Any recommendations for less touristy places to visit in Japan? Been to Fukuoka, Kyoto, Tokyo, Osaka, Takayama, and Yanagawa.
Would love to venture and explore the “less beaten paths” for my upcoming Nov/Dec trip.
Thank you in advance! 🙂
Edit (add-on):
My partner and I love to immerse ourselves in the culture, admire architecture, enjoy local food and produce, and huge bonus for me if it’s scenic. Nature lover here 🥰
by SevPat
12 comments
I really enjoy doing weekend trips in Shikoku from Kyoto.
Pretty scenery, not terribly touristy.
Ehime is nice.
Need a car for that kind of stuff.
If you stay at Okayama, it is a gateway to several wonderful locations such as Himeji, Hiroshima/Miyajima, Shikoku and Kurashiki which are accessible via Shinkansen or train (1-2 hours, need a short ferry ride for Miyajima). The train ride on the Marine Liner across the Seto bridge to Shikoku is breathtaking, one of the highlights of my past trips.
I really enjoyed my stay in Kanazawa and Fukui.
Anything north of Tokyo and South of Hiroshima.
As a mid-century modern architecture fan, did you know there’s a Frank Lloyd Wright in Tokyo? It’s a school and you can see a blend of mid-century modern and Asian elements intermingled and complementary within that structure.
The entire shikoku island is pretty much tourist free.
Not many people seem to ever plan to go there, most head down to Kyushu and head back the same way. Shikoku is also just kinda isolated in general,
You could also travel along the coast of Shimane and tottori, everyone seems to rather be along the seto inland sea.
If you got guts, you can travel around Fukushima, near sendai, it’s still pretty solemn but things are returning back. Probably a great to support business trying to start there.
The coast from Nigatta to Akita is also less travelled, or maybe through the mountains of yamagata.
A lot of tourist basically skip these places.
Aomori and Hirosaki 🙂
the tohoku region (north-eastern part from tokyo) is a great scenery route.
but better rent a car to travel there.
otherwise the daytrip recommend cities from tokyo-osaka-fukuoka is a nice pick too.
personally I recommend kyushu you can do a loop inland to see many cities and scenery.
I’m going to second Tohoku. People go up that way for the festivals but that’s about it. As the other person mentioned, might be hard to explore without a car but it is doable.
https://youtu.be/RGv7yxhA854?si=9iqO4rVWB4tq9D3U
Nikko – absolutely love that place . Koya-san mountain with lots of Buddhist temple stays and Yamagata city ( visit Yamadera the most beautiful temple ever ! )
Nearly all of Tokyo is less touristy, and the western parts can be very scenic.