JAPAN🇯🇵 My Top 5 Favorite Places in 2023 ✈️✨ Japan Travel Vlog

Hi guys! It's Miki! 2023 is almost over. So today, I'll be ranking my top 5 favorite places I've shared on YouTube in 2023. All right! Here we go! The 5th place is... Kyoto! When you hear the word Kyoto, you probably think of Kyoto city. But today, I recommended the rural areas. This is a small village in the mountains in Kyoto. The old-fashioned Japanese houses are still there and are very beautiful. There are several cafes and inns where you can have a good time. By the way, if you visit there at the end of September, you will see beautiful backward flower fields. This is Wazuka town. Look at this beautiful tea plantation! Wazuka is the production center of Uji green tea. There is nothing special to do in this town, but just walking around this town is very relaxing. This town has some unique green tea fruits, so if you are a green tea lover, you should definitely visit this town. The 4th place is... Ishigaki island! Ishigaki island is a small island in Okinawa. It has a much slower atmosphere than the main island of Okinawa. Also, it has a lot of beautiful beaches. The surrounding islands, which can be reached by boat from Ishigaki island, are also very attractive. This is Taketomi island. It's one of my favorite small islands in Japan. Taketomi island is a lovely island with many traditional Okinawa-style houses remaining. The beaches are also very beautiful and worth a visit if you want to chill and relax. There are many other unique islands around Ishigaki island. If you like adventure, you should go there. The 3rd place is... Shodoshima island! Shodoshima is one of the islands in the Seto Inland Sea. Shodoshima has very good vibes and I love it. Beautiful rice fields, beautiful mountains, beautiful beaches, and there are many good cafes. At the cafe in the rice fields, you can enjoy Shodoshima's local food and onigiri. This is a sake cafe and this is my favorite cafe. I still remember the sunset from this cafe. Also, Shodoshima has good soy sauce and you can visit a soy sauce factory. Bicycle rentals and public buses are also available for easy sightseeing. Anyway, I love Shodoshima so much that I want to stay there for a long time. The 2nd spot is... Aso area! Aso is the area around Mount Aso in Kumamoto Prefecture, located in the middle of Kyushu. Even though Mount Aso is an active volcano, but people live normally in its caldera. That's so crazy! However, the people coexist well with nature and it's a very comfortable place. And there are many beautiful natural features that can only be seen here. It makes me want to live in Mount Aso area. Also, Mount Aso is a volcano so there are many onsen. This is Kurokawa Onsen Town. It has nostalgic atmosphere and I loved it. The Aso area is large so it takes a lot of travel time, but the beautiful scenery makes the travel time enjoyable. If you visit Aso, be sure to visit Takachiho in Miyazaki Prefecture too. It's a town next to the Aso area and has beautiful valleys and mystical shrine. The 1st place is... Nagano! There are so many places to visit in Nagano. This is Togakushi Shrine. It's one of my favorite shrines. It has a great energy that words can't describe. This is Narai-juku. It's a historic town where samurai stopped by and prospered during the Edo period. Many old houses still remain and you feel like you've gone back in time to the Edo period. This is Matsumoto Castle. Matsumoto Castle's keep is one of the oldest and was built over 400 years ago. When I visited Matsumoto Castle, I didn't go inside because I wasn't interested in the castle, but now I understand how cool it is and definitely need to visit again. And Nagano has a lot of beautiful nature. There are many high altitude mountains in Nagano and those are amazing. My hometown Wakayama has many mountains too, but I was very moved when I saw mountains in Nagano for the first time. I will make more Nagano videos as there are many more places I would like to visit in Nagano. That's all for today's video. The links to the videos I mentioned today are in the description, so check them out if you are interested. Thank you so much for watching my videos and supporting me in 2023. See you in 2024! Have a happy new year!