Historical Place

The World's Most Picturesque Pilgrimage If you take just one pilgrimage - or perhaps just a long hike - in your life, you won't find a more scenic one than here. Though a slight trek off the...

A sip of Showa in modern Shibuya Step inside Meikyoku Kissa Lion, and for a moment you might think you’ve mistakenly entered a church or an aged music theatre. But at this 89-year old iconic...

Itsukushima Shrine: The Japanese Benchmark of Beauty Of all Japan's cultural heritage sites, Itsukushima Shrine is perhaps not just the most beautiful, but the most important for understanding the traditional Japanese concept of beauty. Known by its 16-meter brilliant vermillion otorii gate...

Japan is a land of castles, some like Himeji Castle, which is also registered as World Heritage. But to see the country's most visited castle, you'll have to travel all the way down to Okinawa, for a...

A Shrine For The Bucket List  Since days of old, there has been a saying about the Ise Jingu, or Ise Grand Shrine: isshoni ichido wa omairi o, meaning one should worship there at least once...

1,400 years of history hidden in the outskirts of modern Kobe After introducing two of Japan's three oldest hot springs (Dogo Onsen in Ehime Prefecture and Nanki Shirahama Onsen in Wakayama Prefecture) it is now...

Genbaku Dome: Hiroshima's Relic of Hope Exactly 100 years ago, visitors flocked to admire the newly-built Hiroshima Prefectural Industrial Promotion Hall - a proud symbol of modernism with its European-style dome. Now, people from all over the world gather...

In 1998, eight locations were immortalized as cultural heritage sites: Gangoji Temple, Kofukuji Temple, Todaiji Temple, Toshodaiji Temple, Yakushiji Temple, Kasugaya Taisha Shrine, Kasuga-yama Forest, and Heijo-kyo Palace ruins. This cluster of Buddhist and Shinto...

Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto: A treasury of temples and shrines With so many gems gathered here, the sightseer's dilemma is knowing where to start! So for the time-strapped tourist, here are the top three "must see" spots. 1....

Don't lose track on Tokyo Toden's last streetcar Until the late sixties, Tokyo Toden was one of the most complicated streetcar networks in the world. Streetcar tracks could be seen anywhere in the city much like...