🎲

🌲 Nature

47 discoveries

Lake Akan Marimo

Lake Akan Marimo

A clear caldera lake in eastern Hokkaido that grows one of the world's strangest treasures: marimo, rare velvety-green balls of algae that roll along the lakebed and have their own festival — and mascot.

📍 Hokkaido, Kushiro 💴 Paid ⏱ Half day

Ken and Mary Tree

Ken and Mary Tree

A 90-plus-year-old poplar on a Biei hillside, named after the couple in a 1972 Nissan Skyline commercial filmed right beside it — now one of Hokkaido's most photographed trees.

📍 Hokkaido, Biei 🆓 Free ⏱ ≈ 1 hour

Seven Stars Tree

A solitary Japanese oak on a Biei hillside that became a national icon in 1976 when it was printed on the Seven Stars cigarette pack — still standing alone on the Patchwork Road.

📍 Hokkaido, Biei 🆓 Free ⏱ ≈ 1 hour

Kamuikotan Gorge

A schist gorge where the Ishikari River carved house-sized potholes over 100 million years — and where Ainu legend says a god turned a demon to stone, marked today by an old rail line and a shrine.

📍 Hokkaido, Asahikawa 🆓 Free ⏱ ≈ 1 hour

Uwara Risokyo

A 2.3-kilometer clifftop loop past a hand-carved tunnel, a bell for good luck, and a string of named capes above the Pacific — a rias-coast hike that starts five minutes from a train station.

📍 Chiba, Katsuura 🆓 Free ⏱ ≈ 1 hour

Uwara Beach

A gently shelving cove ranked among Japan's 100 best beaches, where a white torii gate stands facing the sea and shallow, calm water has drawn swimming families for generations.

📍 Chiba, Katsuura 🆓 Free ⏱ ≈ 1 hour

Mount Omuro

A perfectly conical, 4,000-year-old volcano on the Izu Peninsula that you ride a chairlift up and walk clean around the crater rim — walking up is banned, but archery at the crater's bottom is not.

📍 Shizuoka, Ito 💴 Paid ⏱ ≈ 1 hour

Mother Farm

A 250-hectare hillside ranch on the Boso Peninsula where roughly 150 sheep run the 'Great Sheep March' every day and shearing shows, cow milking, and rapeseed fields keep families busy for hours.

📍 Chiba, Futtsu 💴 Paid ⏱ Half day

Bua Tong Sticky Waterfalls

Bua Tong Sticky Waterfalls

A waterfall you climb UP, barefoot, with no ropes: the mineral limestone is so grippy your feet stick to it even under flowing water — one of the strangest physical sensations in Thailand, and completely free.

📍 Chiang Mai, Mae Taeng 🆓 Free ⏱ Half day

Cape Kamui (Shakotan Blue)

Cape Kamui (Shakotan Blue)

A 770-meter ridgeline path out to a lighthouse at the tip of the Shakotan Peninsula, with 300-degree views over water so improbably turquoise the locals gave the color its own name: Shakotan Blue.

📍 Hokkaido, Shakotan 🆓 Free ⏱ Half day

Don Hoi Lot

A vast sandbar at the mouth of the Mae Klong River, famous for its colonies of razor clams — at low tide locals wade out to harvest them, and a strip of seafood shacks serves the catch within metres of where it was dug.

📍 Samut Songkhram, Mueang Samut Songkhram 🆓 Free ⏱ Half day

Sai Yok Noi Waterfall

Sai Yok Noi Waterfall

A wide, easygoing roadside waterfall near Nam Tok where the river fans down a limestone face into shallow pools — a favourite local cool-off spot at the far end of the Death Railway line.

📍 Kanchanaburi, Sai Yok 🆓 Free ⏱ Half day

Tham Lod Cave

A vast river cave you float through on a bamboo raft by lantern light, past stalactite chambers, ancient teak coffins on high ledges, and a dusk sky that fills with hundreds of thousands of swifts pouring in to roost.

📍 Mae Hong Son, Pang Mapha 💴 Paid ⏱ Half day

Wat Bang Kung (The Temple in the Tree)

⛩️ Shrine & Temple

Wat Bang Kung (The Temple in the Tree)

A small Ayutthaya-era ordination hall completely swallowed by the roots of four enormous banyan and bodhi trees — the living wood now forms the temple's outer walls, with a Buddha image glowing in the green gloom inside.

📍 Samut Songkhram, Bang Khonthi 🆓 Free ⏱ ≈ 1 hour

Chatsubomi Moss Park

A neon-green stream of rare acid-loving moss fed by a hot mineral spring called Anajigoku — 'the hell pit' — inside a former iron mine deep in the Gunma mountains.

📍 Gunma, Nakanojo 💴 Paid ⏱ ≈ 1 hour

🌸 Spring 🌻 Summer 🍁 Autumn

Phraya Nakhon Cave

Phraya Nakhon Cave

A royal pavilion built inside a collapsed cave chamber, reachable only by beach and jungle trail — at mid-morning a single shaft of sunlight drops through the ceiling hole and sets the pavilion glowing.

📍 Prachuap Khiri Khan, Sam Roi Yot 💴 Paid ⏱ Half day

Red Lotus Sea (Talay Bua Daeng)

Red Lotus Sea (Talay Bua Daeng)

For three months each winter, a shallow lake in Isan blooms into millions of pink lotus flowers stretching to the horizon — longtail boats cruise through the bloom at dawn, when every flower is open.

📍 Udon Thani, Kumphawapi 💴 Paid ⏱ Half day

Erawan Falls

Seven tiers of waterfall descending through jungle, each pooling into water so improbably turquoise it looks dyed — swim in most of them, while resident fish nibble your feet whether invited or not.

📍 Kanchanaburi, Si Sawat 💴 Paid ⏱ Full day

The Giant Rain Tree (Chamchuri Giant Tree)

A single colossal monkeypod (rain) tree more than a century old, its canopy spreading so wide that a boardwalk loops beneath it — a quiet, cathedral-like green giant on the outskirts of Kanchanaburi.

📍 Kanchanaburi, Mueang Kanchanaburi 🆓 Free ⏱ ≈ 1 hour

Hellfire Pass Memorial

Hellfire Pass Memorial

A deep rock cutting on the WWII 'Death Railway,' hewn by hand by Allied POWs and Asian labourers under unimaginable conditions — now a moving memorial and forest walk along the vanished tracks, with one of Asia's most thoughtful museums.

📍 Kanchanaburi, Sai Yok 🎫 Donation ⏱ Half day

Khao Bin Cave (Tham Khao Bin)

A long, well-lit show cave near Ratchaburi threading through a series of named chambers full of dramatic stalactites and flowstone formations — cool, quiet, and easy to walk.

📍 Ratchaburi, Mueang Ratchaburi 💴 Paid ⏱ ≈ 1 hour

Khao Ngu Stone Park

A reclaimed limestone quarry turned tranquil park, where emerald flooded pits sit beneath sheer cliffs — one of them carved with an ancient Dvaravati-era Buddha relief, reached by a short climb to a breezy viewpoint.

📍 Ratchaburi, Mueang Ratchaburi 🆓 Free ⏱ Half day

Wat Khao Chong Phran (The Bat Cave Temple)

Every evening at dusk, an unbroken river of millions of wrinkle-lipped bats pours from a cliff cave beside this Ratchaburi temple for nearly an hour — one of the great wildlife spectacles of central Thailand.

📍 Ratchaburi, Photharam 🎫 Donation ⏱ Half day

Abashiri Drift Ice Icebreaker

Abashiri Drift Ice Icebreaker

Board a bright-orange icebreaker and crunch out into the frozen Sea of Okhotsk, where for a few weeks each winter the ocean itself turns into a shifting white plain of pack ice.

📍 Hokkaido, Abashiri 💴 Paid ⏱ Half day

The Blue Pond of Biei

The Blue Pond of Biei

An artificial pond that glows an unreal cobalt blue, with ghostly drowned larch trees rising from the water — an accidental landscape born of erosion control that became one of Hokkaido's most surreal sights.

📍 Hokkaido, Biei 🆓 Free ⏱ ≈ 1 hour

Enoshima Island

Enoshima Island

A small tidal island off Kanagawa reached on foot over a causeway, packed onto one hill: a sea-dragon shrine, candlelit sea caves, a beachside lighthouse tower, and sweeping Sagami Bay views — all in a single easy loop.

📍 Kanagawa, Fujisawa 💴 Paid ⏱ Half day

🌻 Summer 🍁 Autumn

Hakone: Owakudani & Lake Ashi

Hakone: Owakudani & Lake Ashi

A volcanic valley of sulfurous steam vents where the local specialty is an egg boiled black in the hot springs (said to add seven years to your life), followed by a ropeway descent to a pirate-ship cruise across Lake Ashi with Mt. Fuji on the horizon.

📍 Kanagawa, Hakone 💴 Paid ⏱ Full day

Hokuryu Sunflower Village (Himawari no Sato)

Hokuryu Sunflower Village (Himawari no Sato)

Two million sunflowers across 23 hectares of hillside — one of Japan's largest sunflower fields, grown by a tiny farming town of 1,600 people, with sunflower mazes, rental bikes, and sunflower soft-serve at peak bloom.

📍 Hokkaido, Hokuryu 🆓 Free ⏱ Half day

Kaminoko Pond (Child of God Pond)

Kaminoko Pond (Child of God Pond)

A tiny pond hidden down a forest gravel road, fed by underground water from Lake Mashu — so cold and so clear that fallen trees lie preserved on the cobalt-blue bottom like specimens in glass.

📍 Hokkaido, Kiyosato 🆓 Free ⏱ ≈ 1 hour

🌻 Summer 🍁 Autumn

Kamuiwakka Hot Falls

Kamuiwakka Hot Falls

A river in Shiretoko that IS a hot spring: you wade and scramble 500 meters up a warm volcanic stream, climbing three waterfalls, until the water hits bath-temperature at the top — helmet on, world heritage wilderness all around.

📍 Hokkaido, Shari 💴 Paid ⏱ Half day

Kanmangafuchi Abyss

Kanmangafuchi Abyss

A short, mossy gorge walk in Nikko lined with a row of stone Jizo statues in red bibs — the 'Bake Jizo,' famous for the local saying that you can never count them and get the same number twice.

📍 Tochigi, Nikko 🆓 Free ⏱ ≈ 1 hour

Katsunuma Grape Picking (Grapark)

Katsunuma Grape Picking (Grapark)

Japan's wine country, a short trip from Tokyo: an entire hillside of vineyards where you pay by weight to pick and eat 16+ grape varieties straight off the vine, from Kyoho and Delaware to Shine Muscat.

📍 Yamanashi, Koshu 💴 Paid ⏱ Half day

🌻 Summer 🍁 Autumn

Momijidani Otsuribashi (Shiobara)

Momijidani Otsuribashi (Shiobara)

A 320-metre pedestrian suspension bridge swaying high over a forested river gorge near Shiobara Onsen — quietly thrilling year-round, and ablaze with red and gold maple in autumn, just as its name ('maple valley') promises.

📍 Tochigi, Nasushiobara 💴 Paid ⏱ ≈ 1 hour

Mount Chokai (Dewa Fuji)

Mount Chokai (Dewa Fuji)

A nearly perfect 2,236-metre volcano rising straight from the Japan Sea coast, so symmetrical locals call it 'Dewa Fuji' — with snow lingering into summer, alpine flower meadows, and the cold spring-water falls of Motodaki at its base.

📍 Yamagata, Yuza 🆓 Free ⏱ Full day

🌻 Summer 🍁 Autumn

Mount Nasu Ropeway (Chausu-dake)

Mount Nasu Ropeway (Chausu-dake)

A ropeway lifts you toward the steaming summit of Chausu-dake, the active volcano that crowns the Nasu highlands — a short, rocky scramble from the top station to a crater rim that vents real sulfur.

📍 Tochigi, Nasu 💴 Paid ⏱ Half day

Nagatoro River Rafting

Nagatoro River Rafting

A pole-steered raft trip down the Arakawa River past Iwadatami — a government-designated 'cultural landscape' of flat, layered rock shelves — alternating calm float-and-swim stretches with sudden rapids, about two hours from Tokyo.

📍 Saitama, Nagatoro 💴 Paid ⏱ Half day

🌻 Summer 🍁 Autumn

Naitai Highland Farm

Japan's largest public dairy ranch — 17 square kilometers of open grass, 2,000 grazing cows, a 7km driving road climbing to a glass-walled hilltop terrace, and soft-serve made from the herd below you.

📍 Hokkaido, Kamishihoro 🆓 Free ⏱ Half day

🌻 Summer 🍁 Autumn

Nihon Minka-en Open-Air Folk House Museum

Nihon Minka-en Open-Air Folk House Museum

A wooded hillside in Kawasaki where two dozen real thatched-roof farmhouses, a kabuki stage, and a watermill — rescued from across Japan and rebuilt board by board — form a village out of time.

📍 Kanagawa, Kawasaki 💴 Paid ⏱ Half day

Omiya Bonsai Village

Omiya Bonsai Village

A quiet Saitama neighborhood that is the spiritual home of bonsai — a cluster of working nurseries and a dedicated museum where centuries-old miniature trees are tended like living heirlooms.

📍 Saitama, Saitama 💴 Paid ⏱ ≈ 1 hour

Oyama Senmaida Rice Terraces

Oyama Senmaida Rice Terraces

Hundreds of tiny terraced rice paddies stair-step down a Chiba hillside, mirroring the sky in spring and glowing with thousands of LED candles on winter nights — the closest 'thousand rice fields' to Tokyo.

📍 Chiba, Kamogawa 🆓 Free ⏱ ≈ 1 hour

🌸 Spring ❄️ Winter

Shikisai-no-Oka Flower Hills

Shikisai-no-Oka Flower Hills

Fifteen hectares of Biei hillside striped in ribbon-bands of flowers — ride a tractor-pulled 'Norokko' wagon through the color, then feed the alpacas at the ranch on top. Peak stripes run late July through September.

📍 Hokkaido, Biei 💴 Paid ⏱ Half day

🌻 Summer 🍁 Autumn

Takachiho Gorge

Takachiho Gorge

A narrow basalt canyon of columnar cliffs and a waterfall plunging straight into emerald water — row a small boat to its base, through a landscape woven into Japan's oldest creation myths.

📍 Miyazaki, Takachiho 💴 Paid ⏱ Half day

🌸 Spring 🌻 Summer 🍁 Autumn

Tobishima Island

Tobishima Island

Yamagata's only inhabited offshore island, a tiny green dot an hour by ferry from Sakata — clear blue water, seabird colonies, fresh-grilled fish, and a slow, salt-air pace that feels a world away from the mainland summer.

📍 Yamagata, Sakata 💴 Paid ⏱ Full day

Unkai Terrace (Sea of Clouds), Tomamu

A dawn gondola ride to a mountaintop terrace where, on the right morning, an entire ocean of clouds spreads out below your feet — complete with a 'Cloud Walk' catwalk and a giant net hammock suspended over the drop.

📍 Hokkaido, Shimukappu 💴 Paid ⏱ Half day

🌻 Summer 🍁 Autumn

Nasu Flower World

Nasu Flower World

A hillside of striped flower terraces high on the Nasu plateau — tulips, poppies, salvia and broom turning the slopes into bands of color, all rolling up toward the bare volcanic cone of Mt. Nasu behind.

📍 Tochigi, Nasu 💴 Paid ⏱ ≈ 1 hour

🌸 Spring 🌻 Summer 🍁 Autumn

Nasu Heisei-no-Mori & Komadome Falls

Nasu Heisei-no-Mori & Komadome Falls

A former Imperial forest opened to the public in 2011, where free boardwalk trails wind through old-growth woods to viewpoints over the 20-metre Komadome Falls — gentle, hushed, and royally well-kept.

📍 Tochigi, Nasu 🆓 Free ⏱ Half day

Zao Snow Monsters (Juhyo)

🌲 Nature Seasonal event

Zao Snow Monsters (Juhyo)

Whole forests of fir trees freeze into towering, ghostly 'snow monsters' on the slopes of Mt. Zao each deep winter — ride a ropeway among them, then see them lit up after dark.

📍 Yamagata, Yamagata 💴 Paid ⏱ Full day 🗓 Dec 20 – Mar 8

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