Temples in Kyoto (Kinkaku-ji, Saiho-ji, Kiyomizu Temple, etc.) – Kyoto was built in A.D. 794 and was the capital of Japan until the 19th century. As the center of Japanese culture for more than 1,000 years it has some of the best developed Japanese wooden religious architecture and garden design.
Miyajima – also known as Itsukushima, is an island in the Seto inland sea, and the holy site for the Shintoism. The original shrine was built in the 6th century and the present was built in the 12th century. The design of the buildings harmoniously plays homage to the mountains and sea through contrasts in color and form while combining nature and human creativity.
Himeji Castle - is the finest surviving example of early 17th-century Japanese castle architecture, comprising of 83 buildings with highly developed systems of defense and ingenious protection devices dating from the beginning of the Shogun period. It is a masterpiece of construction in wood, combining function with aesthetic appeal, both in its elegant appearance unified by the white plastered earthen walls and in the subtlety of the relationships between the building masses and the multiple roof layers. *Main Castle Tower will be closed from April 2010 to January 2011 due to construction, but the smaller towers & gardens can be visited.
Mt. Koya - is where the Shingon Buddhist sect was introduced 1,200 years ago by the priest Kukai (774-835) (also known as Kobo Daishi).
Kanazawa - Kanazawa, the seat of the prefectural office, is made up of three hills, the Kodatsuno Plateau that stretches southeast between the Asano-gawa and Sai-kawa rivers and Mt. Utatsu-yama and Teramachidai, which spread out on both sides. It is the center of economy, commerce, and culture in the Hokuriku region. Kanazawa has prospered for some 300 years since the feudal lord Maeda Toshiie built a castle here in the late 16th century.
Nara - the capital of Japan from 710 to 784. During this period the framework of national government was consolidated and Nara enjoyed great prosperity, emerging as the fountainhead of Japanese culture. The city's historic monuments – Buddhist temples, Shinto shrines and the excavated remains of the great Imperial Palace – provide a vivid picture of life in the Japanese capital in the 8th century, a period of profound political and cultural change. In 2010, Nora will celebrate its 1300 anniversary.
Gusuku Sites & related properties of the Kingdom of Ryukyu - five hundred years of Ryukyuan history (12th-17th century) are represented by this group of sites and monuments. The ruins of the castles, on imposing elevated sites, are evidence for the social structure over much of that period, while the sacred sites provide mute testimony to the rare survival of an ancient form of religion into the modern age. The wide- ranging economic and cultural contacts of the Ryukyu Islands over that period gave rise to a unique culture.
Takayama & Shirakawago - located in a mountainous region that was cut off from the rest of the world for a long period of time, these villages with their Gassho-style houses subsisted on the cultivation of mulberry trees and the rearing of silkworms. The large houses with their steeply pitched thatched roofs are the only examples of their kind in Japan. Despite economic upheavals, the villages of Ogimachi, Ainokura and Suganuma are outstanding examples of a traditional way of life perfectly adapted to the environment and people's social and economic circumstances.
