed.

This shrine, built in 1627, is dedicated to Ieyasu, the first Tokugawa shogun. It miraculously survived all major disasters that destroyed most of Tokyo's historical structures—the fires, the 1868 revolt, the 1923 earthquake, the 1945 bombings—making it one of the few early-Edo-period buildings left in Tokyo. The shrine and most of its art are designated National Treasures.

Two hundred ishidoro (stone lanterns) line the path from the stone entry arch to the shrine itself. One of them, just outside the arch to the left, and more than 18 feet high, is called obaketoro (ghost lantern). Legend has it that one night a samurai on guard duty slashed at a ghost (obake) that was believed to haunt the lantern. His sword was so strong, it left a nick in the stone, which can be seen today.

The first room inside the shrine is the Hall of Worship; the four paintings in gold on wooden panels are by Tan'yu, a member of the famous Kano family of artists, dating from the 15th century. Behind the Hall of Worship, connected by a passage called the haiden, is the sanctuary, where the spirit of Ieyasu is said to be enshrined.

The real glory of Tosho-gu is its so-called Chinese Gate, at the end of the building, and the fence on either side that has intricate carvings of birds, animals, fish, and shells of every description. The two long panels of the gate, with their dragons carved in relief, are attributed to Hidari Jingoro, a brilliant sculptor of the early Edo period whose real name is unknown (hidari means "left"; Jingoro was reportedly left-handed).

Upopoy, meaning "singing in a large group" in the Ainu language, is the National Ainu Museum and Park. Opened in 2020, this impressive facility "aims to build a society where Ainu pride is recognized, raise awareness of Ainu history and culture, and help to forge a future for the Ainu people." The large permanent exhibition in the museum covers aspects of Ainu culture including language, farming, fishing, and migration. Exhibits have explanations in both Japanese and English, and there are sections especially designed for children. Performances of Ainu singing and dancing take place year-round inside the cultural exchange hall, and also outdoors during the summer months. The kotan, traditional village, has demonstrations of archery and canoeing, plus several traditional houses with thatched roofs. It's a great day-trip from Sapporo, or a stopping-off point on the way to Noboribetsu Onsen.

History meets entertainment at Yokohama's Red Brick Warehouses, just a few minutes from World Porters Mall in the Minato Mirai district. Constructed in 1911 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 redbrick warehouses are a hipster haven. You'll find unique shops and cafés, restaurants and bars (some with balcony seating), and event spaces. You'll find seasonal fairs and markets and the seafront areas are a perfect picnic spot.

The grand mausoleum of Masamune Date, the most revered daimyo of ancient Sendai, was made in the style of the Momoyama Period (16th century), where figures of people, birds, and flowers are carved and inlaid in natural colors. Looking like the world's fanciest one-story pagoda, there is so much gold leaf that in the right light it practically glows. Having burned during the firebombing in 1945, Zuihoden was reconstructed beginning in 1974. During the excavation, Date's well-preserved remains were found and have been reinterred in what appears to be a perfect replica of the original hall. The mausoleum is a 10-minute walk uphill from the Zuihoden stop; it's well worth it as it's a delightful change from other ancient architecture.

In contrast to the serious contemporary art elsewhere on the island, this hole-in-the-wall museum exhibits James Bond paraphernalia collected by island residents who really really want the movie version of The Man with the Red Tattoo to be filmed on Naoshima. A mishmash of kitsch and hope whose greatest appeal will be to James Bond fans, the 007 Museum is a two-minute walk northwest of Miyanoura Port.

This circular building was created to entwine a museum's architecture with the art exhibits, and for exhibition designers to take cues from the architecture. Transparent walls and scattered galleries encourage visitors to choose their own route. Previous exhibitions have included a Gerhard Richter retrospective, a video installation by Mathew Barney, and the work of Japanese photographer Araki Nobuyoshi. The building itself is a sight worth seeing, and the free, public terraces and plazas are a perfect place to stroll and relax. It's south of Kanazawa Park, next to city hall.

This low-slung building in the garden at Tokyo Midtown hosts rotating exhibitions focused on cutting-edge art and design. Designed by architect Tadao Ando, the subdued exterior belies the expansive and bright gallery space, where exhibits focus on presenting the world of design in an exciting and accessible light.

The city's hands-on children's museum is a good diversion for the kids. The joyful noise of excited children alleviates the somber mood of Peace Memorial Park. Kids get a kick out of conducting their own science experiments. To get here, leave the Peace Memorial Park via Aioi-bashi at the North Entrance and walk north and east, keeping the river on your left. Admission is free to the main part of the museum. If you wish to also see the planetarium, there's a fee for high-schoolers and adults.

Spartan cells line the central corridors in five wooden prison blocks, showing how the convicts who built much of early Hokkaido lived out their years. Used between 1912 and 1984, the prison is now a museum with cell blocks, watchtowers, and farm buildings. Only the most heinous criminals were banished to this forbidding northern outpost, the Alcatraz of Japan. Anguished-looking mannequins illustrate the grimness of life behind bars, and how for those who did escape it could be even worse. If you're in the mood, try out a prison meal—a tray with a bowl of rice, a piece of fish, miso soup, and a few pickles.

The Japanese gift for graphic and commercial design comes into historical perspective in these exhibits featuring everything from 18th-century wood-block prints to contemporary fashion photographs and videos. The museum is maintained by a foundation established in honor of Hideo Yoshida, fourth president of the mammoth Dentsu Advertising Company, and includes a digital library of some 130,000 entries and articles on everything you ever wanted to know about hype.

In the middle of winter, Akan International Crane Center is one of the key locations for viewing the stately red crowned cranes. The museum teachers visitors about the anatomy of the cranes, their courtship behaviors, and the kindness of Yamazaki-san who began feeding corn to cranes in winter and helped their population grow. The center is 60 minutes from Kushiro Station by bus.

Volcanoes rise from primeval forests and lakeside beaches bubble with hot springs in this national park, unfairly overshadowed by neighboring Daisetsu and Shiretoko. In Akan's northern forests, strange, cylindrical algae called marimo bob to the surface of the namesake lake. Elsewhere Ainu men pluck and blow eerie music from traditional instruments, while women dancers duck and weave in honor of the red-crested tancho white cranes that fly in every winter, breeding on the wetland on the park's southern border. In summer it's a hiker's heaven of trails and hot springs; in winter the lakes freeze over and ice festivals spill out onto the frozen expanses.

A major stop on bus tours, this small town on the lakeshore has giant hotels blocking the views from the main road. Kitschy souvenir shops sell endless rows of carved Ainu-style bears, and bottles of marimo algae balls line the shelves. At the western end of the town is the one cobbled street of the Ainu village, lined by shops and restaurants and home to a small museum and a performance center.

If you want to avoid the hairpin turns, try the ropeway that runs from Akechi-daira Station directly to the Akechi-daira lookout. It takes three minutes and the panoramic views of Nikko and Kegon Falls are priceless.

If you are not in town for Akita's famous Kanto Festival, this museum is the next best thing. Try balancing one of the poles topped with paper lanterns on your palm—local veterans will coach you, but it's more difficult than it looks. There is also an informative video about this and other Akita festivals. Your ticket also includes entry to the former residence and kimono-fabric shop of the Kaneko family, along a corridor beside the entrance. Don't miss the bats carved above the sliding doors.

One of the best reasons to visit this museum is the building, designed by renowned architect Tadao Ando. The museum's highlight is the enormous Annual Events in Akita, painted by local artist Fujita Tsuguharu (1886–1968) in just 15 days. The painting of three local festivals merged into a single scene was rendered on one of the world's largest canvases at the time, measuring 11 feet by 66 feet. The museum also hosts temporary exhibitions relating to Akita life and art.

This otherworldly limestone cavern, one of Japan's largest, lies halfway between Hagi and Yamaguchi. Although the cavern is roughly 6 miles long, only a bit less than a mile is open to the public. The path is easily accessible and lighted just enough for you to marvel at the size, but dim enough to retain a sense of wonder and mystery. Although droves of tour groups can ruin the atmosphere on weekend mornings, they have mostly cleared out by the afternoon.

The Akiyoshi Plain above the cave is a beautiful limestone karst, and makes for a pleasant spring or autumn hike. The observatory (accessible by elevator from the cave) offers impressive views in every season. If you plan to cross from the San'in to the Sanyo region, stopping a couple of hours at Akiyoshido Cave is highly recommended. Buses run from Shin-Yamaguchi Station to Akiyoshido Cave in around 45 minutes.

A dark but deeply spiritual place, this huge cave faces onto a small river. According to the local legends, the gods gathered here to figure out how to get Amaterasu out of her cave. Although not a Shinto practice, visitors now pile stones on top of each other to leave their wishes, with little stone piles creating an otherworldly atmosphere.

This shrine is located near the cave where the sun goddess Amaterasu hid until Ame-no-Uzume managed to lure her out. If you apply at the entrance, a Shinto priest will take you into the sacred precinct from where you can look across the valley towards the cave.

The sprawling stalls are famous for the traditional prepared foods of the New Year celebrations; during the last few days of December, as many as half a million people crowd into the narrow alleys under the railroad tracks to stock up for the holiday. The market dates to World War II, when not much besides Ueno Station survived the bombings. People would travel from the countryside to sell rice at black-market prices. Before long, there were hundreds of stalls in the black market selling various kinds of ame (confections), most made from sweet potatoes, earning the market its name, Ame-ya Yoko-cho (Ameyoko, locally), or "Confectioners' Alley." Shortly before the Korean War, the market was legalized, and soon the stalls were carrying watches, chocolate, ballpoint pens, blue jeans, and T-shirts that had somehow been "liberated" from American PXs. In years to come you'd find Swiss timepieces and fake designer luggage, cosmetics, jewelry, fresh fruit, and fish. Try the raw slices of tuna over rice (maguro-don) in one of the small restaurants—cheap, quick, and very good.

A visit to this miso and soy sauce business, still located in the historic home of the Ando merchant family, is a treat for both the eyes and the taste buds. Beautiful seasonal flower arrangements and artifacts decorate the tatami rooms, while the unusual redbrick storehouse houses some fine painted screens. And don't miss the inner storehouse, where you can find free miso soup and pickles.

This small temple in the foothills of Higashiyama dates back to the 12th century, when the priest Honen began to preach a novel means of salvation accessible to anyone, the recitation of the name of Amida Buddha (nenbutsu). Two of Honen's disciples, Anraku and Juren, preached this new, at the time heretical, faith in the countryside outside the usual surveillance. Two ladies in the Imperial Court, Matsumushi and Suzumushi, who were also said to be concubines of Emperor Go-Toba (1180–1239), inspired by the teachings, became nuns. Convinced that the monks had seduced the two ladies, the emperor had the monks seized and beheaded. The court ladies then took their own lives in response, and Honen was exiled as a heretic. When he was finally permitted to return to Kyoto in 1212, the now elderly priest had Anraku-ji built to honor his faithful disciples and their two converts. The tombs of all four are on the temple grounds. The shrine is open in spring to showcase its gorgeous azaleas and in autumn for its vivid maples.

This contemporary arts museum houses a collection of works by Munakata Shiko (1903–75), Nara Yoshitomo (1959–), and Terayama Shuji (1935–83). Another highlight is three of Marc Chagall's backdrops created for the ballet Aleko (the fourth belongs to the Philadelphia Museum of Art). Unlike many museums in which gift shops are near the entrance and packed with people, the gift shop here sits quietly in a corner upstairs, seemingly asking visitors to enjoy art first before shopping. Outside, don't miss the statue of Aomori-ken (ken sounds like both the words for prefecture and dog) waits in front of his food dish.

Several well-preserved samurai houses date from the founding of Kakunodate. The most renowned is Aoyagi-ke, which functions as a museum and even a bit of a shopping center (there are many restaurants and gift shops located here). The house displays an extensive collection of swords, armor, guns, and silk kimono wedding gowns as well as all kinds of historical artifacts to pore over, such as farm implements and household items. There are even some weapons and feel their weight. It also exhibits a large number of war documents, photos, and uniforms from the Sino-Japanese War (1894–95) to the Pacific War (1941–45). History buffs will love it, especially when you can see how much wealth these feudal bureaucrats could accumulate. The museum is a 15-minute walk northwest from JR Kakunodate Station.