While we’re now enjoying some more freedoms in Australia, the idea of losing time, or lost time, due to COVID, is something on many of our minds. Particularly all the travel time we’ve lost – the cancelled trips equate to places we never got to experience, cultures we didn’t immerse ourselves in, and countries and cities we still have no idea about. If you’ve been thinking that you could have visited a place on your travel hit list several times across the past two years, and seen a bunch of different things and visited several destinations, and now you’ve only got 10 days to “catch up”….maybe this list will help.
Tokyo
The Icon: Shibuya Crossing
Many cities have iconic landmarks: New York City’s Statue of Liberty, Paris’s Eiffel Tower, Beijing’s Great Wall. Tokyo has some unique features, of course, such as Tokyo Tower and the Skytree, but to me the most identifiable landmark to the city will always be Shibuya Crossing.
It is an unquestioned must-visit for any trip to Tokyo.
The sprawling scramble intersection just outside Shibuya Station is an embodiment of Tokyo itself: action in all directions. Three huge television screens mounted on the buildings facing the intersection flash all day, while the rest of the area is covered with lights, advertisements, and more lights.
Nara
The Icon: Nara Deer Park
Nara Park covers a broad area, and in fact a portion of it is made of by the grounds of Kasuga Taisha Shrine. The deity enshrined therein is Takemi Kajichi no Mikoto, said to have ridden to Nara upon a sacred deer from Kashima Shrine (also written with a character for “deer”) in Ibaraki Prefecture. Because of this legend, deer were thought of as sacred animals–the helpers of gods–and have been carefully protected for many years. Even today, Nara’s deer are carefully protected as “natural monuments.
Kyoto
The Icon: Arashiyama Bamboo Grove
Located about 7km west of downtown Kyoto, Arashiyama is one of Kyoto’s most popular sightseeing districts. The heart of the district is the Arashiyama Bamboo Grove, a mesmerizing grove of thousands of tall bamboo plants. A paved walkway runs through the middle of both sections, forming the famous “Bamboo Alley,” one of Kyoto’s most photographed sights.
Miyajima
The Icon: Giant Torii Gate
Miyajima is a small island less than an hour outside the city of Hiroshima. It is most famous for its giant torii gate, which at high tide seems to float on the water. The sight is ranked as one of Japan’s three best views. While officially named Itsukushima, the island is more commonly referred to as Miyajima, Japanese for ‘shrine island’. This is because the island is so closely related to its key shrine, Itsukushima Shrine, in the public’s mind. Like the torii gate, the shrine’s main buildings are built over water.
Nagano
The Icon: The Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route (+ Snow Corridor)
The Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route is a unique and spectacular route through the Northern Japan Alps. Completed in 1971, the route connects Toyama City in Toyama Prefecture with Omachi Town in Nagano Prefecture. The main attraction of the Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route is the magnificent scenery of the Tateyama Mountain Range, part of the Chubu Sangaku National Park. n spring, accumulated snow, especially around the upper sections of Midagahara and Murodo, form a majestic snow corridor whose snow walls reach up to 20 meters high. A section of the snow corridor around Murodo is open to pedestrians usually from mid April to late June.
Kanazawa
The Icon: Cherry Blossoms at Kenroku-en Garden (or Kanazawa Castle)
Kanazawa, with its fantastic gardens and green spaces, is the perfect place for enjoying Japan’s famous cherry blossoms. The blossoms usually bloom in the last week of March and the first two weeks of April. When they bloom, almost all the trees come into full bloom at the same time and stay that way for a week or more. In some places the sakura blooming season offers the most magnificent views. The most famous is Kenroku-en Garden, Kanazawa’s best attraction. There are about 420 cherry trees in the garden, and in the best scenario, you can find them all blooming at the same time.
Kanazawa Castle is also another perfect spot for viewing the cherry blossoms. There are about 400 cherry trees on the castle grounds and at the peak of the season you can expect all of them to be blooming.
Nagano
The Icon: Zenkō-ji
The city of Nagano is home to Zenkō-ji, a 7th-century Buddhist temple that is listed as a Japanese national treasure. Though there are many temples in Japan, Zenkoji Temple is special. As one of the oldest and largest wooden temples in Japan, and home to the oldest Buddhist statue in Japan, it attracts 6 million visitors annually. It, and the area surrounding it, are well preserved so that a morning or afternoon stroll through here is like wandering through the pages of history.
Shirakawago
The Icon: Typical Japanese Village
Shirakawago is not a city but a typical Japanese village which seems to have been untouched by time. A UNESCO World Heritage Site, the picturesque village of Shirakawa-go is one of Japan’s top winter destinations. With the village lit up and covered with a blanket of snow, it’s a place unlike anywhere else in Japan. To be honest, there are no sights here, or anything specific you should see: what makes this place unique is the way it looks, with its slanted, thatched-roofs. Climb up the nearby mountain for a view of these peculiarly shaped roofs.
Nagano
The Icon: Jigokudani Monkey Park, Nagano
The red-faced macaque monkeys are native to Japan, and they love hot springs – the image of one taking a soak in a steaming onsen has become a symbol of wintertime in the country. Jigokudani Monkey Park is famous for its population of the hot-spring-loving macaque monkeys.
Naoshima
The Icon: Yayoi Kusama’s spotted pumpkin
Naoshima is Japan’s island dedicated to contemporary art. Here you will find revered Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama’s spotted pumpkin. The sculpture, a giant black and yellow polka-dotted pumpkin by the celebrated artist Yayoi Kusama, has stood at the end of a pier on the “art island” of Naoshima in the Seto inland sea since 1994.
