8 places to see the best of Japan without the crowds

Tokyo, Kyoto and Mt Fuji deserve their fame. But step into a castle town, an art-filled island or a coastal shrine – and you’ll find a Japan that still feels like a secret.

Japan’s famous Golden Route is usually at the top of the list in terms of must-see locations. But if you venture beyond those blockbuster destinations, you’ll find castles, coastlines, food and festivals that are just as memorable – and often it’s Japan without the crowds.

Whether it’s sipping sake in Niigata, journeying along hiking trails once walked by samurai, or drifting through an island bay, these destinations should easily slot into your itinerary.

1. Matsumoto

Matsumoto sits at the base of the Japanese Alps, and its star attraction is impossible to miss. Surrounded by a carp-filled moat, Matsumoto Castle’s dark exterior gives off an air of intrigue, while its creaking floorboards and narrow staircases not-so-subtly remind you of its medieval past.

The city has a creative side, too. The Matsumoto City Museum of Art pays tribute to Yayoi Kusama, one of the world’s most famous artists, who was born in this very city.

2. Tottori Prefecture

Tottori Sand Dunes — Walk along Japan’s only large sand dunes. (Image: Anni W)

The sand dunes in Tottori Prefecture need to be seen to be believed. The prefecture is home to the country’s only large sand dunes, stretching for 16 kilometres along the coast. You can climb them, sandboard down them, or even ride a camel across them.

Once you’ve had your fill of sand, the coastline offers quiet beaches and rocky cliffs where the sea does most of the talking. Just inland, Mt. Daisen is the highest peak in the Chugoku region and a favourite for both hikers and skiers.

The mountain sits inside Daisen-Oki National Park, where changing seasons mean a vastly different experience depending on the month you’re there.

3. Nakasendo Hiking Trail

Long before planes, trains and automobiles, the Nakasendo Trail was one of the main walking routes linking Tokyo with Kyoto. Once containing 69 post towns each spaced roughly a day’s walk apart, travellers would stop at towns along the way for a meal and a bed. Today, you can still follow that route and stay in quaint inns that feel perfectly preserved.

The Kiso Valley is one of the most stunning offshoots of the trail, with villages like Magome and Tsumago keeping their wooden houses, cobbled streets and tea shops intact. Spending a night here is more than enough to empathise with ancestors who would have to plan their journey based on the speed of their feet.

4. Niigata Prefecture

Niigata is renowned throughout Japan for producing some of the finest sake in the country. Snowmelt from the surrounding mountains provides incredibly pure water, and – when it combines with local rice – the results are worth raising a glass to. Pair that with sushi made from seafood caught offshore, and you’ve got a meal to write home about.

Take the ferry to Sado Island for more than coastal scenery. The UNESCO World Heritage Sado Island Gold Mines were once a mining centre that supplied around one-third of all the gold found in Japan. This island retreat now produces some eclectic theatre and festivals.

Dedicated to global unity, the Earth Celebration Festival sees hordes of gig-hunters flock to the town of Ogi to watch the Kodo drumming group beat up a storm.

5. Aichi Prefecture

Nagoya Castle is the obvious starting point in Aichi. With its golden ornaments and distinct shape standing tall among a sea of skyscrapers, it’s one of Japan’s most striking castles.

Aichi is also the birthplace of Toyota, and the company’s museum showcases how it evolved from weaving looms to cars that revolutionised the way the world moves. The machines on display are surprisingly hands-on, which is an added perk for the curious motorhead.

And then there’s Ghibli Park, which will delight anime fans around the world. Unlike a theme park full of rides, it’s a place to immerse yourself in the universe created by filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki. You can walk through Totoro’s forest, visit Satsuki and Mei’s house, or explore exhibitions dedicated to Studio Ghibli’s most beloved films.

6. Miyagi Prefecture

An astounding 260 small, pine-covered islands cover Matsushima Bay – making it one of Japan’s most baffling and beautiful views to witness in person. The best way to see these natural marvels is from a boat, weaving between the islets. Or, on foot along Matsushima’s coastline.

Back on dry land, the Zao Kokeshi Museum is home to the most handmade dolls you’ve likely ever seen in one place. Each traditional doll has its own expression and style – its handiwork can be traced back centuries, roughly around the Edo period.

To relax your travel-weary bones, Akiu Onsen offers hot spring baths surrounded by serene mountain scenery. The mineral-rich water has been drawing visitors since the sixth century, and its rumoured healing powers are still going strong.

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7. Mie Prefecture

an ama diver in Japan holding a bamboo basket — Visit the Ama divers of Japan. (Image: Rachel Claire)

Mie is one of the few places in Japan where Ama divers still practice their craft. Once thought to be immortal by folklore standards, these women free-dive without oxygen tanks to collect shellfish – a tradition that has been passed down for hundreds of years. Visitors can join them in seaside huts where fresh seafood is cooked over an open fire while the divers share stories from their lives.

The region is home to Ise-Jingu Naiku, one of Japan’s most sacred Shinto shrines. Surrounded by forest, it’s rebuilt every 20 years as a symbol of renewal.

In the food department, Matsusaka beef is known for its marbling, while Ise lobster is considered a rich, buttery delicacy. Both are reason enough to linger here.

8. The Setouchi Art Islands

Setouchi Islands A-ArtHouse — Wander through local artworks. (Image: Kimon Berlin)

For anyone who loves art, the Setouchi Islands provide a gallery without walls. Naoshima leads the way with world-class museums designed by Tadao Ando and outdoor sculptures that have become icons in their own right. The giant pumpkin by Yayoi Kusama is as popular with photographers as it is with fellow artists.

Teshima adds another layer with installations in rice fields and abandoned homes, while Shodoshima mixes galleries with olive groves and mountain trails. Together, the islands create a region where art spills out onto the surrounding land, refusing to be contained by museum walls or a glass box.

After youth-led protests in 2025, this year Nepal elected a 35-year-old former rapper as Prime Minister. In a country where tourism is its biggest industry, what’s next for travellers?

In 1986, Nepal changed its clock. It had used India Standard Time since 1920 so, to differentiate, it wound its clock 15 minutes ahead of, not behind, its big-brother neighbour. Boss move. “Nepal is strongly opposed to the idea that our identity is connected to India,” says Community Homestay Network (CHN) guide Bikal Khanal.

Tharu dance is traditionally set to hand drums. (Credit: Kate Lewis)

Today, Nepal is the only independent country with a 45-minute deviation to universal time; an oddity that’s become a symbol of national pride. The quirk is nearly as endearing as Kathmandu’s Tribhuvan airport where carved varnished wood and shiny red bricks rule. One sign points to a ‘Travelator’ and another to a ‘Grievance Handling Desk’ while visas are noisily stamped at customs for US dollars, cash only. When am I?

Spot the endemic Nepal gray langur. (Credit: Simon Urwin)

The 15 or 45 minute anomaly sees me tap out completely on timezone calculations. Why bend my brain calculating if it’s quarter to or quarter past elsewhere when I’m in the honking here and now of Kathmandu where the air is high-altitude crisp, the prayer flags flutter and the street dogs howl?

How tourism is changing in Nepal

Bardiya National Park is rich with wildlife. (Credit: Simon Urwin)

India is not the only association many Nepalis would like to shake. With eight of the world’s 10 tallest mountains, including Mount Everest and Annapurna, Nepal has long attracted mountaineers and trekkers, and expedition numbers are continuing to rise.

Tourism is one of the country’s biggest sources of foreign currency, so this growth is not negative, per se. But according to Ang Tshering Lama, who co-founded Phaplu Mountain Bike Club, being reduced to a mere trekking destination is limiting.

“Trekking is just one layer of our identity,” says Ang. “When it becomes the dominant narrative, it limits how we’re seen and how we see ourselves.” Nepal’s recent success, however, in diverting trekkers to less-trafficked areas such as Manaslu mofuntain, where visitor numbers rose by 117 per cent last year, offers hope that tourism can diversify even more radically.

Local men in Bhada village. (Credit: Simon Urwin)

The founder of CHN, Shiva Dhakal, wants that change. “The whole idea of the Community Homestay Network is to promote experiences outside of trekking,” he says. “Community tourism changes lives and helps kids stay home instead of coming to the city or migrating to the Middle East.”

Ang grew up seeing people leave, “not because they wanted to but because there weren’t enough opportunities to stay”, he states. Yet from remote villages to living traditions; food, art, music and emerging subcultures, “there’s so much that’s not being seen.”

CHN is opening some of those doors. It doesn’t own, or fund, any homes. Rather, it promotes homestays to travellers on a single, slick platform, while fostering entrepreneurship in places where women, marginalised castes, Indigenous people and the youth stand to benefit the most.

A new generation demanding more

Dalla Town Hall, where volunteers discuss anti-poaching tactics. (Credit: Bheem Thapa)

The future prospects of next-gen Nepalis can no longer be ignored. On a Kathmandu tour with 33-year-old guide Monica K.C, we pass buildings torched in the September 2025 ‘Gen Z protests’, including the Supreme Court and Parliament House. Seventy-two people died. “They were anti-corruption protests,” says Monica. “Politicians’ children are living a lavish life but the airports are crowded with youngsters leaving to find work.”

We stop in ‘little Tibet’ at the wondrous sixth-century Boudha Stupa. “The wheel of life is Buddhism in a nutshell,” says Monica. “Things such as hate, ignorance and anger keep you rotating around the wheel, so you must follow the principles of Buddhism to detach. If you can’t, there’s no nirvana for you.”

Boudha Stupa's prayer wheels — Boudha Stupa’s prayer wheels are used to recite Buddhist prayers. (Credit: Kate Lewis)

In a sun-drenched twist to the usual temple visit, we ascend the stupa’s sloping plinth and roam its whitewashed dome. Tendrils of diaphanous prayer flags stream from a steeple-like structure where the Buddha’s unblinking eyes stare out. No nirvana for you…

bouda stupa prayer flags — Tibetan-style prayer flags embellish the whitewashed dome of Bouda Stupa, a Buddhist temple. (Credit: Kate Hennessy)

The dome is delightfully free of guard rails or chiding from security. There is, however, a stern ‘No TikTok’ sign, perhaps in response to the youth’s newly flexed power. The booted-out Prime Minister, K.P. Sharma Oli, was replaced in a resounding election victory in March by 35-year-old Balendra Shah of the Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) – a former rapper and mayor of Kathmandu. The RSP’s manifesto indicates tourism is a priority, and that Nepal’s cultural identity in areas such as gastronomy will be strengthened.

Boudha Stupa vendors — Vibrant souvenir shops and cafes around Boudha Stupa. (Credit: Kate Hennessy)

A more confronting stop awaits at Pashupatinath Temple. Today is Bala Chaturdashi, a Hindu festival where thousands of devotees gather to honour their dead ancestors. Vendors hauling foam mattresses do a lucrative trade as people set up for a night of vigil. This includes burning the bodies of recently deceased relatives on bamboo pyres in the Bagmati River, which flows into the sacred Ganges.

A woman at annual Hindu festival Bala Chaturdashi, in Kathmandu. (Credit: Kate Hennessy)

Wrapped in a shroud, the bodies are positioned with their heads facing north to the Himalayas where Lord Shiva resides. They’re covered with flowers and straw and set alight by male family members.

Hours later, the ashes are swept into the river where devotees will take a holy dip the next day. As much as Monica assures us it’s not voyeuristic to watch, I struggle to do so. “Here you see the reality of life because everyone ends up there,” she says, gesturing to the river.

Life unfiltered in the Terai region

tharu woman — Tharu woman and master weaver Parbati Chaudhary in Bhada Village. (Credit: Bheem Thapa)

The reality of life needs processing time, which the western Terai region delivers in spades. The Terai is largely separated from India by the Karnali River and Bardiya National Park, where elephants, rhinos and the elusive Bengal tiger roam.

Once a nomadic tribe, the Indigenous Tharu people are now the largest ethnic group here. “They didn’t know their daily life was interesting for international travellers but they’re starting to understand now,” says CHN founder Shiva.

Take a Jeep safari through Bardiya National Park. (Credit: Bheem Thapa)

We fly Buddha Air to Dhangadhi airport and drive five hours to stay in Tharu homes. The journey to Bhada village is a blur of roadside fruit stalls, traffic-stopping sacred cows and fields sown with wheat, rice, mustard, spinach, cauliflower and potatoes. Nepal’s agriculture feeds only Nepal.

Marigolds are an important part of Hindu rituals. (Credit: Simon Urwin)

“The only thing we export is young people,” says our guide Bikal. As the light dims and we plunge evermore rural, mysterious mounds of compacted hay – some house-sized – loom like the creatures from Where The Wild Things Are. Even our trusty driver gets flummoxed by a dirt road that abruptly ends and we find ourselves hurtling across a paddock.

On arrival, some are ferried to mud-walled cottages greened by gourd creepers, with thatched roofs and rustic-chic mosquito nets. Myself and two others are ushered to the home of corner store owner, mechanic and mushroom farmer Man Kumar Chilaruwa and his wife Rajkumari.

community homestay entrance — A warm welcome at a community homestay. (Credit: Simon Urwin)

They escort us to a bunker-esque back building with steel doors and a folding security gate, behind which is gleaming linoleum, dolphin-printed tiles and a shower cavity that must be gingerly stepped through to reach the toilet.

The ceiling lights emit a rainbow of colours (the bathroom light gets stuck in, frankly, a quite frightening red). We’re nevertheless touched that our hosts invested in all this bling when the average salary is around $275 a month.

In the coming days, we participate in Tharu traditions such as making moonshine, dancing, weaving straw handicrafts and gold-panning. We’re fed well with staples of rice, mustard greens, lentil pancakes, daal, curried chicken and tomato chutney served on antibacterial saal leaves.

food at community homestay — Dig in. (Credit: Kate Hennessy)

Sonara community homestay president Indradevi Tharu tells us river snails are often served, and the boiled and pickled flesh of rats hunted in the rice fields. “Perhaps next time?” we say and all have a laugh.

The power of community homestays

community homestay owners in Nepal — Barda community homestay owners Parbati Chaudhary and Ram Krishni Devi Chaudhary. (Credit: Simon Urwin)

Immersing Western visitors in foreign cultural practices is not new. But with the Tharu, I never get that uneasy sensation that I’m being performed for. Despite being the only tourists, there’s no ‘othering’; just warm, composed and ultra-dignified welcomes. Like we’ve always been here.

“I love to have travellers in my village so I can see the world,” says local woman Parbati Chaudhary. “Why would I travel the world when the world comes to me?”

The graceful acceptance the Tharu offer, as well as the slow pace, works miracles on my frazzled nervous system. One day I even take a nap on a vacant homestay bed.

Sonara community room — An authentic stay in the Sonara community. (Credit: Kate Hennessy)

Roosters strut and goats bray as we sit on the ground in al fresco kitchens, rolling rice flour into cylinders steamed to make dhikri (dumplings). When water is needed, we fetch it using a hand-operated pump as a family of ducks strolls by, side-eying us like curious neighbours.

Animal lovers will delight in Tharu villages. Kind and resourceful inventions are everywhere, such as snacking stations where two posts lean together, with leafy boughs dangling on rope for baby goats to forage from.

CHN’s CEO, Aayusha Prasain, nods knowingly when one in our group says she cried when she left her host, Shayam Chaudhary, in Bhada. Shayam’s 17-year-old son, Prashant, had translated, which deepened the connection.

“Community tourism turns travel into a relationship, not a transaction,” says Aayusha. “It places decision-making power in the hands of local communities, especially women and youth.” Since 2018, CHN has hosted more than 4000 travellers from 52 countries in 408 households, and estimates women’s participation has increased by 381 per cent.

In the Bardiya community, where vexing human-animal conflict has been a balancing act for decades due to elephants raiding crops, long-time homestay operator Salik Ram Chaudhary says young people keep the older ones on their toes.

“We can’t keep homestays stagnant,” he says. “We have to upgrade our service and redefine our product or young people won’t see it as an attractive business. If we can keep evolving with this travelling trend we’re confident the youths will stay and continue it.”

Back in Kathmandu, Monica explains that after the deaths of young protestors in September, a determination had spread to not let their sacrifice be in vain. “We want to keep holding the government accountable,” she says. “We don’t know what situation we’re facing, but we’re ready to face it.”

Interested in Nepal but prefer to experience it in total comfort? Read our guide to luxury travel in Nepal.