Forest, Mountain, Sea — Pick the Nature That Fits
These are the places people come back from saying the same thing — worth the long trip. Each has a completely different feel, so read them all and choose the one that matches your style and the season of your trip.
🌲 Kagoshima · Kyushu1
A rainforest island off the far south that became one of Japan's first natural World Heritage Sites (1993). Its legend is "Jomon Sugi", a giant cedar said to be 2,000–7,200 years old, while the Shiratani Unsuikyo trail is the lush green moss forest that inspired the woodland scenes in Princess Mononoke — walking it feels like slipping into another world.
Kagoshima Guide →
⛰️ Nagano · Chubu2
A valley deep in the Japan Alps so beautiful it's nicknamed the "jewel of the mountains". The icon shot is Kappabashi Bridge crossing the clear green Azusa River, with the snow-dusted Hotaka peaks rising above. Private cars are banned, the riverside paths are flat and easy, and even half a day on foot gets you the best of the views.
Nagano Guide →A peninsula on the far northeastern tip of Hokkaido, inscribed as a World Heritage Site in 2005 for having one of the most intact links between marine and land ecosystems anywhere. It has Japan's densest brown-bear population, Steller's sea eagles, and orcas. The highlight is the boardwalk loop around the "Shiretoko Five Lakes", and in winter drift ice floats in from the Sea of Okhotsk.
Hokkaido Guide →A highland marshland national park about 150 kilometres north of Tokyo, straddling four prefectures. The highlights are the Ozegahara marsh and Lake Ozenuma, both crossed by raised wooden boardwalks, so the walking is flat and easy. From late May to early June white skunk-cabbage (mizubasho) blooms across the wetlands, and by October the grasses turn a coppery gold — beautiful in a different way.
Gunma Guide →
⛩️ Wakayama · Kansai5
A network of ancient pilgrimage trails across the Kii Peninsula, walked by pilgrims to the Kumano Sanzan shrines for over 1,000 years, inscribed as a cultural World Heritage Site in 2004. You walk through old cedar forest on moss-covered stone paths, ending at Kumano Nachi Taisha, which stands beside Nachi Waterfall and a three-storey pagoda — one of the most-photographed scenes in all of Japan.
Wakayama Guide →A subtropical jungle island in Okinawa's Yaeyama group, inscribed as a natural World Heritage Site in 2021 (Japan's fifth). Jungle and mangrove forest cover nearly 90% of the island, home to the endemic Iriomote wildcat — only around 100 remain. Everyone comes here to do the same things: kayak through the mangroves, hike up to a waterfall, and snorkel the clear coral seas.
Japan Travel Guide →