Source-backed local profiles built from official and semi-official Japanese sources.
Each guide is written from the Japanese master database and published in English and Japanese. Every card links to both versions, and every article lists the official and semi-official sources it draws on. The database covers 73 municipalities; guides are published as each record is ready.
A warehouse town born from Edo’s fire defenses, walkable as one route — about 30 minutes by train from Tokyo.
Kura-zukuri storehouses, the Bell of Time and Candy Alley sit within walking distance. Snack on sweet-potato treats, stroll in a rented kimono. Where Mashiko is “see → buy → make,” Kawagoe is “walk → snack → dress up → photograph.”
The same Tone River water becomes spring rapids, summer river play, and hot springs.
Season and stamina decide your axis — onsen, whitewater, or mountain. A cluster of hot-spring areas along the Tone gorge, reachable from the Tokyo area. The trip begins with “which bath.”
A pottery town where “see → buy → make” fits into a walkable half-day along one street.
Mashiko ware was started by a potter trained in neighboring Kasama. Living National Treasure Shoji Hamada’s reference museum and climbing kiln remain. A direct bus runs from Akihabara.
The town Hokusai visited near the age of 90, leaving a phoenix on the ceiling of Ganshoin.
A dense story in a small town: the painter’s late-life ceiling work, and chestnut sweets. Strong on narrative; its one detail — the phoenix — is photography-restricted, so hero imagery is the main hurdle.
Kasama ware — a source of the Mashiko lineage — and the Himatsuri, a town where pottery is bought from its maker.
A “working pottery town”: buy directly from around 200 makers at a fair that grew from 36 backyard kilns. Also known for chestnuts. The craft baseline of the first five.
More than 500 hot-spring sources, water the city dates to 749, and seven historic springs rebuilt as a walking route in 1997.
Chloride, sulfate and simple springs averaging about 63°C. Kiunkaku, a 1919 villa turned ryokan, drew Tanizaki and Dazai. Dried fish still hang along the Ginza shopping street.
Two National Treasures five minutes apart — the castle keep and the old Kaichi School.
The keep was re-designated a National Treasure in 1952, the second castle after Himeji. Its 1903 repair was about 80 percent paid for by local donations. Sixteen hot-spring areas lie in the city.
A December festival on the UNESCO list, and more than 400,000 moss phlox in April.
Two kasaboko and four yatai floats are hauled up the Dango slope on 2–3 December; the floats unfold into kabuki stages. The festival grew with the Edo-period silk market held at the shrine.
Two World Heritage sites on either side of one bridge, sixteen minutes from Kyoto Station.
Byodoin, made a temple in 1052, and Ujigami Shrine stand five and ten minutes from Uji Bridge. Edo-period tea masters held shogunal privileges and kept their houses on the Ujibashi street.
26,836 litres a minute — the largest hot-spring flow in Shizuoka — with foot baths set through the streets.
Public baths and hand baths make the water reachable without booking a room. Winter brings the burning of Mount Omuro and an all-Japan pillow-fight championship.
A castle once ringed by nine kilometres of earthworks, at a station served by six railway lines.
More than 400 sites have been excavated across the castle and its town. The present keep, rebuilt in 1960, was reconstructed from drawings made for the 1706 rebuilding.
With Hakodate, one of the first two ports Japan opened, in 1854.
The Shimoda Treaty was concluded at Ryosenji. Perry, Sakamoto Ryoma and Yoshida Shoin left traces within a few kilometres of each other. Before the treaties, it was a port of shelter for waiting ships.
Japan's first silk-reeling association formed here in 1875; the industry's sites are certified national heritage.
Eight sites were certified as Modern Industrial Heritage in 2007 — a park and a waterworks among them. At its peak the industry drew more than 6,000 women workers. Twenty-five minutes from Nagano.
The largest lantern production in Japan, inside a nationally designated merchant-town district.
Two nationally designated crafts — Yame lanterns from about 1816 and Fukushima butsudan from 1821 — plus five prefecturally designated ones. The preservation district keeps the street plan of an early-Edo castle town.
Volatile details (event dates, fees, travel times) should be re-checked on the official site before you travel; several categories (lodging, local transport) are still being filled in. Each guide states plainly what was confirmed and what was left unverified.