Name: Beyond 14 Days in Japan 🇯🇵 Hidden Travel Spots Revealed
Uploaded: 2025-09-30T18:30:17.000Z
Duration: 34 min 40 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

Let's face it, most people visiting Japan do the same sort of things.

Kyoto's shrines, Osaka's food, and Tokyo's neon lights and regrets.

Adverbs of degree

And rightly so, these places are iconic, essential even, for first time travellers trying to capture the magic and madness of Japan all in one go.

Unmissable locations that we encouraged you to experience in our previous 14 days in Japan itinerary video.

But what about the big question, what comes next?

Or for lucky travellers staying longer than two weeks, where do you go to explore?

Hell, maybe you just want to go off the beaten path and do something new.

Well, we're delighted to share with you the most requested video of this year, a sequel to 14 days in Japan.

Shining a spotlight on some truly jaw-dropping locations that often go overlooked.

And so in our 21 days in Japan trip, shot on location, we'll get lost down the picture postcard streets of the Venice of Japan.

Have a soak in an underrated Ghibli-esque hot spring town.

Enjoy local dishes, both mouth-watering and bizarre.

And get swept up in the electric atmosphere of a night market.

And don't worry, this itinerary won't be retreading the same ground as our 14 days in Japan video.

21 days in Japan is your ultimate guide to making every minute of your time here count.

And honestly, there's never been a better time to visit.

Coming to Japan is the trip of a lifetime, and right now the Japanese yen is the weakest that it has been in 30 years.

So your money will genuinely go a lot further.

But what about the flights, typically the most expensive part?

Thankfully, it's never been easier to find cheap flights to Tokyo, especially thanks to the sponsor of our epic trip, Skyscanner.

Whenever I'm travelling between the UK and Japan, Skyscanner is always the first place I head to.

And clearly, I'm not the only one, given Skyscanner receives over 5,000 search requests per second, and over 1 billion every single month.

Simply whip out your phone, open the app, and thanks to their 1,200 partnerships across flights, accommodation, and even car hire, you can practically prepare your entire journey, from start to finish, all from within your pocket.

Hell, you can even set a price alert and let them do the hard part of tracking the fluctuating costs, so you'll be notified when the price falls.

You can also try multi-city search, which allows you to add extra legs to your trip.

Useful if you plan to follow a similar itinerary as our trip today.

You can grab the Skyscanner app over on iOS, Android, or desktop, linked in the description box below, or the handy QR code down here in the corner.

But a big thank you to Skyscanner for making this video pretty much all shot on location possible.

Right then, better get going, we've got a train to catch.

The vast majority of travellers coming to Japan visit the cities of Tokyo, Kyoto, and Osaka.

But not as many travellers head west beyond the Kansai region.

And so, for the first leg of our 21 days in Japan journey, we're venturing across several spectacular locations.

As we make our way out to the city of Fukuoka.

Joining us on our trip is our ever-cheeky travelling companion, Natsuki.

Who, as a resident of North Japan, is also enjoying many of these locations for the first time himself.

And to kick things off, we're heading to the gateway of West Japan, the city of Himeji.

Home to the nation's most iconic castle, which we come face-to-face with the moment we step outside of the station.

Check that out, Himeji has probably the best view of any station in Japan.

You walk out, and there it is, right down the end of the street, dominating the skyline.

People come from all around Japan to block the view with their umbrellas.

While Natsuki does, er, whatever that is, I'm going to make my way to the castle.

One of Japan's 26 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, Himeji Castle was completed in 1609.

Primarily to protect Kyoto from the western side of the country.

And incredibly, unlike most castles in Japan, which have been destroyed or rebuilt several times over,

Himeji has stood for centuries, surviving earthquakes, fires, and even wartime bombings.

In 1945, while the city itself was completely destroyed, only one firebomb landed on the building, and thankfully didn't detonate, remarkably sparing the castle.

My god, no matter how many times I look at Himeji Castle, I always think the same thing.

How on earth did humans build something that looks this damn good?

If there's one castle you see while you're in Japan, make it Himeji Castle.

There's other good ones, like Matsumoto Castle, the Black Castle, over in the central Japan Alps, and there's my favourite castle, Matsuyama, nestled on a mountain in the heart of the city.

But for sheer visual spectacle, Himeji has the wow factor to it.

Now, I've been here three times in the last ten years, and I've never actually set foot inside it.

So, today, let's go inside and take a look.

Himeji's main keep is a six-storey wooden structure, and getting to it is no easy task.

It's an absolute labyrinth down below, with gates and baileys deliberately designed to ensure attacking forces would struggle to reach the inner sanctum.

The complexity of the structure is genuinely impressive, and dare I say, bloody tiring.

It's certainly a far cry from Osaka Castle's elevator access. My God.

We're 46 metres high right now at the top of Himeji Castle.

It took 30 minutes to get in here, right?

I really like wandering the grounds of Himeji, the area around it, but the inside, it's cool.

If you've never been in a castle in Japan, it is quite a unique place to see and whatever.

But for me, Himeji is best experienced from the outside.

I think 30 minutes to get here, I wouldn't have bothered invading. I'd have given up.

I would have got, like, half way up the castle and be like, oh, screw it, you can keep the castle.

I'm not invading. You can have it. Too much effort getting up here.

The most dangerous aspect of this castle, the bloody stairs getting out of it.

As we begin to make our treacherous descent, it seems the castle's powerful defensive mechanisms are about to claim one last victim in battle.

My shorts got ripped on the castle going up the ladder.

Going up the ladder, your shorts don't fit. It doesn't end well.

It was a defence mechanism built in the 17th century to prevent soldiers from wearing their finest Uniqlo shorts.

As I mourn the loss of my favourite shorts, we grab some snacks and Natsuki's all-important beer and hop on a two-hour long train ride to our next stop, the charming hot spring town of Kinosaki, nestled in a stunning valley on the Sea of Japan coastline.

Kinosaki is the quintessential Japanese hot spring town, with no less than seven public bathhouses lining the streets, many of which are visible while strolling down the banks of the Kinosaki Canal that elegantly runs through the centre of town.

If you're lucky, you may also get to spot one of the magnificent Oriental White Storks, which actually went extinct in the wild back in 1971, but have thankfully reappeared in the region thanks to conservation efforts.

And just as the Oriental White Stork drinks from the soothing waters of Kinosaki Canal,

Natsuki and I too drink from the mineral-rich waters pumped up from beneath the ground and served at a tap in the town square, and quickly discover the taste of regret.

So, we've just arrived at Kinosaki Hot Spring, and look at this, there's a little water fountain as you come out of the station and drink the natural mineral water.

Yeah, I won't lie, it tasted like onsen water bathed in by ten salary men.

Drinking hot spring water is seldom a rewarding experience I've found over the years.

Alas, now re-energised, it's time to head into town for a stroll along the river and check the many stone arch bridges, known as Taikobashi, for their round appearance and resemblance to the taiko drum.

Yes, we've found the iconic stork that's famous here in Kinosaki.

This is really beautiful, this river here.

The town dates back about 1300 years, and we've got these willow trees lining the riverbanks, and little kind of bath houses along the side as well.

I think there's about seven, where you can come in, off the street essentially, and enjoy the bath.

We're not going to do that today, we have got a ryokan for ourselves, but if you come here and stay in the town, you can enjoy all that it has to offer.