Kure Yamato museum
Miyajima - torii, aquarium , walk deeper into the island, there are many heritage temples , rope cable up mountain. Food , buskers , deers
Iwakuni - heritage Royal graveyard , white snake museum, rope cable up to mountain, old street, summer festival and food store along the river
Rabbit island - Ōkunoshima
Kintaigyo
Sandankyo
Onomichi
A dome, peace park, peace memorial museum
Tomonoura
Okonomiyaki Mura
Hiroshima castle
Within Tokyo
Traditional Asakusa , asakusabashi, Ueno, kawagoe
Mixed modern
Harajuku , Meiji shrine, Omotesando , ameyoko
Neighbourhood
Mitaka, kichijoji , Ikebukuro , Kawasaki
High end shopping
Ginza , Roppongi
Reclaimed land ( full of activities)
Odaiba
Hakkeijima
Night active area/ shopping area
Shibuya
Shinjuku , kabukichio
Outskirt of Tokyo
Traditional
Kamakura
Nikko
Narita
Hitachi
Modern
Yokohama
Omiya
Non tourism area across the 9 regions, 47 prefectures.
if you are near Nagoya, go to Gifu , hida furakawa, shiragawa-go.
Edo themed is usually commercialise, you can visit toei movie village in Kyoto.
In Kyoto, there are a lot of known and unknown areas to explore especially outskirt ones nearer to the mountains.
Mt koya, Shoshazan good places to explore the untouched temples in the mountains. Mt Rokko is the other one.
But if you in Nagoya, go to Meiji mura then.
It’s preserved buildings and culture, even items , uniform etc are Meiji era .
Karuizawa is another one to explore walking around the whole central and more to explore into the outskirts.
Nikko known for its beauty within nature , temples and onsen.
Toyama another than the alpine route, it has one of the beautiful waterfalls.
Hiroshima has sandankyo gorge is beautiful but check the bus ride in as it’s 1 way in once only in the morning and 1 way out in the afternoon. Taxi fare is high as very far.
Iwakuni best known for the bridge Kintaikyo but it has a beautiful mountain and historic royal site and museums , nature to explore.
My advise is keep to 1 region and explore wholesomely as there are many unknown to tourists but they are really beautiful places.
Hiroshima is a very huge and beautiful place to visit. Many people just go to A bomb and peace park. Museums are gem ! Hiroshima castle too.
Islands linked to WWII, the rabbit island and the island where chemical warfare researches were done which are safe to visit.
Yamato museum in Kure being the best marine design and technology then.
Not only that , there’s isle islands which are breathtaking.
City of Hiroshima, Kure, outskirt to Iwakuni, Onomichi
There are really heritage and yet not even tourism related, 100 years historic town - Tomonoura. ( need to bring drink and snacks as it’s totally a town left in the past )
Not to mention Miyajima that is not only the heritage coastal, low tide torii, it has aquarium, cable to visit the mountains and then many other heritage temples that are out of tourism territory!
Iwakuni other than Kintaigyo, has a huge area of many interesting places like royal burial site, the white snake museum , the cable up the beautiful mountain etc etc.
Food: okonomiyaki, oysters during year end, yakisoba, maple cake .
If you have time, explore Yamaguchi, Okayama, shimane, totorii too. They are the forgotten places yet they have really beautiful garden, places of interests too.
In Okayama, kurashiki (water village). Walking distant from Okayama jr station, you walk pass the old shopping street before reaching Kurashiki . Very interesting history and different food and shops too.
