Summer
Where summer feels cooler
50 places for summer — the editors' six first, then the rest by rating.
50 places
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Amanohashidate — the pine sandbar across Miyazu Bay
One of Japan's Three Scenic Views, and the only one you can walk across — a 3.6 km pine sandbar on Kyoto's sea coast, two hours north of the city.
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Enoshima Island
Shonan's island shrine — 1,500-year-old Benzaiten, sea caves, and a lighthouse tower with a Mount Fuji view.
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Mount Takao
Michelin three-star mountain 50 minutes from Shinjuku — old-growth forest, a tengu temple, and a Fuji view on clear days.
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Mount Rokko
Kobe's celebrated 'ten-million-dollar' night panorama, spreading city lights and the harbour across the entire Hanshin corridor.
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Kifune Shrine Okumiya
The water god's original shrine, a quiet 15-min walk past the crowds up the same valley.
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Nanki Shirahama — Japan's oldest hot-spring coast
Japan's oldest recorded hot-spring coast: a sea arch, a wave-cut rock platform, and a cliffside cave — all within a few kilometres of each other.
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Meoto Iwa — two rocks tied together off Ise
Two rocks joined by a sacred rope, acting as a gate onto a stone beneath the sea — the sun rises through the gap from May to July, and Fuji sometimes appears behind it.
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Pontocho — the narrow riverside alley of lanterns
Kyoto's most atmospheric 490-metre lane — stone-paved, lantern-lit, and one block from the Kamo River.
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Fuji-Q Highland — Japan's most extreme roller coaster park
Japan's most extreme coaster park, at the foot of Mount Fuji — free gate entry, world-class rides, direct rail access from Tokyo.
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Mount Fuji
Japan's highest mountain and most iconic image — the 5th Station at 2,305 m is accessible by bus and often above the cloud layer on clear mornings.
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Tokyo Tower's open-air staircase
Climb Tokyo's icon on foot — 600 open-air steps through the steel, no glass between you and the city.
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Todai-ji and Nara Park — the temple of the great Buddha
Japan's greatest wooden hall and its giant bronze Buddha — arrive early, then climb to Nigatsu-do for the view.
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Kumano Hayatama Taisha — one of the three Sanzan pilgrimage shrines
The most train-accessible of the three Kumano Sanzan UNESCO shrines — the ancient nagi tree and the vermilion halls are the heart of a Kii Peninsula pilgrimage.
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Lake Ashi
Hakone's most photographed scene — best on a clear autumn morning when Fuji rises behind the red torii gate. Board at Moto-Hakone-ko.
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Shimogamo Shrine
A UNESCO shrine reached by walking a primeval city forest — the approach through the trees is the defining experience.
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Nintoku Mausoleum
The largest tomb on earth by footprint, and you will never see its shape — the visit is a wall of trees across water, and a plan you carry in your head.
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Kiyosato Highlands & Moegi Village — a forest carousel at 1,200 m
A Yatsugatake highland village at 1,200 m — music box museum, forest carousel and an on-site brewery, free to walk into.
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The Makino metasequoia avenue
2.4 kilometres of dawn redwoods on the northwest shore of Lake Biwa — a completely different landscape in each season.
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Enoshima Aquarium
A beachfront aquarium about the bay it faces — sardine shoals, a domed jellyfish hall, and dolphins with the real sea behind them.
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Rurikoin — the temple with the garden-reflecting table
The reflection is real and it is worth the trip, but the temple is shut most of the year. Check the dates first, and consider the green season over the maples.
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Tsuboyu at Yunomine — the only World Heritage bath you can enter
The only World Heritage site you can bathe in — a two-person rock pool still used as a pilgrim's purification bath.
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Sunshine Aquarium
A rooftop aquarium in Ikebukuro where sea lions circle overhead and penguins seem to fly past the office towers.
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Sarushima — an uninhabited island fortress in Tokyo Bay
Tokyo Bay's only uninhabited island — a brick fortress with tunnels and magazines, ten minutes by boat from Yokosuka.
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Imperial Palace East Gardens
Free, huge, and central — the real Edo Castle grounds, minus the crowds at the outer plaza.
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Tanzan Shrine
The only wooden thirteen-storey pagoda left on earth, standing in a valley of three thousand maples where the Taika Reform was plotted in 645.
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Mother Farm
A working hillside farm above Tokyo Bay — sheepdog displays, milking, flower fields and a Ferris wheel, two hours from Tokyo.
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Mt. Tanigawa
A 1,977-metre famous peak with a fifteen-minute gondola to 1,319 metres — alpine ground, no ascent required.
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Showa Kinen Park
A former US air base turned into 160-plus hectares of garden and cycling ground, 45 minutes from Shinjuku.
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Hottarakashi Onsen — an open-air bath that opens before sunrise
Book the taxi the night before, get in the water in the dark, and watch Fuji come up over the Kofu basin.
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Engyō-ji on Mount Shosha — the cliffside temple above Himeji
A stage-built hall on a rock face and three vast wooden halls in a cedar clearing, 371 m above Himeji and forty-five minutes from the castle.
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Senjogahara — a marsh crossed on a wooden boardwalk
A Ramsar-registered marsh at 1,400 metres that you can cross flat, in trainers, on a wooden boardwalk.
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Fukiware Falls
A national natural monument where the river cracks its own bed open — you look down into the falls from the side.
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Yase & the Takano River
A cool, clear river below Mt. Hiei, about 40 min from Kyoto by frequent train.
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Rurikei Gorge
A cool 4 km gorge of clear pools and named falls, far quieter than Kyoto's famous valleys.
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Lake Chuzenji
A lake 1,269 m up that a volcano created — 25 km of shoreline, cruise boats, and the villas where Tokyo's diplomats escaped the summer.
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The Nasu Highlands
An active 1,915 m volcano with a ropeway, seventh-century hot springs, and farms and museums below — two hours from Tokyo by Shinkansen.
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Ōmi-Maiko — the reed-fringed lagoon behind the pine beach
A short train ride from Kyoto to a still, reed-lined lagoon behind the busy pine beach.
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Settsu Gorge & Shirataki Falls
A cool 4 km river-gorge walk to a waterfall, a short bus ride from Takatsuki.
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Takihata 48 Waterfalls
A cool, green waterfall gorge an hour from central Osaka, still quiet on weekdays.
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Taito Coastal Plant Colony
One of Japan's first protected dune-plant colonies (1920), on a quiet shore.
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Dosenbo — the tea-and-paddy plateau in Yamashiro
Kyoto's only village: a silent 500 m plateau of tea fields, paddies and cool air.
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Tokaichiba-Natsugari Springs & Taro-Jiro Falls
One of Japan's 100 Famous Waters: cold 12°C springs and twin cliff falls, near the train.
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Kami-Seya — thatched village and rice terraces above Amanohashidate
One of Japan's 100 chosen villages: 207 terraced paddies still farmed, few visitors.
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Okinoshima — the walk-to island at Tateyama's tip
A walk-to uninhabited island with northern coral, quiet once you pass the swimming beach.
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Kiyotaki — the river gorge below Mt. Atago
A cool riverside gorge and a working pilgrimage trailhead, one short bus ride past Arashiyama.
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Miyataki — the ancient emperors' Yoshino River gorge
A 7th-century imperial palace site, now a quiet boulder-and-pool river gorge.
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Shinnase Beach
A clear-day lineup of a sea torii, a lighthouse, and Mount Fuji, an easy trip from Tokyo.
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Shima Onsen — a cure-spring valley set apart in 1954
In 1954 Japan named three hot springs as places to go and get well. Shima was one of them — and you can still drink the water.
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Eshin-in — the free flower garden beside Byodoin
A free flower garden by the river, a few minutes from famous Byodoin but almost empty.
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Ohno Dam's Rainbow Lake
A free lakeside park of 1,000 cherry and 500 maple trees, near Miyama's thatched village.