SANBAGAWA, Gunma Prefecture--Benmou Suzuki’s dilapidated 420-year-old temple, located deep in the forest near a tiny Japanese mountain village, hardly looks like prized real estate. Yet the monk ...

Kedarnath, a 1,200-year-old temple, enshrines Shiva’s hump, defies earthquakes, and survived a flood—its shrinking Shivling ...

Set in the dense forests of the Kii Mountains overlooking the Pacific Ocean, three sacred sites – Yoshino and Omine, Kumano Sanzan, Koyasan – linked by pilgrimage routes to the ancient capital cities ...

Shikoku has a quiet, but profound presence in Japan's archipelago. It wears its heart on its sleeve, inviting you to explore its sunlit coasts and misty mountain trails. Perhaps you'll find a ...

Cherry blossom season in Japan is second to none. The country is renowned for its sakura ... In the Naka section, you'll find Kinpusenji Temple and Yoshimizu Shrine, while the Kami section of the ...

On the flat top of a steep hill in a distant corner of northern Japan lies the tomb of an itinerant shepherd who, two millennia ago, settled down there to grow garlic. He fell in love with a ...

Situated on Otowa Mountain in eastern Kyoto, Kiyomizu-dera Temple wows travelers with its stunning natural scenery, which visitors say is best viewed from the verandah off the temple's main building.

More than 200,000 people are expected to make the trek up Japan's iconic mountain over the 10-week season. And local authorities are trying to figure out how to deal with all the congestion.

Mount Yoshino offers a good (and beautiful) reason to get out of Tokyo and Kyoto and venture off the beaten path. Evie Carrick is a writer and editor who’s lived in five countries and visited ...

Oshima Island, where I work, is a 25-minute ferry ride away from the Fukuoka port, has a circumference of about 15 km, and a population of about 700. Surrounded by the sea on all sides, the island is ...

A record 52 mountain climbing accidents occurred across Japan during the year-end break, an increase of 22 over the same period the previous year, the National Police Agency said. The figure for ...