Japan Photo Guide

If you are one of those people who like to let your fingers turn wrinkly after a long swim or shower, you’ll love Beppu. Located on the western island of Kyushu, it is home to some of the most geo-thermal activity in the world. As a result, Beppu is the pinnacle of onsen culture. Thanks to nearby Mt. Aso, the entire town of Beppu is built on deep pockets of scolding steam. One might otherwise forget about this fact, and the charming little town built on it, if it wasn’t for the steam rising from cracks in the sidewalks, sewer vents and half-pipes. Leave it to the Japanese to have cleverly harvested it’s power by turning potentially dangerous cravats of heat to stellar onsens where one can get anything from a therapeutic sand bath to a steam inhaling session.

Beppu has marketed some of the largest–and hottest–bodies of water as “The Eight Hells.” These are not for dipping, however. Most of them are well beyond boiling point and serve better as a great place to take photos. While each are unique, the most noteworthy are Umi Jigoku (Sea Hell) — a vibrant cobalt blue — and Chinoike Jigoku (Blood Pool Hell) — which is a deep red and bubbles to the surface just below boiling point. Tourists can purchase tickets to each of the “Hells” for 400 yen, or they can purchase a ticket that includes all eight “Hells” for 2,000 yen. An afternoon is plenty of time to catch a bus to several of these “Hells,” although the more ambitious can walk to all of them.

The onsens at Beppu comprise some of the most diverse onsens in Japan. Sand baths, mub baths, fluorescent baths, outdoor and indoor baths, scented baths and more can be found here. One of the outdoor mud baths is so reputable, that even Mother Theresa paid it a visit. Beppu has mastered the zen of relaxation.

The steam has not only produced some of the best onsens in Japan, but it is also nature’s best boiling pot. Street vendors sit straw baskets of corn and raw eggs over cracks in the sidewalk for several minutes, and sell the finished products to locals and tourists. I have never had a juicier corn on the cob in my life. If you’re in western Japan, why not go to heaven in Beppu…or one of the hells?

For more information see the Beppu City Guide.

Nikko (日光市), located in Tochigi Prefecture, is a relatively small city population wise, but after recently merging with a few other cities in March of 2006 it covers a vast area. Nikko is very famous for it’s beautiful nature– including waterfalls, lakes and especially fall leaves–and it’s temples and shrines. For the main part, these two famous features of Nikko, nature and temples, are divided into two different areas, so you need at least two days to see Nikko; however I recommend 3 days and 2 nights, staying one night close to Lake Chuzenji and one day in the actually city. The nature area, Nikko National Park, is about an hour drive away from the temple area and the drive is up a curvy mountain road. For more information about Nikko National park, including Lake Chuzenji, please see my post about Nikko National Park. For more information about the city of Nikko (often called Central Nikko), keep reading here.

If you are going to see the fall leaves know that the two areas of Nikko change colors at different times. The Nikko National park at a much higher elevation and tends to change color about 2 weeks before the central area. I was there just a little late for Nikko National Park area just a little early for Central Nikko.

See more photos and read the rest of this entry »

Naruko is most famous for it’s onsens (hot spring baths) but almost as famous for it’s fall leaves or koyo in Japanese. Naruko is one of the most famous places to see the fall leaves in the Tohoku area is the most famous in Miyagi Prefecture. I went there October 21st, 2006 and it was just a little bit too early. If you live in the Tohoku or Miyagi area, by next weekend (28th) it should be really nice! By local train, Naruko is about 2 hours from Sendai and 40 minutes to Naruko from Furukawa (depending on where you are coming from, you should change at Furukawa or Kogata to get to Naruko). The station you want to get off at is called Naruko Onsen.

From the station you can walk to some places of interest but also there are a few buses and taxis if you don’t want to walk the whole time. One of the more popular places to go is Naruko Gorge. It is about a 30 minute walk from Naruko Onsen Station and it takes about 1 hour to walk through the gorge. At the end their is a really famous bridge, that you can see in the photos here, and a really nice view of the gorge. I recommend taking the bus to the end of the gorge where the bridge is and then walking back towards the station through Naruko Gorge. The gorge, while being slightly commercialized, is actually quite a nice and easy walk with a few waterfalls, bridges and interesting rocks and cliffs. As you can imagine, being as it is a gorge, sometime the lighting can be somewhat tricky with places completely in shadow and completely in direct sunlight.

Other places of interest include, Naruko Tropical Botanical Gardens, Katanuma Lake (although it is a lot smaller than I thought it would be), Naruko Damn and a nature trail at Jigokudani (which passes by a famous geyser). See more photos and read the rest of this entry »

Lake Toya (Toyako in Japanese), is part of Shikotsu-Toya National Park and is about an hour and half from Sapporo by train. Lake Toya is really famous for hot springs and also is home to Japan’s most recently active volcano, Mount Usu, which last erupted in 2000. On a nice day, Lake Toya offers a spectacular view of the lake and the islands in the middle of it, but like most of the rest of my trip to Hokkaido, the weather was once again cloudy. The lake is pretty large so I recommend renting a car or bike as public transportation is not so frequent. For the best views of the lake and surrounding area check out Mt. Usu Ropeway.

There are a few nice things about Lake Toya that I really liked. For one, there are all these (sometimes) interesting sculptures all around the lake (as you can see above). Second, every night in the summer there is a small festival at night where there are fireworks over the lake and also a small traditional dance and taiko drums. Also if you are into outdoor activities there is plenty of hiking, fishing, camping, boating and other water activities available.

For more information please see Japan-Guide.com.

The Fuji Five Lakes are located at the base of Mount Fuji and weather permitting, offer fabulous views of Mount Fuji. When I went it was really cloudy and I could not see Mount Fuji from the lakes, the area is still nice enough to find other things to take photos of. The photo below is taken from Itchiku Kubota’s Kimono Museum which is close to Kawaguchiko (the biggest of the lakes). Besides having beautiful kimonos the landscape and design of the museum is just amazingly beautiful, especially in the fall.

If you want to climb Mount Fuji, it is not a bad idea to stay here the day before as Fuji Five Lakes (Fujigoko) is a good place to start the climb. Also camping, hiking and fishing are other popular outdoor activities here. If you can, fall or cherry blossom season is the best time to visit the five lakes, but if you want to climb Mount fuji, the climbing season is from June-August.

For more information, please see the Japan-Guide.com.

Hakone is close to Mount Fuji and about 100 km away from Tokyo. Hakone is perhaps most famous for the hot springs but also offers great views of Mount Fuji and outdoor activities such as camping and hiking.

One of my favorite places in Hakone is the Open Air Museum, where the above photo was taken. This outdoor museum displays lots of modern, abstract and interesting artwork in the surrounding grounds with mountains, vallies and the ocean as the backdrops. I highly reccomend checking this place out if you make it to Hakone.
For more information please see the Japan-Guide.com.

Mt. Fuji (or Fuji-san) is Japan’s tallest (3776 meters) and most famous mountain and is perhaps the most symbolic image of Japan. Fuji-san has been popular among artists as long as art has been in Japan. Mt. Fuji is a dormant volcano which has been so since the early 1700s.

On a clear day (which isn’t often) you can see Fuji-san from some places in Tokyo, like Roppongi Hills Tower, or Yokohama. Also while taking the shinkansen from Tokyo to Osaka, after about 30 minutes from leaving Tokyo you will get a nice view of Japan’s most sacred mountain.If you want to get a little closer I recommend stopping by Hakone or the Fuji Five Lakes (Fujigoko). Climbing season is during the summer months of July and August. If you want to avoid the crowds you should go on a weekday around the middle of July, when Japanese schools are still in session and before the summer holidays. The photo below was taken from the 5th stage of Mt. Fuji looking away from the summit.

Interested in climbing Mount Fuji? That is one of the things I have on my list of things to do before leaving Japan. To be honest, I know close to nothing about this (other than the peak season is July and August. If you want to climb Mt. Fuji, Japan-Guide.com has a climbing guide to Mt. Fuji, which seems like a good place to start.

Kyushu (九州 kyūshū) is the third largest island of Japan and most southerly and westerly of the four main islands. It is considered the birthplace of the Japanese civilization. Its alternate ancient names include Kyūkoku (九国), Chinzei (鎮西), and Tsukushi-no-shima (筑紫島). The ancient region Saikaido consists of Kyushu and its surrounding islands.

The largest city on the island by population is Fukuoka, Fukuoka, populated approximately 1.4 million people – a major business center with a major international airport as well as one of five stock exchanges in Japan. Kitakyushu, Fukuoka is also a designated city and major center for heavy industries, populated slightly less than a million. Kumamoto and Kagoshima are 3rd and 4th biggest, populated more than a half million. Nagasaki has one of the oldest international ports, which had been the only gateway to the foreign countries during the Edo Period, from mid 16th to mid 18th centuries.

For more information, please see wikipedia or the Japan-Guide.com.