I don’t want to be *that* guy. I actually love that more people get to experience this great country. But the huge increase has had a pretty wild effect on how it feels to travel Japan. Excluding the pandemic, the annual number of international tourists has **quadrupled** since the 2000’s.
The crazy thing is that it’s not just the usual places that are packed. I’ve gone to places that are hours away from the tourist hotspots. Places that probably wouldn’t make the average tourist’s top 50 list of places to go. But still: packed with tourists.
So… Do you guys have any tips? I’m Osaka based but distance is no obstacle.
I speak good Japanese, I have Japanese family that can help me with reading difficult texts or navigating wonky booking systems, and I actually love walking long distances. **I don’t have a driver’s licence** though, so it has to be accessible by public transportation.
Cities/prefectures I’m “done with” or will visit soon:
Sapporo(and large chunks of Hokkaido), Tokyo, Chiba, Yokohama, Kinosaki, Kyoto, Nara, Osaka, Arima, Kobe, Koya-san, Shirahama, Ise, Toba, Tottori, Okayama, Kurashiki, Hiroshima and Okinawa.
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Basically: Tohoku, central Japan, Shikoku and Kyushu are largely unexplored by me. But I’m sure that I have missed plenty of hidden gems near the places that I’ve travelled.
Sorry for the long post and thanks in advance!
17 comments
International tourist make up of a small percentage. Domestic tourist is, much, much larger proportion.
If you really want quiet town, you ought to go to place that just isn’t listed on Japan-guide.com
very biased with all my suggestions, but i’ve lived in a lot of weird japanese cities that aren’t famous.
1) niigata prefecture. highly underrated in tourism because of it’s poor access (outside of niigata city/yuzawa) but if you like walking we have great hiking and a lot of cool places even within niigata city itself.
2) okazaki, aichi. easy access from nagoya. lots of bars and restaurants near higashi-okazaki station, “morning” culture, cool park areas (kagota and around the castle) but becoming more popular because of the dousuru ieyasu drama.
another aichi place is tokoname, which again can be accessed by train. it has an awesome pottery village and is honestly just a cool town.
3) as for kyushu: hitoyoshi, kumamoto. accessible by train from kumamoto city (or highway bus from fukuoka or kagoshima airport if you don’t mind a bit of a walk from the bus stop to the town center). there’s a craft center accessible by bus where you can make pottery/your own knife etc., hiking and waterfalls, river boat tours, and shochu breweries.
Gunma is pretty overlooked.
I feel like this is a bit of an impossible question because if you don’t have a driver’s license, you’re limited to areas with public transit. Transit systems aren’t going to exist in places without enough people using them to support the infrastructure so… any chance you can find a travel companion who drives?
Tohoku is amazing but pretty difficult to access anything off the beaten path without a car. Same for Kyushu, although the transit is probably somewhat better down there.
Go to some random bedroom town an hour out of Tokyo. I haven’t seen a non-Japanese person here yet.
I mean, there’s not really anything to DO here except live your life normally, but that’s your answer.
99.9% of “hidden gems” need a car.
Edit – come to think of it, 99.9% of “unhidden gems” need a car. The best onsen, waterfalls, beaches, hiking trails, seafood restaurants, cool shrines, parks, rivers, viewing spots, scenic areas, villages etc I can think of need a car or hours of tortuous public transport to get to one of them and back, let alone a tour of a local area and all it has to offer. Without a car you’re pretty much stuck with generic inner cities or tourist traps.
Am in Kyushu rn and it is full of tourists I must say. Though most of them are Korean and Taiwanese. I do see a decent number of white people too lol.
Went to nikko like 2 weeks ago. Literally no one was there.
Try places off season, or the not so travelled areas that are also amazing.
Kyushu has a ton of good stuff! Even the big places like Beppu and Fukuoka city are not as bad with tourists as osaka and Tokyo right now.
I highly recommend taking the overnight ferry from Osaka. It’s a super relaxing way to wake up, shower, and arrive at your destination ready to go. Plus it’s dirt cheap!
My go-to rec is Yugawara, one stop up from Atami. Totally different vibe, way laid back, great food and some local beers, onsen galore, mountains, rivers, the ocean, swimming and surfing at Yoshihama beach, scuba in Manazuru, hiking, climbing, repelling, and bouldering at Makuyama, really nice sunrises over the Pacific and sunsets behind the Hakone mountains. And, importantly, decent bus service and like 4 cab companies. Also pretty walkable on the main drags, but it is nestled into a valley so it quickly gets extremely hilly.
But I have a place there, too, so I’m admittedly biased. And, like, its not completely without tourists. Just way fewer.
Even if you don’t want to hear it, you need a car. Then go into the mountains and there won’t be anybody. Shikoku is especially good if you want to have the place to yourself
Up here in Tohoku it’s pretty much empty Aomori has really great nature and hiking – Shirakami Sanchi is beautiful and there’s a special train you can take that goes down the side of Aomori and Akita I think. Iwate prefecture has some great places to see on the coast as well like Jodogohama and Ryusendo Caves. I got the JR East Pass and spent the time getting through the area it was amazing.
Depends what you like, I have been to 42/47 of prefectures so far and here are some of my thoughts:
For summer and golden week:
Shimane has Izumo Taisha if you like shrines and some really beautiful sunsets (particularly by the big lake in Matsue).
Nagasaki is great for history (particularly the area around Dejima)
Miyazaki is nice to bring a partner (used to be where Japanese used to go for honeymoons before travelling abroad became popular)
Sendai and Matsushima Bay are really lovely to visit too.
For winter:
Kanazawa (amazing seafood and very artistic city, especially the gardens)
Toyama (amazing seafood too, also worth going to in Autumn/Fall and going through Kurobe Gorge to see the foliage).
A lot of these are possible with aeroplane (cheap flights with FDA, peach, or JetStar). I did all of these with public transport, highway buses and aeroplanes (no car).
If you don’t want to be that guy, just don’t be that guy.
Even in Shikoku where it’s super remote the public transport takes you to the most known places aka where all tourists go.
So my advice would be to travel off season and buy seishin 18 Kippu which you can use it 5 times ( 1 time = 1 day) unlimited rides of LOCAL jr trains. Lots of hidden gems throughout Japan like ski resorts, onsen towns, attending local festivals of small towns. Is it slow yes but absolutely fun to stop at an unknown place and try to discover new areas. For tohoku would recommend the tohoku local pass both are around 12000 yen.
Living in Yuzawa, Niigata. I have done hanami walks with 0 tourists, seen the nearby waterfalls and hiked up the several beautiful mountains around Iwappara, never encountered another hiker yet. I am not being specific on purpose since I don’t want these hidden gems to get discovered by influencers. That being said, many of the hiking spots in Minamiuonuma – Yuzawa are all beautiful and all peaks are worth a hike.
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You can get pretty near with public transportation
may be shiga because it has biwako (biggest lake in japan) and i never saw any foreigner’s there before but idk how things are going on right now