Sightseeing & Nature– category –

Picture this: you’re behind the wheel of a rental car, windows down, the Pacific Ocean stretching endlessly to your right. Dramatic 200-meter (650-foot) sea cliffs plunge into jade-green waters below, fishing boats dot hidden coves...

Picture a coastline where ancient black lava cliffs tumble into the Pacific, where natural lawn meadows roll right up to the cliff edge, and where a sacred island shrine is so densely packed with nesting seabirds that visitors literally ...

Just steps away from Matsushima Bay’s famous pine-dotted islands lies one of Japan’s most magnificent Zen temples — a place so awe-inspiring that even the great haiku poet Matsuo Basho fell silent upon arriving. Zuiganji Temp...

There is a railway in Akita Prefecture that almost no foreign tourist has ever heard of, and that is precisely what makes it extraordinary. The Akita Nairiku Jukan Railway (秋田内陸縦貫鉄道) winds 94 kilometers (58 miles) through the ver...

Japan’s craft beer revolution began quietly in 1994, when the government slashed the minimum annual production requirement for beer licenses from 2 million liters to just 60,000 — unleashing an explosion of small-batch, artisan bre...

Imagine sitting on a wooden bench beside a rushing mountain river, watching a basket whiz across a rope overhead and land at your feet — inside, freshly made dango and a cup of green tea, delivered from a shop on the opposite cliff by a ...

Somewhere in the mountains of Yamagata Prefecture, skiers are gliding down freshly carved powder turns as wildflowers bloom on the ridgelines above them — and it’s the middle of July. This isn’t a hallucination, and it’...

Imagine a small, gently chugging diesel train winding through emerald valleys and across soaring river bridges, while tendrils of morning mist curl up from the glassy surface of the Tadami River below. This isn’t a scene from a dre...

Rising 2,038 meters (6,686 feet) above the fertile plains of Iwate Prefecture, Mount Iwate is the largest volcano in Tohoku and one of the most iconic mountains in northeastern Japan. From the green fields of nearby Koiwai Farm — Japan&#...

Most visitors to Aomori Prefecture head straight for the Nebuta Festival in Aomori City — and while that spectacle is undeniably incredible, they’re missing something equally remarkable just 40 minutes down the train line. Hirosaki...