JAPANESE COUNTRYSIDE

While travelers tend to be drawn to Japan's major cities, there's much to be savored in its quiet countryside, where a different, deeper kind of beauty awaits.

Coming to Koysan 18 years ago, Swiss national Kurt Kubli Genso became a Buddhist priest, and now guides visitors around this three-star World Heritage Site in five different languages.

Mount Fuji is recognized as both a World Heritage Site and a three-star Michelin spot. But how do you protect a natural site from the erosive forces of its own popularity?

Take the new Hokuriku Shinkansen to visit the splendidly preserved, Michelin three-starred Gokayama village in Toyama Prefecture. If you want to get away from it all and be surrounded by nature and heritage, Gokayama is for you.

There isn't just one reason why Kagawa Prefecture's Ritsurin Garden has been awarded three stars in the Michelin Guide—there are thousands of them!

Japan is one of the best travel destinations on the planet. Here’s why.

Shizuoka Prefecture is the source of roughly half the tuna in Japan, making it only natural that the region is home to great sushi—and even a sushi museum!

Once a flourishing post town, Ouchi-juku is home to many traditional thatched-roof residences, and residents adhere to an annual tradition of harvesting pampas grass every November to preserve their classical and eco-friendly roofs.