The famous Japan loop involves Tokyo, Hakone, Kyoto, Nara, and Osaka is famous for a reason. But Japan is the kind of country where every corner you don't reach on the first trip becomes the reason for the second one.
Kanazawa: Kyoto Without the Crowds
On the Sea of Japan coast, Kanazawa has been called "little Kyoto" and it's accurate. It has preserved geisha districts (higashi chaya), samurai neighborhoods, one of Japan's three most celebrated landscape gardens (Kenroku-en), and a traditional crafts culture built on gold leaf production and Kutani porcelain.
The difference from Kyoto: you can actually stand in front of things. The 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art is a modern art space that in any other Japanese city would be mobbed; in Kanazawa you can enjoy it. You can get there on the Hokuriku Shinkansen from Tokyo (2.5 hours).
Yakushima: The Island That Inspired a Studio Ghibli Film
A UNESCO World Heritage island off the southern tip of Kyushu, Yakushima has a primordial cedar forest of trees that are thousands of years old. The moss-covered forest floor, the ancient yakusugi cedars (some over 7,000 years old), and the constant rain and mist create a remarkable landscape. Hayao Miyazaki visited here before making Princess Mononoke.
Getting there requires a flight to Kagoshima and then a ferry. It's the kind of place that requires organization, which keeps it special.
Shikoku: The Pilgrimage Island
The fourth-largest Japanese island is home to the 88 Temple Pilgrimage which is a circuit of Buddhist temples established by the monk Kōbō Daishi in the 9th century. Pilgrims (henro) walk the route wearing white robes and wide sedge hats. Some complete it in 60 days; others drive; some spend years walking it in segments.
You don't need to walk all 88 to understand what Shikoku offers. The rural landscape, the roadside henro huts, the ancient temples clinging to mountainsides, and the culture of o-settai where locals offer pilgrims food, drinks, or small gifts as an act of spiritual merit make even a partial trip one of the most moving travel experiences in Japan.
Tohoku: The Forgotten North
The six prefectures of Tōhoku (northern Honshu) see only a fraction of the tourists who flood central Japan, despite containing:
- Matsushima: one of Japan's three officially designated "views" with a bay of 260 pine-covered islands that inspired centuries of poetry
- Dewa Sanzan: three sacred mountains of the Yamabushi mountain ascetics, with pilgrim lodges and ritual practices unchanged for over a millennium
- Aomori's Nebuta Festival (August): enormous illuminated floats of mythological figures paraded through the streets
- Onsen: Tohoku's volcanic geography means extraordinary hot springs like Nyūtō Onsen in Akita, with thatched wooden bath houses in snowfields