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Wakayama
26 places
Holidays in Japan? Plan them with us.Over 2,000 real places, a day-by-day itinerary.FreeOpen the map →- Adventure World (アドベンチャーワールド) Seventeen pandas born here since 1978: the highest number of births outside China.
- Awashima Jinja, the doll shrine (淡嶋神社) About 20,000 donated dolls fill the shrine: every 3 March some of them go out to sea.
- Burakurichō (ぶらくり丁) In 18 years daily visitors fell from 54,147 to 17,461: two numbers, one decline.
- Daimonzaka, Kumano Kodō (熊野古道・大門坂) One kilometre among 800-year-old cedars: the best-preserved stretch of the Kumano Kodō.
- Engetsu-tō (円月島) A 9-metre hole pierces the islet: at the equinoxes the setting sun passes through it.
- Hashigui-iwa (橋杭岩) About 40 rock pillars in a line for 850 metres: they look like the piers of a collapsed bridge.
- Kadochō, the oldest shōyu brewery in Yuasa (角長) It ferments in Yoshino cedar barrels, with live yeasts on the walls and ceiling since the late Edo period.
- Kamikura Jinja, the shrine of the sacred Gotobiki-iwa rock (神倉神社) 538 steps lead up to the Gotobiki-iwa: here, the myth says, the gods of Kumano came down.
- Kawayu Onsen, the public bath in the riverbed (川湯温泉) You dig into the river sand and hot water comes out, in a bath that holds up to 1,000 people.
- Kishi Station, the cat train (貴志駅・たま駅長) In 2007 a cat became stationmaster: estimated economic impact, 1.1 billion yen.
- Kishū Tōshō-gū (紀州東照宮) A procession in period costume every year since 1622: the shrine is called the ‘Nikkō of Kansai’.
- Kōyasan — Kongōbu-ji and Danjō Garan (高野山・金剛峯寺・壇上伽藍) The Banryūtei, the largest all-gravel garden in Japan: 2,340 m².
- Kōyasan — Okunoin, the mausoleum of Kōbō Daishi (高野山・奥之院) 200,000 gravestones among the cedars: food is brought to Kōbō Daishi twice a day.
- Kumano Hayatama Taisha (熊野速玉大社) The sacred nagi tree is a thousand years old: legend says it was planted by a 12th-century general.
- Kumano Hongū Taisha (熊野本宮大社) The tallest torii in Japan, 33.9 metres, where the shrine stood before 1889.
- Kumano Kodokan, the Nakahechi information centre (熊野古道館) Opposite Takijiri-oji, the entrance to the trail, it lends Heian robes free of charge for a photo.
- Kumano Nachi Taisha (熊野那智大社) The pagoda and Nachi Falls together: one of the most photographed views in Japan.
- Nachi Falls (那智の滝) 133 metres in one drop: the tallest single-drop waterfall in Japanese-administered territory.
- Porto Europa, Wakayama Marina City (和歌山マリーナシティ・ポルトヨーロッパ) An artificial island from 1994: a fake Mediterranean port, 24 attractions, a tuna market.
- Saki-no-yu, Shirahama onsen (白浜温泉・崎の湯) One of the three oldest springs in Japan: an emperor came here as early as 658.
- Sandanbeki (三段壁) The lift goes down 36 metres into a cave that sheltered the Kumano pirates, the legend says.
- Seiganto-ji, first temple of the Saigoku pilgrimage (那智山青岸渡寺) The three-storey pagoda, rebuilt in 1972 after 400 years, has a lift up: 200 yen.
- Shirarahama (白良浜) The brilliant white sand is not local: since 1989 it has come from a beach near Perth.
- The soy sauce district, Yuasa (湯浅町湯浅伝統的建造物群保存地区) Ninety-two soy sauce factories in a single town in the Edo period: today only one is still working.
- Tomogashima (友ヶ島) Forts from 1889 covered in ivy: a real-life setting of the anime Summer Time Rendering.
- Wakayama Castle (和歌山城) The eighth shōgun, Yoshimune, came from here: it was the seat of a collateral branch of the Tokugawa.