Japan consists of 14,125 islands, of which approximately 260–400 are inhabited. This number only recently changed due to advancements in surveying technology where the number increased from a 1987 Coast Guard report with a figure of 6,852 islands.
Honshu, The Main Island (Where Most Japan Trips Happen)
Honshu is the world's seventh largest island and is the most familiar because of Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, Hiroshima, and the majority of Japan's most well-known cultural landmarks. If you have been to Japan and visited Tokyo, Kyoto, and the Shinkansen corridor between them, you have seen a thin strip of the largest island. Honshu also has the Japan Sea coast, the mountainous Tohoku region (Matsushima Bay, the Rias coast, traditional ryokans), and the Chugoku region leading toward Hiroshima. The standard tourist route samples Honshu, but the island deserves much deeper exploration, if possible.
Hokkaido, The Wild North
Hokkaido is Japan's northernmost main island, and is the second largest and the least densely populated where the scale of wilderness relative to population is more comparable to Canada than to the rest of Japan. Sapporo is the main city and hosts the annual Sapporo Snow Festival which is the world's largest winter festival by attendance, featuring enormous snow sculptures of buildings and famous monuments built with the help of the Japanese Self-Defense Forces. The island's interior holds the extraordinary Daisetsuzan National Park which is a volcanic plateau of thermally active mountains with the densest population of brown bears in the country. Hokkaido's food culture is made up of seafood (the sea urchin, crab, and scallops served here are considered the country's finest), dairy products (Hokkaido butter, cheese, and milk chocolate), and corn (sweet corn is grown on vast plains and eaten on the cob year-round). During the winter, the eastern Abashiri coast sees pack ice drift down from the Sea of Okhotsk and there are icebreaker tours to observe drift ice and its seal and bird populations.
Kyushu has Volcanoes, Onsen, and offers a Different Japan
Kyushu is Japan's southernmost main island and is distinct from Honshu, because it is warmer, more relaxed, and more influenced by its proximity to China and Korea through centuries of trade. Fukuoka is now Japan's fastest-growing city with a growing younger population, it is relatively less expensive by Japanese standards, and it has popular food (Fukuoka is the origin of Hakata-style tonkotsu ramen). Beppu has the highest concentration of hot springs in Japan such as the famous "Hells (jigoku) of Beppu" which are naturally boiling pools of different mineral compositions. Aso is one of the world's largest volcanic calderas, with an active central crater that can be observed from a rim walkway when conditions allow for it. Nagasaki is one of Japan's most historical cities, it is also the site of the second atomic bomb (August 9, 1945) and one of the few ports open to foreign trade during Japan's 265 years of isolation (the Dutch were permitted a small trading post on the artificial island of Dejima, the only formal foreign contact Japan maintained).
Okinawa, The Sub-tropical Archipelago
The Okinawa Prefecture consists of 160 islands scattered across the ocean between Kyushu and Taiwan. The main island, Okinawa-honto, was the site of the Battle of Okinawa (April–June 1945), one of the bloodiest battles of the Pacific War. The island's culture is distinct from mainland Japan with the indigenous Ryukyuan civilization (the Ryukyu Kingdom was an independent state until 1879) has its own language (Uchinaaguchi), music, cuisine (champuru is the stir-fry dishes using bitter gourd; the Okinawan diet has been studied as a longevity model i.e., Bluezone Diet), and castle architecture. The outer Okinawan islands of Iriomote (90% jungle, mangroves, rare wildcats), Ishigaki (world-class diving on Manta Ray scramble), Yonaguni (the westernmost point of Japan, closer to Taiwan than to Okinawa main island) are among the most pristine coral reef environments in Asia.
Naoshima is The Art Island
Naoshima is a small island in the Seto Inland Sea between Honshu and Shikoku, and is one of the most extraordinary art destinations in the world, as it has been transformed over 30 years by the Benesse Corporation and architect Tadao Ando into an open-air gallery of contemporary art. Ando's Chichu Art Museum (partly underground, built to minimize impact on the island's landscape) houses five Claude Monet water lily paintings in a room designed specifically for them, and three enormous James Turrell light installations. The Art House Project places art installations inside renovated traditional Japanese buildings in the island's old village. The Yayoi Kusama pumpkin sculpture on the southern pier has become one of the most photographed objects in Japan. The combination of the landscape, the architecture, and the quality of the art makes Naoshima unique, and there is nothing else like it.
Yakushima, Where the Ancient Cedars Live
Yakushima is off the southern tip of Kyushu, and is a UNESCO World Heritage site of great ecological significance. The island's interior mountains receive significant rainfall every year and is one of the wettest places in Japan and the resulting forest contains ancient yakusugi cedars and the famous Jomon Sugi is estimated at 2,170–7,200 years old (the dating debate continues) and, at minimum, is the oldest living organism in Japan. The forest is ancient, moss-covered, and beautiful. Hayao Miyazaki is known to have visited Yakushima before creating "Princess Mononoke" and the forest clearly influenced the film's mystical visualization.