KANTO
Top 3 Tokyo: Shibuya Crossing. Senso-ji Asakusa. Shinjuku at night.
The World's Largest City: Greater Tokyo is the most populated metropolitan area on Earth. Every neighbourhood is its own world.
Tokyo Never Closes: Kabukicho, Golden Gai, Omoide Yokocho. The city runs all night, every night.
Top 3 Kanagawa: Kamakura Great Buddha. Hakone with Mt. Fuji views. Yokohama Chinatown.
The Great Buddha Has No Roof: Cast in 1252 and hollow enough to walk inside — its hall was destroyed by a natural disaster and never rebuilt. It's been sitting outdoors ever since.
Best Fuji View: Hakone's Lake Ashi reflects the cone on clear mornings. The most accessible Fuji viewpoint from Tokyo.
Top 3 Tochigi: Nikko Toshogu UNESCO shrine. Kegon Falls. Ashikaga wisteria.
The Upside-Down Pillar: One pillar on Yomeimon Gate was deliberately inverted — completion of a perfect building was believed to invite its eventual collapse, so one flaw was intentionally built in.
150-Year-Old Wisteria: Ashikaga Flower Park's great wisteria covers nearly 1,000 square metres of trellis each late April. One of Japan's most photographed sights.
Top 3 Ibaraki: Hitachi Seaside Park. Kairakuen Garden. Kashima Shrine.
4.5 Million Flowers: Hitachi Seaside Park in late April — nemophila blanket the hillside in an unbroken blue. Same hill turns red-orange in October when the kochia peaks.
One of Japan's Three Great Gardens: Kairakuen was laid out in 1842 with thousands of plum trees across over 100 varieties — one of only three gardens in Japan to hold this designation.
Top 3 Gunma: Kusatsu Onsen. Minakami rafting. Ikaho stone steps.
Japan's #1 Onsen Town: Kusatsu's Yubatake produces Japan's highest natural hot spring flow. The water runs at pH 2. Steam through wooden buildings at night is one of Kantō's most atmospheric scenes.
Minakami Rafting: Whitewater on the Tone River all spring and summer, set against the Jōetsu mountain range. One of the best outdoor day trips from Tokyo.
Top 3 Saitama: Kawagoe Little Edo. Chichibu Yomatsuri. Nagatoro gorge.
Little Edo, Close to Tokyo: Kawagoe's kurazukuri storehouses survived the 1893 fire and look exactly as they did in the Meiji era. The bell tower has been ringing four times a day since the early Edo period.
One of Japan's Three Great Float Festivals: Chichibu Yomatsuri in December — massive floats, fireworks at midnight, and one of the most dramatic festival nights in the Kantō calendar.
Top 3 Chiba: Naritasan Shinshoji. Nokogiriyama cliff Buddha. The Boso Peninsula coastline.
DisneySea is One-Of-A-Kind: The only Disney park in the world built around a nautical theme — unique to Japan and found nowhere else on Earth.
Chiba Lotte Marines: Roki Sasaki called this home before the Dodgers. The prefecture that built him.