Kumamoto

The keep, damaged in the 2016 earthquake, reopened inside in 2021, but repairing the walls and turrets is a decades-long plan still under way. A special walkway raised several metres off the ground gives a view down onto the stonework being rebuilt.

An Edo-style lane of eateries and souvenir stalls at the castle's southern foot, serving regional food. The history hall inside screens the castle's story, and watching it before you climb makes the keep easier to follow.

A garden the Hosokawa family tended from 1636, with a rounded mound modelled on Mount Fuji beside a pond fed by Aso groundwater. So clear is it that the carp show right down to the pond floor, and from the teahouse you face the mound over matcha.

You walk to the rim of a still-active crater and look down at its green lake. Thick volcanic gas or a raised alert level closes access the same day, so check the restriction notice before setting out. People with asthma are told to stay out.

A wide grassland on the northern flank of Mount Eboshi, where horses and cattle graze around a rain-fed pond. You can ride a horse round a loop at one edge, and the Aso Volcano Museum opposite is where the bus stops.

A lookout at 936m on the caldera's north rim, with the towns and rice fields of the crater floor laid out below. The five peaks are said to look like a reclining Buddha, and on some early autumn mornings the caldera floor drowns in a sea of cloud.

A hot spring village of about thirty ryokan along a valley river, with signs and walls kept in matching colours so the whole place reads as one inn. A wooden Nyuto Tegata pass lets you choose three outdoor baths at ryokan where you are not staying.

The office of Kumamon, the bear mascot who holds the title of prefectural sales manager, set up on a corner of the Tetori Honcho shopping street. Entry is free, and his live stage slots run several times daily at hours posted on the website.

A samurai mansion of a Hosokawa branch family, moved whole to the Sannomaru grounds north of the castle. Tatami rooms wrap around the garden, and with far fewer visitors than the castle you can sit on the veranda and rest facing it.

A stone aqueduct bridge built in 1854 to carry water onto a dry plateau, made a National Treasure in 2023. The water release that gushes from its sides is held only on scheduled days, so check the calendar in advance.

A fishing cove on western Amakusa, listed by UNESCO in 2018 among the sites of Japan's hidden Christians. The 1934 Gothic church stands where the headman's house once held fumie trampling tests, and its floor is tatami. Driving takes about three hours.

A clear stream through old forest northwest of Aso's outer rim, cold enough even in high summer to make it a place to escape the heat. On autumn mornings sunbeams slant through the mist, and photographers gather for the shot. Trail rocks stay wet and slick.

A waterfall in the village of Oguni north of Aso, only about 10m high but some 20m wide, so the water drops like a curtain. A path under the rock behind lets you look out through the sheet. Entry needs booking online ahead; wear trainers for the wet ground.

An ancient shrine at Ichinomiya inside the Aso caldera. Its two-storey gate fell in the 2016 earthquake and was rebuilt over several years. In the shopping street before it, spring water bubbles up at taps along the way, and people fill empty bottles.

A small shrine in the Minami-Aso woods whose moss-covered steps and cedar avenue have made it famous in photos. Climb past the hall to reach a boulder pierced by a huge hole. The stones turn treacherous after rain.

A Nichiren temple on the hills west of town holding the grave of Kato Kiyomasa, who built Kumamoto Castle. Climb the steep stone stair to his tomb and the castle sits dead ahead; he was reportedly buried facing it.