JP · Curated travel guide
Mount Fuji, Himeji Castle, Hiroshima Peace Memorial and 7 more — what each one is, and why it is worth the detour.
Chosen from everything Wikidata knows about Japan and ranked by how many Wikipedia language editions describe them, which is about as close to "famous" as open data gets. 3 are on UNESCO's World Heritage list.
Volcano in Japan
An active stratovolcano on Honshu, a Japanese island, whose summit stands at 3,776.24 m. The highest mountain in Japan, it is also the second-highest volcano on any island in Asia, and the seventh-highest island peak in the world.
Photo: 名古屋太郎, (edited by Hannes_24 ), CC BY-SA 3.0
World Heritage
Japanese castle in Hyōgo Prefecture
A hilltop complex in Himeji, a city of Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan, regarded as the finest surviving example of classic Japanese castle architecture: 83 structures with advanced defences from the feudal period.
Photo: Nikos Kitsakis, CC BY-SA 4.0
World Heritage
Preserved ruins of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, Japan
First the “Hiroshima Prefectural Industrial Promotion Hall”, and now widely known as the “Genbaku Dome”, “Atomic Bomb Dome” or “A-Bomb Dome”: part of Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park, Japan, listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site in 1996.
Photo: Oilstreet, CC BY 2.5
World Heritage
Shinto shrine in Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan
A Shinto shrine on Itsukushima island, famous for its "floating" torii. It is in the city of Hatsukaichi, Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan, reached from the mainland by ferry from Miyajimaguchi Station.
Photo: JordyMeow, CC BY-SA 3.0
Skyscraper located in Tokyo
An educational building in Nishi-Shinjuku, Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan, 204-metre-tall (669-foot), with 50 floors.
Photo: Kakidai, CC BY-SA 4.0
Buddhist temple in Kyoto, Japan
Standing in the east of Kyoto, Japan, a Buddhist temple of the Kita-Hosso sect, whose principal image (honzon) is a hibutsu, a hidden statue, of Jūichimen Kannon.
Photo: Martin Falbisoner, CC BY-SA 4.0
Japanese island chain
Also called the Nansei Islands or the Ryukyu Arc, a chain of Japanese islands running southwest from Kyushu towards Taiwan, split for administration between Okinawa Prefecture and Kagoshima Prefecture.
Photo: 浅見真規, CC BY-SA 3.0
Broadcasting and observation tower in Japan
Also written Tokyo Sky Tree, a broadcasting and observation tower in Sumida, Tokyo, Japan. When it was topped out at 634 metres in early 2011, it overtook the Canton Tower as the world's tallest tower and became the third-tallest structure on Earth, behind Burj Khalifa and Merdeka 118; since it opened in 2012 it has been Japan's tallest tower.
Photo: Akonnchiroll, CC0
Suspension bridge in Kobe, Japan
A suspension bridge over the busy, turbulent Akashi Strait, joining the city of Kobe, on Honshu, with Iwaya, Awaji, on Awaji Island. It carries the Kobe-Awaji-Naruto Expressway.
Photo: Tysto, Public domain
Communications and observation tower in Japan
Officially Japan Radio Tower, a communications and observation tower completed in 1958 in Shiba-koen, Minato, Tokyo, Japan. At 332.9 meters, it was Japan's tallest tower until Tokyo Skytree was built in 2012.
Photo: Akonnchiroll, CC BY-SA 4.0
An East Asian island country in the Pacific, off the Asian mainland's northeast coast, with the Sea of Japan to its west, the Sea of Okhotsk to its north and the East China Sea to its south. Its archipelago has four major islands and over 14,000 smaller ones.
Officially Japan. Known locally as Nippon 日本.
Based on the Wikipedia article, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0: the facts are Wikipedia's, the wording is this site's.
This guide lists 10: Mount Fuji, Himeji Castle, Hiroshima Peace Memorial and Itsukushima Shrine and others. Himeji Castle, Hiroshima Peace Memorial and Itsukushima Shrine are UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
By machine, from open data, with no human ranking them and nobody able to pay for a place on the list. Everything Wikidata records in Japan that is a building, a landform, a protected area or a tourist attraction, has coordinates, a photograph and an English Wikipedia article, is ranked by how many Wikipedia language editions wrote about it. Provinces, cities, airports, stations and stretches of sea shared with the neighbours are filtered out.
3 of the 10 in this guide: Himeji Castle, Hiroshima Peace Memorial and Itsukushima Shrine. That is not the full count for Japan, only the listed sites that made this guide.
Japanese. The currency is JPY.
A travel eSIM is usually the cheapest way, and avoids a roaming bill. The plans suggested at the foot of this guide start at $1.79 for 1GB per day. The eSIM is data-only and sits alongside your normal SIM, so calls, texts and WhatsApp keep working on your own number.
NTT docomo, Rakuten Mobile, KDDI, au and SoftBank. Your phone picks whichever has the best signal where you are, the same way a local phone does.
Maps, tickets and translation all want data, and roaming is the expensive way to get it. A Computatus eSIM eSIM connects to NTT docomo, Rakuten Mobile, KDDI, au and SoftBank once you land, and installs by QR code before you leave.
| Plan | Data | Valid | Price | Order |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1GB per day Cheapest | 1 GB | 1 day | $1.79 | Get it → |
| 1GB per day | 1 GB | 1 day | $1.79 | Get it → |
| 1GB for 7 days | 1 GB | 7 days | $1.88 | Get it → |
| 2GB per day | 2 GB | 1 day | $2.86 | Get it → |
| 3GB for 15 days | 3 GB | 15 days | $3.04 | Get it → |
| 3GB for 15 days | 3 GB | 15 days | $3.04 | Get it → |
No app needed. Install by QR code before you fly, keep your own number for calls, and it connects the moment you land.
A commission on plans bought through these links is what pays for this guide. Nothing above depends on it: the places are chosen before any price is looked up.
