EXPLORE BY PLACE + LENS
Search the interactive Places catalog for landmarks, local neighborhoods and unexpected stops by destination, Lens or keyword. Read Public guides and browse Preview introductions. A free account lets you filter your saved Public Favorites.
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Osaka Castle's present great keep rises above moats and massive stone walls in Osaka Castle Park. The site carries Toyotomi and Tokugawa history, while the current tower is a twentieth-century reconstruction housing exhibitions.
Sensō-ji anchors Asakusa's temple precinct beyond Kaminarimon and Nakamise. Its Kannon foundation story dates to the seventh century in temple tradition, while the present-day approach combines worship with a busy shopping street.
Tokyo Tower opened in 1958 as a broadcasting landmark and now offers observation decks above Shibakoen. Its steel silhouette and changing illumination provide a different Tokyo view by day and after dark.
Fushimi Inari Taisha's torii-lined paths climb Mount Inari from the main shrine complex. Fox figures and smaller shrines mark the route through the wooded slopes.
Nara Park brings free-roaming deer into a landscape of lawns, old roads and major temple and shrine precincts. The deer's special standing reflects Kasuga shrine tradition.
Kiyomizu-dera's wooden stage projects from the hillside above eastern Kyoto. The temple's Kannon devotion and the waters of Mount Otowa shape its history and name.
Follow Himeji Castle’s winding defences towards its white-walled wooden keep, where the architecture is as compelling from within as from the city below.
Walk beneath Meiji Jingu’s trees towards the shrine, experiencing a deliberately planted memorial forest alongside a living place of Shinto worship.
Explore Yokohama Chinatown through regional cooking, colourful gates and community temples, leaving time for the quieter streets between its busy dining routes.
Visit Dazaifu Tenmangū for its wooded shrine grounds, plum-tree traditions and enduring connection with learning, poetry and the arts.
Explore Oshino Hakkai’s spring ponds for clear water, village paths and a connection with the wider landscape of Mount Fuji pilgrimage.
Explore Nijō Castle’s palace rooms and gardens, looking at how paintings, carved details and the order of spaces expressed shogunal power.
Follow Itsukushima Shrine’s covered corridors beside the tidal bay, where changing water levels transform the relationship between buildings, torii and shore.
Link Ueno’s museums with a walk through the park’s historic sites and down towards Shinobazu Pond, choosing a few stops rather than rushing every institution.
Visit the Atomic Bomb Dome as a preserved witness to Hiroshima’s destruction and the long effort to carry its memory into a peaceful future.
Explore Nikkō Tōshōgū’s richly decorated buildings, from Yōmeimon’s crowded carvings to the familiar monkeys and sleeping cat within the shrine complex.
Explore Izumo Taisha’s approaches and shrine precinct for monumental architecture, sacred ropes and a living tradition concerned with the relationships between people.
Visit Yasaka Shrine between Gion’s streets and the Higashiyama landscape, taking time to see the religious setting behind Kyoto’s Gion Matsuri traditions.
Cross the Uji Bridge towards Naikū’s wooded precinct, where the Isuzu River, shrine approach and tradition of renewal shape the experience of Ise Jingū.
See Kamakura’s Great Buddha at Kōtoku-in, where the open-air setting makes the sculpture’s scale, form and weathered surface unusually direct.
Explore Matsumoto Castle’s timber keep and moat-side setting, looking for the contrast between defensive spaces and the more open moon-viewing wing.
Explore Shurijo’s hilltop gates and Ryukyuan heritage, checking the restoration-stage visitor route and the announced reopening arrangements for the main hall.
Enter Tōdai-ji’s Great Buddha Hall, then look beyond its immense scale to the sculpture, architecture and wider temple precinct around it.
Choose a few galleries and look closely at the objects behind Japan's artistic, religious and historical traditions.
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