Hidden Temples in Tohoku: 5 Shrines Worth the Trip North
Kyoto gets all the attention when people talk about temples in Japan, and fair enough — it’s spectacular. But it’s also wall-to-wall tour groups, timed entry slots, and selfie sticks blocking your view of a thousand-year-old gate. Head north into Tohoku, though, and you’ll find some of the country’s most atmospheric, historically significant sites with a fraction of the crowd, sometimes none at all. Tohoku — the six northern prefectures of Aomori, Akita, Iwate, Miyagi, Yamagata, and Fukushima — doesn’t show up on most first-time itineraries, which is exactly why it’s worth the extra train ride. Below are five hidden temples Japan rarely puts on the cover of a guidebook, the kind of Tohoku shrines and temples where you might find yourself alone on a stone staircase, listening to nothing but wind and cedar trees. Here’s where to go and how to get there. ...