HATSUKAICHI, Hiroshima Prefecture--The famed “floating” torii gate of Itsukushimajinja shrine, a World Heritage site under repair, was revealed for the first time in about three and a half years.

The scorching August sun was itching. After breakfast, I boarded a small, round boat with a red and blue-painted roof. It was ...

It’s been three years since our reporter Mari Morimoto has been on an airplane, and more than 10 years since she’s visited the Chugoku region of Japan. So when she found herself in Hiroshima for ...

How to get there: Fly from Haneda Airport to Yamaguchi Ube Airport (more flight info here). The flight is about 1.5 hours, and it will take about another two hours to get the nearest station: the ...

Takayama Inari Shrine, or the “Fushimi Inari of the north,” is believed to have been erected by the powerful Ando clan that governed the Tsugaru region in Aomori from the Kamakura to the Muromachi ...

Japan is dotted with bold archways that stand apart from the regular landscape. Some are more elaborate than others, but the basics remain: two pillars adjoined by one or two beams. Called torii, ...

Stroll on a path beneath 123 torii gates toward picturesque sea views during a visit to Motonosumi Inari Shrine on Yamaguchi prefecture’s northern coast. The shrine — No. 3 on CNN’s list of “36 most ...