Best things to do in Japan

Each area in Japanhas its own beautiful views, therefore, there are quite a lot of places worth a visit. But I gonna recommend you some must-go places in my mind. I will talk about these places in aspects of “the top travel places in Japan”, “the top things to do in these areas” and “recommended activities in these places”.

What are the top travel places in Japan ?

Japan is divided into nine areas:

Kansai Kawaragi, Kanto Kobuchihama, Hokkaido, Okinawa, Kyushu, Shikoku Kawabejinnai, Chugoku-Katsuyama Station, Chubu and Tohoku while the most popular areas among foreigners are Kanto, Kansai, Hokkaido and Okinawa, which have advanced transportation, infrastructure and service.

Kanto: Tokyo, Mount Fuji, Hakone, Kamakura

Kansai: Osaka, Kyoto, Nara

Hokkaido: Sapporo, Hakodate, Otaru, Noboribetsu, Lake Tōya

Okinawa: Okinawa and Banri

The top things to do in Hokkaido:

If you love winter and snow, you shouldn’t miss Hokkaido. Delicious seafood, having bath in onsen amid snow are all special experience in Hokkaido.

Sapporo:

1. Skiing: As the city once holding Winter Olympics, Hakodate is a perfect place to try skiing. Its unique powder snow attracts hundreds and thousands of skiing lovers to have fun here.
2. Enjoy delicious food: crab meat, fresh fish, and various Ramen.
3. Visit chocolate factory: here you can watch the whole progress of making Shiroi Koibito (white lover) chocolate. Sharing chocolate with your lover here is surely a specially romantic experience. And you can also buy chocolate with flavors that you can’t buy in other places.

Hakodate:

1. Night view : don’t forget to watch the Hakodate night view, which is called as “night view worth a million” and ranks as one of the top three night views in the world.
2. Hakodate Morning Market: it’s one of the most busy morning markets in Hokkaido.

Noboribetsu /Lake Toya:

1. Bear Ranch: Both places have bear ranches where cute bears will make a bow to you if you feed them.
2. Skiing and Onsen: the Jigokudani (Hell Valley)in Noboribetsu is a great place for enjoying onsen while Lake Toya for skiing. The lake view in winter is quite beautiful.

Otaru:

1. Otaru Canal Otaru Canal: when it snows, the red warehouses, white snow and icy canal form a picturesque view.
2. Sushi: the sushi of Otaru is very famous in Japan and even the world. If you want to enjoy a classic Japanese dinner, you shall try it.

The top things to do in Kanto area

Wanna to explore the modern city and countryside view of Japan? Kanto area is the top option ! Tokyo,as a metropolis , has many museums and entertainment gardens, which is a paradise for traveling with kids. Mt. Fuji and Hakone are all in this area. And if you are a fan of cartoon, Kamakura is a must-go destination.

Tokyo:

1. Visit museum: Studio Ghibli Museum, hello kitty museum, DORAEMON WAKUWAKU SKY PARK,etc.
2. Shopping: Tokyo is really a paradise for shopping. Akihabara, Daikanyama, Shibuya all are nice places for shopping.
3. Gourmet: no matter the quality or quantity, the dinning halls in Tokyo are much better than many other big cities in the world. High class dinner, or a cheap street snacks, you always find some gourmet meeting your taste.

Hakone and Mt. Fuji:

1. Japanese Royokan and onsen: Closed to Tokyo, Hakone and Fujisan are small but beautiful cities with amazing natural views. Here, you can climb Mount.Fuji, the symbol of Japan, and have a bath on onsen with ancient Japanese style.
2. Natural view: no matter the Lake Kawaguchiand Mt.Fuji, or Owakudani and Lake AshiLake Ashi all have super beautiful views.

Kamakura: It’s the filming location of many famous cartoons like Salmdunk.

Things to do in Kansai Area

Kyoto in Kansai Area is the cradle of Japanese culture, so if you want to feel real Japanese culture, Kyoto is the best place. Nara, once serving as a capital of Japan in old times, have many ancient temples and buildings, and lots of cute fawns.

Osaka:

Feel urban life: the night life and night view are must-experience on lists of many foreign visitors. The Universal Studio and aquariums are also happy land for families.

Kyoto:

1. Temples: Kyoto has more than 1000 temples and over 400 shrines, which makes it a perfect place to experience Japanese historic culture.
2. Japanese culture: Geisha, Tea ceremony, painting and dramatic performance make Kyoto the cultural capital of Japan. The most special experience is walking on ancient streets of Kyoto with Kimono while you may meet real Geisha on the way.
3. Kaiseki Cuisine: It’s the most delicate and valuable cuisine in Japan. And Kyoto is the best place to enjoy it.

Nara:

Nara fawns: There are over 1200 cute and wild deer in Nara. The adorable fawns always attract many visitors to play with them.

If you have enough time, you can also visit Kobe in Kobe in Kansai area.

This is all my suggestions about the great places and cool things to do in Japan. Hope you have a nice travel !

There is lots to do in the places you have mentioned so if you could specify your interests, trippies could help you accordingly.

Kyoto is home to many UNESCO heritage sites and some wonderful temples, parks and gardens. My suggestion would be not to hop to all of these (although you will be highly tempted as all of them are just so amazing!) but choose wisely and focus on savouring the ones that you do choose to visit. The Kinkaku-ji is a must-visit in Kyoto for its antiquity, history and sheer opulence of structure.

Same applies to Tokyo. There is so much to see and do that one can be literally spoilt for choices. One thing that I would like to highlight though is using the subway trains for transport as they are cheap, cost effective and reliable, saves a lot of time too as they are easily accessible from a lot of places. They might look confusing in the beginning, but just persist and ask for help - it's real fun travelling with the locals and an experience in itself!

Again, my number one advice is do your research well for the places depending on your interest!

Hope this helps, and if there any questions, please follow them up on this thread, will be very glad to answer them!!

Have a great trip :)