About the data

Wayfinder Atlas lists 1,738 places in Japan, each with a photo. For every place we record the official link, how to get there, the fee and a short description. For some places we also record the months when it is at its best or closed, and how you can pay.

Where it comes from

Entries are written by hand from the place's own official website or a local tourism page, in Japanese. The link is on each page (“Official website” or “Tourism information”). We do not copy other guidebooks or review sites, and we do not scrape.

For 202 places, our data marks the official pages as covering only part of the details.

What “checked” means

“Checked on <date>” is the day we last read the official page for that place. We do not claim that every detail of every place has been checked.

Month-by-month status is recorded for 585 of 1,738 places (33.7%). For those places a month can be marked at its best, closed or partly closed, and a blank month means neither. For the other places the page says nothing about months rather than guessing.

Payment methods are confirmed for 142 places. For the rest, check on the official site.

Travel times

Door-to-door times from a main station to a place are based on official timetables and access pages for 1,731 places; some of these are partly estimated. Travel between places is estimated from distance, not from timetables.

The “Few buses” and “By bus” labels come from the official access pages; we checked the number of buses against a timetable for only some places. Look at the bus timetable before you go.

What can go wrong

Official pages change, and one person checks them by hand. Treat the date as a hint of how fresh the information is, and check the official site before a long trip. If you find something out of date, please tell us (see the About page).

Money

Some links on this site are affiliate links marked “PR”. They never change which places we list or the order we list them in.