Destinations– category –

Japan's convenience store sandwiches are cheap, good and priced differently depending on which prefecture you buy them in. We read 7-Eleven's own product pages: 115 items listed, prices from 198 to 430 yen before tax, availability set region by region, and a tax-included figure that is rounded down at the till. Plus what Lawson stocks.

Nagoya's sights sit on one loop bus, the Me~guru: 210 yen a ride, 500 yen a day, closed every Monday. Here is how the station, the castle, the Toyota museum, Sakae and the Tokugawa district fit together, with the hours and fees the city publishes.

Kagoshima City runs the Sakurajima ferry itself, and since October 1, 2025 it no longer sails around the clock: first boat 4:00, last 23:30, 250 yen, about 15 minutes. Here is how the city, the volcano, the tram and the CUTE pass fit together.

Himeji Castle's admission went from 1,000 yen to 2,500 on March 1, 2026 - and the combination ticket with Koko-en jumped from 1,050 to 2,600. Under-18s are now free. Meanwhile scaffolding stands around the main keep until July 2027, with part of Bizen-maru given over to storing materials.

Myoryuji accepts reservations by phone only, refuses proxy bookings, bars preschool children and forbids interpreting inside the building. The 21st Century Museum shuts for renovation from May 2027 to March 2028. And Kenrokuen is free before 6:45am. From the prefecture, the city and each site's own pages.

Hiroshima's tram stop moved into the station building in August 2025, platforms B and D swapped in March 2026, and the sightseeing loop bus abolished its three colored routes in July 2026 — including the Kamiyacho and Hatchobori stops. Even official city pages still describe the old system. Here is how the city actually fits together now.

Miyajima's own tourism association says it in capitals: high tide does not mean the shrine floats, and low tide does not mean you can walk to the torii. The real thresholds are 100cm and 250cm, and some days offer neither. Also: the eternal flame hall on Mount Misen burned down on May 20, 2026. From the shrine, the city and the ferry operators.

Okinawa's main island runs on a simple map: Naha and the south (monorail territory), the central American-village coast, and the wild north with the Churaumi Aquarium — two hours from Naha by car. The 2026 headline: Shuri Castle's rebuilt main hall opens November 23, and admission jumps from ¥400 to ¥1,000 that day. Zones, fares and ferries, from official pages.

Harajuku rebuilt itself while the guidebooks slept: Harakado opened in 2024 with a working sento in its basement (¥550), the Tokyu Plaza across the crossing renamed itself Omokado — Google's new store landed there this month — and the beloved wooden station is a construction site until winter 2026. Takeshita Street's real rules, the ¥2,000 littering fine, and the walk to Meiji Jingu, from official sources.

Tokyo's favorite island day trip quietly rewrote its price list in October 2025: the famous outdoor escalator now costs ¥500 (and only goes up), the Sea Candle tower is ¥800, and the Samuel Cocking Garden became free by day. Add a three-shrine goddess pilgrimage, a candle-lit cave, and hawks that steal lunches — all priced from official pages.

Thirty scenic rail minutes north of Kyoto, Kurama stacks a 770 AD mountain temple (entry ¥500 — not the ¥300 old guides quote), the cedar-root hiking path where a boy samurai allegedly trained with tengu, the water-blessed shrine village of Kibune, and a hot spring that quietly reopened. The full mountain day, priced from official pages.

Osaka's neon canal district runs on facts most guides get wrong: the Glico sign lights only until midnight, the river cruise went up to ¥2,000 in 2025, the pufferfish-lantern institution Zuboraya closed for good — and a 400-year-old temple alley hides one block south. Dotonbori by official sources: the canal's 1615 origin, the signs, the boats and where to actually eat.