Next Stop, Japan


Beer Museum Yebisu

Yebisu Beer is one of Japan's most famous and historic beer brands. Beer is consumed all across Japan and is loved by many of Japan's hardworking salarymen. Amazingly, it's history in Japan only goes back as far as the Meiji period when foreign goods, ideas and culture began flowing into Japan.

Shibuya Ward

Chiran Peace Museum for Kamikaze Pilots

Chiran Peace Museum for Kamikaze Pilots preserves the memory of those who, together with their bomb packed planes, put everything they had into their attack on the enemy. Those that died during the Battle of Okinawa in 1945 during the final months of WWII in particular are memorialized here.

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Minamikyūshū City
Kagoshima Prefecture

Ghibli Museum

The Ghibli Museum in Mitaka City is a one of a kind museum about animation. It was created around the stories and the characters Studio Ghibli animators and directors have created. Fortunately, it's not a Totoro theme park but designed by Hayao Miyazaki, the studio's top director, from the ground up as a museum to show how the magic of animation is all put together.
Mitaka City

Himeji Castle

Himeji Castle was built in the first years of the 17th century by Terumasa Ikeda, a relative of Shogun Ieyasu Tokugawa. It is doubtlessly the best preserved wooden castle in Japan and, in addition, it still retains the surrounding turrets, stone walls and towers that most castles in Japan have long lost to wars, earthquakes and development. The castle is nicknamed "White Heron" Castle because of its trademark white plastered walls. Himeji Castle was designated a national treasure in 1931 and became an UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1993.
Himeji City
Hyōgo Prefecture

Hiroshima Castle

Hiroshima Castle is cherished as a symbol of the city and as the source of their baseball team's name. What remains today is a concrete reproduction of the inner main keep, walls and the innermost moat. The keep houses a small museum with artifacts from Hiroshima's past. The grounds contain one of Hiroshima's best cherry blossom viewing area.

It is located a walkable distance north of the Peace Memorial Park and close to the Shukkeien Gardens.

Naka Ward
Hiroshima Prefecture

Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum

Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum overlooks the Memorial Cenotaph in Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park. It is the the primary museum related to the atomic bombing in Hiroshima. The museum was established in 1955 and was last remodeled in 1991.

Naka Ward
Hiroshima Prefecture

Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park

Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park (広島平和記念公園) is a large park in central Hiroshima City situated where, under the hypocenter, nearly everything was incinerated by the first atomic bomb attack in history on August 6, 1945. The park itself is dedicated to memorializing the horrific human cost of this action so that this event is never again repeated.

Naka Ward
Hiroshima Prefecture

Kachidoki Bridge

Kachidoki Bridge last lifted its double spans on November 29, 1970. Tokyo residents still have fond memories of the days when it opened daily to let the freighters up the Sumida River. Prior to the building of the modern road system, these boats were the lifeblood of the city. After the road construction took off during the boom years, trucks became a more convenient way to transport goods and the warehouses and docks that once lined up and down the Sumida River declined and disappeared.

Chūō Ward

Mori Museum and Garden

It would be hard to find a clan in all of western Honshu's history that was more important and more powerful powerful than the Mori family. The origin of the clan's power is considered to be Oe no Hiromoto (1148-1225) who helped establish the structure of the Kamukura Shogunate. The clan rose to its height of power towards the end of the Muromachi period (1392-1573) when it controlled all of western Honshu.

Hōfu City
Yamaguchi Prefecture

Satsuki and Mei's House

Aichi Prefecture has reopened parts of the grounds used for Expo 2005 Aichi Japan as part of a large recreation and sports park. Satsuki and Mei's House (サツキとメイの家) was one the most popular pavilions during the expo and is the only one still running as part of the new Ai - World Fair Memorial Park. The attraction brings to life the fictional house where main characters, Satsuki and Mei, stay at in the movie My Neighbor Totoro.

Nagakute City
Aichi Prefecture

Yamato Museum

Kure's Yamato Museum (大和ミュージアム) is said to be a tribute to the skills and science of area workers that created such marvels as the Yamato. The Yamato (named after Yamato Prefecture) was the world's largest battleship. The museum's centerpiece is a 1/10 scale reproduction of this battleship.


Yokohama Maritime Museum

Yokohama has a proud marine history as the site of one of the first ports to be opened to the outside world. Yokohama Maritime Museum seeks to preserve the knowledge of the distant past and to tell the continuing story of Yokohama's development as a major world port. As part of this mission, the sailing ship Nippon Maru, Japan's most famous marine training vessel, is docked permanently outside.

Nishi Ward
Kanagawa Prefecture
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