Every Place in the Catalogue
1,610 spots
Sanbe Azukihara Buried Forest
Little knownAbout four thousand years ago Mt. Sanbe erupted and buried the forest at its foot in volcanic debris — not flattening th…
Shussai Kiln
Little knownShussai Kiln was started in 1947 by five local men in their twenties, none of them trained potters, who decided to make…
Sugaya Tatara Sannai
Little knownTatara is the Japanese smelting method that produced tamahagane, the steel used for swords — iron sand and charcoal fed…
Kumano Taisha (Izumo)
Little knownShimane has two shrines that claim the rank of first shrine of Izumo province. Everyone knows the one at Izumo Taisha; t…
Yaegaki Shrine
Little knownYaegaki enshrines Susanoo and Kushinada — the god who killed the eight-headed serpent Yamata-no-Orochi and the woman he…
Yonago Kamogawa Canal Walk
Little knownYonago was the commercial capital of San'in in the Edo period, and the goods moved by water: the Kamogawa runs through t…
Shikano Castle Town
Little knownShikano was the seat of the Kamei family in the Sengoku period, and the street plan they laid out is still there — a gri…
Gosho Aoyama Manga Factory
Little knownGosho Aoyama, who has been drawing Detective Conan since 1994, grew up in Hokuei, and the town has leaned into that comp…
Kurayoshi Beef-Bone Ramen
Little knownAlmost all ramen in Japan is built on pork bones, chicken or fish. In central Tottori it is built on beef bones, and has…
Uradome Coast Island Cruise
Little knownThe Uradome coast is fifteen kilometres of granite worked by the Sea of Japan into caves, arches, stacks and inlets, wit…
Illustration — not a photographIwai Onsen
Little knownIwai is among the oldest hot springs in the San'in region, with about thirteen hundred years of recorded use, and it has…
Ametaki Falls
Little knownForty metres of water off a lip of columnar basalt into a pool surrounded by beech and zelkova, at the foot of Mt. Ogino…
Enchoen
Little knownTottori has a sister-province relationship with Hebei, and in 1995 it built the largest authentic Chinese garden in Japa…
Karoichi
Little knownKaro is Tottori city's fishing port, two minutes from the sand dunes, and Karoichi is the market building beside it — a…
Tofu Chikuwa
Little knownChikuwa everywhere else in Japan is fish paste moulded round a stick and grilled. Tottori's is seven parts firm tofu to…
Hakuto Shrine
Little knownThe Kojiki tells of a rabbit that tricked a line of sharks into forming a bridge so it could cross to the mainland, was…
Wakasa Station and Post Town
Little knownWakasa is the terminus of a nineteen-kilometre private railway that runs up a valley from Koge, and the whole station —…
Kitagishima Stone Quarry Lookout
Little knownKitagi granite built Osaka Castle's walls, the foundations of Tokyo Station and the approach at Yasukuni Shrine, and it…
Maneki-neko Museum
Little knownThis was the first museum in Japan devoted to the beckoning cat, and it is a hundred-year-old farmhouse in the hills nor…
Demi-katsu Don
Little knownOkayama's katsudon comes under demi-glace. It should not work and it has been the city's dish for ninety years. The sau…
Illustration — not a photographUshimado Olive Garden
Little knownUshimado calls itself the Aegean of Japan, which sounds like tourist-board invention until you stand on the hill above t…
Makido Cave
Little knownMakido is the opposite of the other Niimi cave: horizontal, about 450 metres long and up to 25 metres wide, opening into…
Ikura Cave
Little knownIkura is a vertical cave rather than a horizontal one. The route runs 1,200 metres into the limestone with 90 metres of…
Bitchu Kokubunji
Little knownThe five-storey pagoda at Bitchu Kokubunji is the only one in Okayama Prefecture and the fixed point of the Kibiji lands…
Estimated from distance to the nearest airport or shinkansen station. Confirm actual journey times before you travel.