Japan's Crafts & Cherry Blossoms

A city where you’ll find centuries-old culture jostling for position next to cutting-edge technology – a fabulous blend of history and modernity that has to be seen to be believed.

Hiroshima means “wide island” in Japanese. The city was established in the 16th Century on Japan’s largest island, Honshu, and grew into an important shipping center and prefecture capital, boasting a fine castle. Although it was an important city in Japan throughout the imperial period, its reputation in the greater world was burned into history when it became to target of the first atomic bombing of a civilian target in August of 1945. The United States airplane Enola Gay dropped a nuclear device nicknamed “Little Boy” on the city that morning, obliterating everything within a two-kilometer radius and directly killing 80,000 people. Approximately 70 percent of Hiroshima’s buildings were destroyed. Within a year, injury and radiation illness had killed an additional 90, 000 to 116,000 citizens. The attacks on Hiroshima and nearby Nagasaki quickly led to the surrender of Japan and effectively precipitated the end of World War II in Asia. Within a few years, Hiroshima had begun to rebuild, and the city became the focus of an international movement to eliminate nuclear weapons from future wars. Relics of its past such as the impressive Hiroshima Castle and the tranquil Shukkeien Garden were rebuilt, and the city undertook the construction of a Memorial Peace Park, which today attracts visitors from around the world. The park, which holds a museum and a memorial “Atomic Dome” constructed on the closest remaining building to the blast site, is a moving and impactful place of pilgrimage in this re-born City of Peace. One notable feature is a colorful memorial to Sadako Sasaki, a young woman whose dying wishes for world peace were recounted in the story A Thousand Paper Cranes.

Busan is the second largest city in South Korea, and the country's seaside connection to Japan and the West. Lovely urban scenery, the Pusan International Film Festival, and near-by hot springs has made Busan a popular leisure destination. Busan has the sophistication of a major city, as well as famous beaches that lure visitors from all over the world. The city is a microcosm of South Korea, a nation whose economic success often obscures, to Westerners, one of Asia's most sophisticated and venerable cultures.

Tsuruga is a port city in central Japan. By the waterfront, the early-20th-century Red Brick Warehouse has a large-scale diorama of the historic city. Nearby, Kehi Jingū Shrine has a grand red torii gate. Kehi no Matsubara is a white-sand beach backed by pine trees. To the east, Nakaikemi-shicchi Wetland is known for birdlife and dragonflies. North of the city, ferries run to Mizushima, a tiny uninhabited island.

Toyama is a coastal city on Japan’s main island, Honshu. In the center, Toyama Castle Park has a restored castle dating to the 1500s, plus small museums of history and art. The nearby Toyama Glass Art Museum displays striking contemporary works. Rakusui-tei is an art museum in a traditional home with a formal garden. On the Fugan Canal, Kansui Park has views of the distant Tateyama mountains.

Sakata is a city on the northwest coast of Japan’s Honshu Island. In the center, Sankyo Soko is a group of warehouses built in 1893. One now contains the Historical Museum of Shonai Rice. The Honma Museum of Art includes antiques displayed in a 19th-century villa. The Ken Domon Museum of Photography is dedicated to the revered social realist photographer. North of the city, trails lead to up Mount Chōkai volcano.

Explore Hokkaido, the northernmost island of Japan from the base of Hakodate or fall in love with the city itself.

Blessed by a protective range of mountains and a relatively warm ocean current, Kushiro gets less than a third of the winter snow of its Hokkaido neighbor Sapporo, and twice as much sunshine as the nearby Kuril Islands. Thus it is an important reliably ice-free port during the winter. Like all of Japan, it is riddled with semi-active geothermal features and occasionally rattled by tremors. Scenic Lake Akan is ringed by hot springs. It also has an Ainu Koten museum with a replica village and folklore performances of the indigenous Hokkaido people. The Japanese Crane Reserve is a good place to see breeding populations of these large and graceful birds, so respected by the Japanese. The city encompasses Japan’s largest wetland, and the Kushiro City Marsh Observatory has a boardwalk to see it, as well as the Fureai Horse Park which offers equestrian tours into the forest.

A city where you’ll find centuries-old culture jostling for position next to cutting-edge technology – a fabulous blend of history and modernity that has to be seen to be believed.