Off-the-beaten-track Japan: destinations and itineraries beyond the tourist circuits

Anyone setting off for the Japan that lies beyond the tourist circuits soon discovers that the problem isn't finding extraordinary places, but escaping the crowds around them. The Arashiyama bamboo grove, Fushimi Inari, the Shibuya crossing: magnificent spots, and now overcrowded even in the low season. The good news is that just a few blocks, or one extra metro stop, can change the mood entirely. And Japan's rail network, dense and punctual, makes it easy to reach places where mass tourism simply never arrives. From 1 July 2026 the departure tax will rise from 1,000 to 3,000 yen: one more reason to plan carefully and make the most of every day.

Kyoto

We start with Kyoto, which packs in both the worst and the best. In the western hills, beyond the bamboo everyone photographs, you reach Otagi Nenbutsu-ji: twelve hundred rakan statues carved between 1981 and 1991 by amateurs, now covered in moss, each with a different expression. Few visitors climb all the way up here, and the atmosphere stays intimate. Still in the Sagano area hides Gio-ji, a tiny convent whose moss garden alone justifies the detour. In the city, in the Takagamine district, Genko-an offers its two famous windows — one round, one square — and a ceiling made from the bloodstained boards of Fushimi Castle: history and meditation in a place that is almost always empty. Finally, to understand the Kyoto of the geiko, it is worth seeking out the Sumiya in Shimabara, the sole surviving ageya: once a banqueting house and a meeting place for conspirators, today a splendid example of Edo-era pleasure-quarter architecture.

Tokyo

In Tokyo the game grows even subtler, because the unusual coexists with the everyday. Behind Shinjuku, Kagurazaka preserves cobbled lanes, ryotei and a surprising French streak, a legacy of the postwar years. In Takanawa, the Sengaku-ji temple guards the graves of the 47 ronin of Ako, Japan's most famous tale of loyalty and revenge, still honoured today with incense sticks. Those seeking nature within the metropolis can head down to Setagaya for Todoroki Keikoku, a green gorge carved by the Yazawa river, cool and shady, just a few minutes from the station. And for the most eccentric Japan there's the Meguro Parasitological Museum, free of charge, with three hundred specimens and a tapeworm 8.8 metres long: bizarre, yes, but revealing of a museum culture that isn't afraid of embarrassment.

Beyond the cities

Once you've exhausted the two great cities, the real off-the-beaten-track Japan begins elsewhere. Kanazawa, on the Sea of Japan and two and a half hours by Shinkansen from Tokyo, mixes samurai districts, tea houses and a lively arts scene: the most convincing alternative to Kyoto. Takayama, in the Japanese Alps, preserves a centre of wooden merchant houses and sake breweries; Himeji, near Osaka, has the country's finest feudal castle. To walk through history, a stretch of the old Nakasendo still links the villages of Magome and Tsumago along eight kilometres of cobbled trail through the mountains of Kiso.

Further north, Tohoku remains one of the least-visited regions: Kakunodate with its samurai quarter, Hirosaki and its castle among the cherry trees, Ginzan Onsen with its gas-lit ryokan. Those seeking spirituality will find, at Koyasan — reachable on a day trip from Osaka — the Okunoin cemetery among centuries-old cedars, while the Kumano Kodo offers days of walking along ancient Shinto pilgrimage routes. Destinations such as Toyama, with the Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route and the UNESCO villages of Gokayama, are also emerging, and remain surprisingly empty.

Practical tips

Three practical tips for a journey that is truly off the beaten track. First: visit the famous places at dawn and the lesser ones in the afternoon, when the organised buses have already left. Second: choose a mid-sized city as your base — Kanazawa, Takayama, Matsumoto — instead of the Tokyo-Kyoto-Osaka axis. Third: spend at least one night in a rural ryokan or in a temple (shukubo): it is there, more than in any attraction, that the rhythm of authentic Japan reveals itself. With a little flexibility, even the celebrated destinations become bearable again — and the forgotten ones become the heart of the journey.

Practical guides for Todi

• Where to stay in Todi
• What to see in Todi in 2 days
• Where to eat in Todi
• How to get to Todi