What would you recommend about your placement to tourists?

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1. Iki Island – Nagasaki Prefecture

   Recommended Activities
   **Tatsunoshima Sightseeing Cruise** – A sightseeing cruise that visits a nearby uninhabited island. During the summer I recommend the landing package so you can enjoy swimming and hiking. (cruise only 2000 – cruise and landing 2500)
   **Monkey Rock** -Beautiful sunset views here (free) I recommend doing the short hike to the second viewing area. The Kurosaki Battery is also behind the Monkey Rock souvenir store
   **Devil’s Footprint** – beautiful coastal views and beautiful sunset (free)
   **Ondake Shrine** – mountain shrine with hundreds of monkey statues (free)
   **Kojima Shrine** – Shrine to susano on a small island. Can only go during low tide (free)
   **Ryuda Shrine** – small oceanside shrine to the dragon god. Beautiful views (free)
   **Harunotsuji** – Reconstructed Yayoi village (free) For those interested in Yayoi history the Ikikoku museum is also recommended (410 yen)
   **Yunomoto Onsen** – Onsen village in western Iki. I particularly recommend Hirayama Onsen.(800 yen – access to bath, sauna, rotenburo) Onsen meguri passes are also available for purchase.
   Recommended Restaurants / cafes
   Neighborhood Burger
   Pizzeria Potto
   Hougetsu
   Nomoto sushi
   Fukumanro
   Yakiniku Gou

2. Not today, FBI.

3. Yufuin in Oita. You can catch a nice train there, climb Mt. Yufu, go to a Ghibli shop, a Snoopy shop, a dog cafe, eat while walking, see a beautiful lake and obviously stay in lovely onsen/ryokan.

4. Not trying to dox myself lol, so I’ll just do SW Hokkaido generally

   **Ota Shrine** in Setana is known as the most dangerous Shrine in Japan. You have climb up rope ladders to reach it. I haven’t been yet but I’ve been meaning to.

   **Shakotan Peninsula** some of the most beautiful beaches in Hokkaido. Also has some nice light hiking on the cliffs. The onsen, Misaki no Yu has 180 panoramic views of the ocean and is a great place to watch the sunset

   **Nikka Distillery** in Yoichi. It was the whiskey distillery in Japan. It also has an interesting history as the founder studying whiskey making in Scotland and married a Scottish woman. She came with him to Japan in the early 1900s. A lot of stuff in town is named in her honor and the town still maintains close ties to Scotland.

   **Ginkonyu onsen** in Yakumo. They have a huge property with private onsens out in the woods that guests can reserve for free

   **Panorama Park** in Yakumo. Beautiful views of the ocean from the top of the hill. They’ve got a great playground if you have kids. They serve Shiroi Koibito ice cream, which is the bomb. They’re also next door to Harvester, a really good friend chicken restaurant

   **Guild Endeavor** in Otobe. A pizza restaurant and craft brewery

   **Matsumae Castle** Particularly beautiful during cherry blossom season

   **Kami no Kuni Michi no Eki Monju** inside it’s a fairly run of the mill michi no eki with local products galore. Out back though you can walk down the cliff to the tide pools down by the ocean which is super cool

5. Aomori’s great in general!

   Great food – garlic (black or otherwise), apples, seafood and even bear is on the menu! Some of the best tuna in Japan comes from Oma!

   Beautiful nature – Oirase Gorge and Shirakami Sanchi are spectacular, particularly in the fall

   Local culture – the Nebuta festival is a must-see, and the Enburi dance in Hachinohe is great if you can stand the ice and snow in the winter! The largest morning market in Japan is also in Hachinohe for those that love spending too much money on really good food and too little money on local seafood and produce! (You can also see where Jesus is supposedly buried in Shingo village and the mountain all Japanese go to when they die on Mount Osore)

6. To come here from October 16th to 18th. Aside from the annual Niihama Taiko Festival, which is absolutely incredible and everyone should go to at least once, there’s nothing to do here except Pachinko and alcoholism.

   That said, Matsuyama and Imabari are within arm’s reach and are WELL worth visiting! Matsuyama Castle, Okaido, Shimanami Kaido, Dogo Onsen…

   Food wise, Ehime is known for fishing, so there’re some amazing restaurants like Yumenoya in Matsuyama City. Matsuyama also has some pretty good ramen but not so good I’d recommend travelling from afar for it.

7. hi this is basically what i do for my job, i tried to make it short:

   **Tateyama-Kurobe Alpine Route**: Cable car/bus/ropeway up in the mountains open from April to November. Tall snow walls in spring, Japan’s biggest dam that you can walk all the way across, hiking up in the mountains where there’s still snow (and cute animals!) in summer. We take our JETs climbing Tateyama (three peaks clustered together) during summer orientation.

   **Gokayama:** Part of the same UNESCO World Heritage Site as Shirakawago and while it’s still commercial and tourist-oriented it’s way quieter than Shirakawago itself but keeps the vibe. We’re very proud of it. Definitely go in winter bc there’s less crowds.

   **Kurobe Gorge Railway**: Take old mining trains into the gorge at a fun but not speedy pace, feels like an amusement park ride–some cars don’t have windows so you can feel the wind as you go through the tunnels and over bridges. The river has a lot of dams and its water is the most. gorgeous. shade. of. green. Extremely popular in fall bc the red bridge/fall leaves combo is absolutely stunning, but I went recently in the pouring rain and enjoyed myself a lot. You get off along the way to enjoy onsen/hiking, usually from summer to fall.

   **Shogawa River Cruise Boat:** One of the few tourist spots (that aren’t ski slopes) open in winter, taking you on a (heated!) boat through the Shogawa River Gorge. Also has really pretty emerald-colored water and red bridges and the mountains covered in snow have blown tourists away before. You can also go in the spring/summer as well (I translated their English info page). Honestly the entire Shogawa River area (it goes through Gokayakama) is stunning.

   **Tonami Tulip Fair**: It just ended but basically Disney-level crowds showed up at this park for the biggest tulip fair in Japan (tulips are the prefectural flower). They have images made out of tulips, literally every color you could imagine. Also has tulip soft cream.

   **Takaoka copperware:** Kinda the center for copperwork/coloring copper. Big copper Buddha and metalworking district in the center of Takaoka City.

   **Inami woodcarving**: A little woodcarving town in Nanto City, not far from Gokayama. They have a street with lots of historical woodcarving villages and even different woodcarved statues like a bunch of hidden cats all over the buildings. The temple gate’s dragon woodcarving is also something I usually take people to see.

   **Toyama Bay Sushi:** Our fish is amazing and one of the huge things they promote here. Sea of Japan fish just hit different, especially in winter. Seriously, the quality is astounding (am I biased? Yes). Ishikawa and Fukui also have amazing crabs and local fish, but Toyama itself has like 500 species residing just in the bay. We also have pressed sushi (masuzushi) that’s basically trout pressed flat in a circle that you cut into slices like a cake. It’s really good

   **Black Ramen:** You either love it or hate it but if you’re a fan of shoyu ramen Toyama has some very intense and salty/peppery ramen with extra intense soy sauce broth that you might like. There’s a shop in Kyoto Station’s Ramen Road iirc, with my favorite (more mild) black ramen called Ramen Iroha.

   ~~you can tell i do too much of this on the job, sorry~~

8. Nothing, drive straight through lol

9. Okinawa’s only public transportation are buses and a monorail in the capital city. If you plan on doing a lot of activities and sightseeing, rent a car. If you can’t drive, travel with someone who can lol.

10. Outdoor onsen in the mountains, sunflower fields, blueberry picking, hidden shrines in the forest, snowboarding (not in town but….not much else to do here besides nature stuff)