The Chūgoku region of western Japan covers five prefectures — Hiroshima, Okayama, Shimane, Tottori and Yamaguchi — plus the islands of the Seto Inland Sea and the San’in coast. Each has its own specific character; each is genuinely worth the detour from the Tokyo-Kyoto-Osaka line that most first-time visitors follow. This is the full destination index for the site.
Cities and towns
Full long-form destination guides for each of the cities and towns covered on the site. Every one of these was once an important castle town, port, or regional capital; each has preserved enough of that history to be worth a proper visit.
- Mihara — the castle town where the station sits inside the ruins of a 1567 “floating castle.” Ferry hub for the northern Setouchi islands, including the rabbit island of Okunoshima. Overlooked by most travellers on the Shinkansen route; that’s exactly why it’s worth the stop.
- Fukuyama — post-war Rose City with a rebuilt castle beside the Shinkansen platform, and the Edo-era port town of Tomonoura 30 minutes south. Studio Ghibli’s Ponyo was based on Tomonoura.
- Yamaguchi — cultural capital of the old Ōuchi clan. Home to one of Japan’s three great five-storey pagodas, an early Christian mission site, and (further out) the 123 red torii of Motonosumi Inari.
- Tottori — Japan’s least-populated prefecture, defined by the 16-km sand dunes on the Sea of Japan coast. Also the Tottori Sand Museum, the Uradome coast, and (in winter) some of the country’s best snow crab.
Theme and destination pages
For topic-based browsing — shrines, samurai towns, food, landscape, islands — the parallel index is organised under Travel by Theme. Every destination on the site appears in both indexes, cross-referenced.
The wider region
This site also covers destinations in the Chūgoku region that aren’t administratively “cities” but are major visitor destinations in their own right — island groups, temple complexes, scenic coastal stretches. See the theme index or the landscapes overview for the full picture.
A 10-day itinerary around Western Japan using this site’s pages would cover Hiroshima / Miyajima / Mihara / Kurashiki / Okayama / Izumo / Matsue / Tottori / Hagi / Yamaguchi — the classic Chūgoku loop. Three nights in each of Hiroshima and Kurashiki or Okayama, one night each in Izumo, Matsue and Hagi, and a day trip pattern for the rest.
