⛩️ Temples & shrines · 95 destinations · 526 activities
Japan has over seventy thousand Buddhist temples and eighty thousand Shinto shrines, and the classic mistake is stringing fifteen together in two days until they stop being distinguishable. This list is ranked by real concentration and importance, not by count. Mixing works better: one large urban complex, one mountain shrine and one temple you can sleep in beat a three-city temple tour.
The garden costs 700 yen for adults and 600 yen for groups of 25 or more, and includes the Hoshokan museum; there is no garden-only ticket. The garden opens 8:45 to 17:30 with last admission at 17:15 and the museum 9:00 to 17:00 with last admission at 16:45, every day of the year. Going into the Ho-o-do to see Jocho's Amida costs 300 yen more and works in slots every 20 minutes, from 9:30 to 16:10, with a limited quota per slot and tickets sold at the garden reception, not online. Be there 5 minutes before your assigned time; the commentary is in Japanese only (a leaflet is given in other languages) and the interior can close without notice for ceremonies. The official source gives two different capacity figures, 20 and 50 people per slot: confirm when buying.
Thousands of orange torii gates climbing the sacred Mount Inari.
Admission 1,000 yen, open every day with no closing day: 8:30-17:00 from March to November and 9:00-16:30 from December to February. The route is one-way and takes 30-45 minutes, so the crowding is felt above all on the ramp by the Ginshadan (the Kogetsudai sand cone and the sea of silver sand). It is the fifth most visited site in Kyoto, and the interior of the Kannon-den is never open: what you see is the exterior. Opening at 8:30 and going in during the first few minutes completely changes the experience compared with arriving at midday.
A temple covered in gold leaf, reflected in its own pond — an absolute icon of Kyoto.
World Heritage Buddhist temple with a broad wooden terrace on pillars giving panoramic views over Kyoto. NOTICE: Jishu Jinja, the love shrine inside the grounds with the two stones you walk between with your eyes shut, has been closed for reconstruction since August 2022 and in 2026 was still fenced off with no reopening date. Sannenzaka and Ninenzaka are public streets and can be walked, but they sit inside the no-smoking ordinance zone, which carries a fine.
The precinct and the brick Suirokaku aqueduct, part of the Lake Biwa Canal works, are free to enter; the Hojo garden and the climb up the Sanmon are paid separately, at around 500-600 yen each depending on the source (worth confirming at the ticket window). Hours 8:40-17:00 from March to November and 8:40-16:30 from December to February, with no closing days; there is a tea room with matcha and wagashi for about 500 yen. Important notice: the Nanzen-in subtemple is closed for works until the spring of 2027, so do not count on its pond garden. Following the aqueduct upstream leads to the Okuno-in and its small waterfall, almost always empty.
Around 1,400 wild deer, protected as a national natural monument, roam the park freely, and you may feed them only shika senbei crackers (200 yen, from the official stalls). They are not tame: more than a hundred people a year are hurt by bites, butts and antler gores, above all during the September-to-November rut and when does have fawns between May and July. Give them no other food and no plastic bags, do not wave a cracker without handing it over, and do not crouch down to their eye level.
The wooden gallery clinging to the hillside above Todai-ji is open day and night and costs nothing: from it you see the Great Buddha Hall's roof, the park and the whole Nara basin with the sun going down behind it. At dusk the oil lanterns along the corridor are lit and almost nobody is left, because the tour groups have already headed back to Kyoto.
Carved in dry lacquer in 734, three-faced and six-armed with the face of a worried teenager, the Ashura is one of Japan's most loved sculptures and it is here, five minutes from the station. The museum opens 9:00-17:00 (last entry 16:45) and costs 900 yen; a combined ticket with the Central and Eastern Golden Halls is 1,600.
One of the largest wooden buildings in the world, home to a giant bronze Buddha.
On the edge of the city: the oldest wooden buildings in the world, from the seventh century, and a World Heritage Site in its own right, separate from the central Nara group.
The first full-scale Buddhist temple ever built in Japan, founded in 596, with a bronze Buddha cast in 609 that still sits where it was made: cracked and pieced back together after several fires, and the monks let you photograph it and explain the story without rushing. It is small and plain, nothing like the Great Buddha of Nara, and that is the point.
An outdoor bronze statue over 11 metres tall, the symbol of the city.
One of Kamakura's two great Rinzai Zen temples alongside Kencho-ji, founded in 1282 next to Kita-Kamakura station, with a huge bell designated a National Treasure.
Terraced gardens overlooking Sagami Bay.
Japan's oldest Zen temple and head temple of the Rinzai school, with main halls and a rear garden set against the hillside.
A ridge path linking Kita-Kamakura with Genjiyama, Zeniarai Benten and the Great Buddha, crossing woodland and caves. It is shorter and more accessible than the Tenen trail, but check its condition beforehand because closures from fallen trees are common.
Sea caves at the far end of the island, carved by the surf, where tradition says Kukai and Nichiren meditated, and which are walked with a lantern. They are reached across the Chigogafuchi rock platform and close in bad weather or heavy swell.
A Shinto shrine dedicated to Emperor Meiji, surrounded by a lush forest next to Harajuku.
A stream-and-damp-forest route that avoids the asphalt of trail 1 and comes out at Yakuo-in temple and, on clear days, views of Fuji. It is the most climbed mountain on earth, about three million visitors a year: go on a weekday, start before eight, and take trail 6 or Inariyama.
One of Edo's three great festivals, held in full ONLY in odd years: on Saturday a procession of nearly a thousand people covers thirty kilometres through Kanda, Nihonbashi and Marunouchi; on Sunday more than two hundred mikoshi enter the shrine. Even years bring the kage-matsuri, a reduced, near-internal version.
Tutelary shrine of 108 Edo neighbourhoods, its vermilion-lacquered hall rebuilt in concrete in 1934 and therefore a survivor of the firebombing. It sells amulets for data and server protection and collaborates with anime series: it is Akihabara's digital patron.
Festival of the shrine that guarded Edo Castle, with the Shinko-sai procession of some three hundred participants in court dress crossing the financial district over nine hours. Even years only: 2026 ran 7 to 17 June and the next big one is 2028.
Soto temple where Asano Naganori and his forty-seven retainers lie, with incense lit at every headstone for three centuries. It is a working cemetery, not a Chushingura set: keep your voice down and respect the photography bans where posted.
This was the great temple of western Japan, and one of the two oldest bronze bells in the country, a national treasure cast in the 7th century, still hangs in its yard. The grounds are free; the treasure hall, with a score of large Buddhist sculptures, is charged separately (around 500 yen) and opens 9:00 to 17:00. Next door is the Kaidan-in, one of only three ordination platforms Japan ever had: every monk in the west had to come here to be ordained.
For four nights a year, fourteen temples and shrines in the old town open from 17:30 to 21:00 with their gardens lit, among them Shofukuji, Tochoji, Myorakuji, Ryuguji and Kushida, which the rest of the year shut at dusk. The combined ticket costs 2,450 yen (1,950 if bought months ahead) and is good for one entry to each paying site; children up to junior high get in free with an adult. In 2026 it runs from 31 October to 3 November.
The island belongs to the city of Fukuoka and is reached by ferry in half an hour or by road across the tombolo. You ride round it past the park where a farmer unearthed the gold seal of the King of Na in 1784, Shikaumi shrine and the Shiomi viewpoint.
Founded in 1195 by Eisai on his return from China, it is officially the first zen temple in the country. The buildings cannot be visited inside, but the garden grounds are free and quiet.
Dazaifu Tenmangu's main hall has been boarded up since May 2023 for its first major restoration in 124 years, so you cannot see it. Prayers are offered instead at a temporary hall by Sou Fujimoto with a forest planted on its roof, built to last only these years of works. The main hall is due to reopen in 2027, on the 1,125th anniversary of Michizane's death: anyone coming for the usual building will be disappointed, and anyone coming for the temporary one will see something that will never exist again.
A walking itinerary through Gokusho-machi linking Shofukuji, Jotenji, Tochoji, Kushida and Sumiyoshi: the greatest concentration of founding temples in mainland Japan. The city publishes maps and there are free volunteer guides.
The mausoleum of shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu, with gilded carvings and the famous relief of the three wise monkeys.
An eighth-century shrine hidden in the forest, thirty minutes on foot uphill behind the Toshogu, almost empty even in high season. The Undameshi no Torii has a hole in its lintel through which you must throw three stones for a wish to be granted, and the Shiraito waterfall is beside it.
In October the Toshogu repeats the horseback archery and the thousand-warrior procession, with far fewer people than the May edition. Confirm dates each year with the shrine.
A Japanese strolling garden around a pond, lit for about two weeks in November to coincide with peak maple colour. Confirm dates and price with Rinnoji each year.
A Buddhist temple founded in the 8th century, part of Nikko's UNESCO World Heritage complex, home to the great Sanbutsudo hall and its three gilded Buddha statues.
Mausoleum of shogun Tokugawa Iemitsu, Ieyasu's grandson, built deliberately more restrained than the neighbouring Toshogu, set among cedars in dark lacquer and gold; for many visitors the most beautiful and least crowded corner of the complex.
The red torii gate that appears to float on the sea at high tide.
One of Japan's three great water festivals: boats carrying gagaku court music cross the bay by night from the shrine. It follows the lunar calendar, the 17th day of the sixth month, so the date shifts each year between July and August.
The 857-tatami hall that Hideyoshi left unfinished in 1587, with sea views between its bare beams, next to the 27-metre pagoda of 1407. Admission 100 yen to the Senjokaku.
A dimly lit gallery beneath Daisho-in holding sand from the 88 temples of Shikoku and hundreds of hanging lanterns; walking through it is symbolically equivalent to the whole pilgrimage.
From 16 to 18 April, the court dances that tradition attributes to Taira no Kiyomori are performed on the shrine's raised stage, with a different programme each day.
A boat moved by oar alone passes under the great torii in 20 or 30 minutes, with no engine and only at high tide. Adults 1,500 yen, children 500.
One of Japan's oldest Shinto shrines, dedicated to Okuninushi, home to the country's largest sacred rope (shimenawa) at the Kagura-den hall.
A mountain temple linked to Benkei, hidden in a valley north of Izumo and known for its maples in mid-November. A trail runs to Furo waterfall, very slippery in the rain.
An Edo-period complex lacquered in red, dedicated to Amaterasu and Susanoo, on a cape battered by the sea about 20 minutes by bus from Izumo Taisha. Opposite lies Fumishima, a protected gull colony and sacred island closed to entry: it can only be watched from land.
A fishing port at the tip of the peninsula with a twin-hall shrine dedicated to Ebisu and a paved lane whose flagstones turn blue when wet. Local tradition holds that a visit to Izumo Taisha is only complete if you come here too, which is called ryomairi.
Shrine of the myth of Susanoo and Princess Inada, and one of Shimane's great enmusubi sites. In the wood behind, you float an official paper with a coin on the pond, and how long it takes to sink predicts your love life.
A mountain temple above the Shinji known across Japan as a protector of eyesight, reached by a long stone stairway from the foot of the hill. Good lake views from the grounds.
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