The 100 Fragrant Landscapes of Japan

1Furano lavender fieldsふらののラベンダーHokkaido

Lavender covers the slopes of Farm Tomita in Nakafurano from late June and peaks in early to mid-July; at the height of the harvest, late July to mid-August, the smell of fresh oil and lavender water drifts out of the farm's distilling hall. Its Traditional Field is the one a 1976 national railways calendar made famous, three years after perfume makers stopped buying Furano oil and most of the lavender on the Furano hills was gone.

The Furano-Biei Norokko sightseeing train, which stopped at the seasonal Lavender Farm Station beside Farm Tomita, made its last run on September 23, 2026, when JR Hokkaido retired it; plan on JR Naka-Furano Station instead.

Getting there: 25 min walk from JR Naka-Furano Station (7 min from Furano on the Furano Line), or 5 min by taxi. Best: Early to mid-July (flowering late June to late July); distilling late July to mid-August. Our Asahikawa guide

2Kitami mint and herbs北見のハッカとハーブHokkaido

Every day the Kitami Hakka Memorial Museum is open, staff run a mint still from 10 am to 3 pm, and the steam carries the cold, sharp smell of fresh mint oil through its distillery hall. Around 1939 Kitami mint made up some 70% of the world market; the museum is the restored office of the mint factory that ran here from 1934 to 1983, and Japanese and Western mints grow in the herb garden out front.

Getting there: 10 min walk from JR Kitami Station; the museum is free and closed on Mondays.

3Noboribetsu Jigokudani (Hell Valley)登別地獄谷の湯けむりHokkaido

Sulphur is the smell of Noboribetsu, and it is strongest on the path into Jigokudani, a 450 m-wide explosion crater lined with steam vents and pools that bubble and boil. This is where the town's hot water comes from, 10,000 tonnes a day of many different kinds, piped to the hotels and inns.

Getting there: 14–21 min by Donan bus from JR Noboribetsu Station to the Noboribetsu Onsen terminal, then a 12 min walk.

4Kushiro sea fog釧路の海霧（うみぎり）Hokkaido

Warm, humid summer air from the south is chilled over the cold Oyashio current and rolls into Kushiro as sea fog, cool, damp and smelling of salt; the city's weather office logs fog on 47 days between June and August in an average year, against fewer than one in Sapporo. Stand by Nusamai Bridge, near the mouth of the Kushiro River, when it comes in.

Getting there: 15 min walk (1.1 km) down Kita-Odori from JR Kushiro Station to Nusamai Bridge. Best: June to August.

5Onoe sawara hedges, Hirakawa尾上サワラの生け垣Aomori

From early summer into early autumn, the lanes of Onoe ring with hedge shears and smell of freshly clipped sawara cypress. The old town passed an ordinance to protect its hedges in 1992, and Hirakawa kept it after the 2006 merger: with the owner's consent, a hedge at least 10 m long and 1 to 2 m high can be listed as a protected hedge.

Getting there: 23–24 min by Konan Railway from Hirosaki to Tsugaru-Onoe Station. Best: Early summer to early autumn, when the hedges are clipped.

6Hase Peony Garden, Nanbu南部町長谷ぼたん園Aomori

Since 1979 the town of Nanbu has planted this slope of Mount Nakui under the slogan 'one plant per resident', starting from peony seedlings that a group of parishioners from Ekoin, next door, were given by its head temple, Hasedera in Nara. Now 8,000 tree peonies of 130 varieties flower on its 3.3 hectares in mid to late May and scent the garden, with the Hakkoda peaks on the skyline.

Getting there: Under 3 km by taxi from Sannohe Station on the Aoimori Railway; ¥500 entry in season. Best: Mid to late May (the garden was open May 13–24 in 2026).

7Jodogahama Beach, Miyako浄土ヶ浜の潮のかおりIwate

Jodogahama's inlet is sheltered by white volcanic rock topped with red pines, so the water lies still and what you smell is the tide on the pebbles. In July 1917 Miyazawa Kenji, the Iwate writer of Night on the Galactic Railroad, saw kelp drying on this beach and wrote a tanka likening it to velvet spread on the shore; the poem is carved on a stone by the rest house.

Getting there: 20 min by Iwate Kenpoku bus from stop 3 outside JR Miyako Station to the Jodogahama rest house.

8Nanbu senbei crackers, Morioka盛岡の南部煎べいIwate

The smell of toasting sesame reaches the street at Shirasawa Senbei, a corner shop in Morioka's old Konyacho quarter where one family has made Nanbu senbei since 1936, kneading and rolling the wheat dough by hand and baking each sesame or peanut cracker in a two-piece mould. A few doors along, Konyacho's 1913 fire brigade house reopened in 2022 as a café with a weaving workshop upstairs.

Getting there: 26 min walk (1.9 km) from JR Morioka Station, or 5 min on foot from Morioka Bus Center. Our Morioka guide

9Ichihasama lily garden, Kurihara南くりこま一迫のゆりMiyagi

Red, yellow, white and pink lilies cover a gentle hillside here from late June, and their smell is sweet and heavy. The volunteers who revived the garden in 2025 planted three times as many for 2026, almost to the top of the hill.

The garden held a lily festival every summer from 1991 until its ageing members and the pandemic closed it in 2020; a volunteer group reopened it in 2025. Entry is free (donations welcome) and the dates are set each year, so check the Ichihasama tourism association's page before going.

Getting there: Realistically a car trip: 13 km west of Kurikoma-Kogen Station on the Tohoku Shinkansen. Best: Late June to mid-July (June 20 to July 12 in 2026).

10Kinkasan Island forest and deer金華山の原生林と鹿Miyagi

On Kinkasan, a wooded island off the tip of the Oshika Peninsula, you smell deer, grass, beech and fir forest, and the sea on every side. The deer are Koganeyama Shrine's sacred messengers and wander freely, and on the first Sunday of October (October 4 in 2026) the shrine cuts the antlers of the stags around its grounds so they cannot hurt visitors.

Getting there: 40 min by Ushio Planning boat from Onagawa port, 10 min on foot from JR Onagawa Station: Sundays year-round (11:00 out, 13:30 back, ¥5,000 return), plus some Saturdays and holidays. The shrine's car from the pier is out of service, so you walk up.

11Kaze no Matsubara pine forest, Noshiro風の松原Akita

Walk the wood-chip paths through this black-pine forest and you get pine needles, damp earth and, when the wind is off the Sea of Japan, salt. Planting began in 1711, yet blown sand still buried three districts of central Noshiro in 1724; today the forest runs 14 km along the coast and 1 km deep, 7 million trees in all.

Getting there: 22 min walk (1.6 km) west from JR Noshiro Station.

12Kosaka acacias on Meiji Hyakunen-dori小坂町明治百年通りのアカシアAkita

In June the black locusts along Meiji Hyakunen-dori, Kosaka's street of Meiji-era mining buildings, hang out white flowers and the whole town smells sweet. The first were planted in 1909, after smoke from the mine's smelter had stripped the hills of green, and the acacia honey sold in town comes from the same trees.

Getting there: 51 min by Shuhoku bus from JR Odate Station to Korakukan-mae, on Meiji Hyakunen-dori. Best: June (the Acacia Festival was June 6–7 in 2026).

13Ogata rape blossom road大潟菜の花ロードAkita

Ogata village stands on the bed of Hachirogata, once Japan's second-largest lake, drained over 20 years until 1977. For 11 km a prefectural road across it runs between rape flowers and 4,000 cherry trees, with black pines behind, and from mid-April into early May you can drive its whole length in the smell of rape blossom.

Getting there: 20 min by car from JR Hachirogata Station (Ou Line); the Nanshu My Town Bus also runs from the station. Best: Mid-April to early May.

14Minamidani, Mount Haguro羽黒山南谷の蘚苔と杉並木Yamagata

Cedar and damp moss are what you smell at Minamidani, a few foundation stones and a heart-shaped pond 400 m along a side path from the foot of the Third Slope on Mount Haguro's stone stairway. Basho stayed six days at the temple that stood here in 1689 and wrote 'Arigata ya / yuki wo kaorasu / Minamidani', the south valley made fragrant by snow; the pond, dry for 320 years, has held water again since 2000.

Getting there: 53 min by Shonai Kotsu bus from JR Tsuruoka Station to the Haguro-sancho terminus, then 20 min on foot. Our Yamagata guide

15Oishida soba大石田町そばの里Yamagata

Oishida's soba road is a dozen hand-cut noodle shops, and what you smell at their doors is buckwheat milled, rolled and boiled fresh, much of it Raigoji-zairai, a local strain that took root here some 130 years ago. The shops began in farmhouses whose women were known for their soba and hung a noren at the door, and women are still the mainstay of the trade.

Getting there: The Yamagata Shinkansen stops at JR Oishida Station; Keiokaikan, the hall where the new-soba festival is held, is an 8 min walk. Best: Late October to November for new-season soba (festival October 31 to November 1 in 2026).

16Higashizawa Rose Park, Murayama東沢バラ公園Yamagata

Murayama planted its first roses here in 1956, and today more than 20,000 roses of 750 varieties grow on 7 hectares beside three lakes, among them the city's own 'Murayama' rose and 'Maia', a new variety it named in 2022. At full bloom the park smells sweet, and one section, the fragrance area, is planted to show off seven different types of rose scent.

Getting there: 30 min walk (2.3 km) from JR Murayama Station on the Yamagata Shinkansen, or 2 km by taxi; the park closes from November to March. Best: June and September, the rose festival months (May 29–July 5 and September 11–27 in 2026).

17Sukagawa Peony Garden bonfire須賀川牡丹園の牡丹焚火Fukushima

On the third Saturday of November, as dusk falls, the garden burns peony trees that have died of old age: a memorial fire with a blue-violet flame and a faint scent. The garden's third owner, Yaginuma Gentaro, began it quietly in the Taisho era; haiku poets have used botan takibi as a winter word since 1978, and Yoshikawa Eiji, a visitor here, has Musashi warm himself at a peony-wood fire in his novel.

Getting there: 12 min by Fukushima Kotsu bus from JR Sukagawa Station to Botan-en, three to six a day; on Saturdays the last bus back leaves at 17:51 (timetable from October 1, 2026). Best: Third Saturday of November (November 21 in 2026; the fire was lit at 4:30 pm in 2025); the peonies flower late April to early May.

18Takashiba Deko Yashiki, Koriyama郡山の高柴デコ屋敷Fukushima

Four households in this hamlet still make papier-mâché dolls, masks and daruma by pressing wet washi over wooden moulds, and around the workshops you smell nikawa, the animal-hide glue that closes the seams and, mixed with powdered shell, makes the white base coat. The carved moulds each house keeps are a prefectural cultural property.

Getting there: 10 min by taxi from JR Miharu Station (Ban'etsu East Line), or 25 min by car from Koriyama Station.

19Kairakuen plum grove, Mito偕楽園の梅林Ibaraki

Tokugawa Nariaki laid Kairakuen out in 1842 for his people to enjoy with him, and its 3,000 plum trees, of about 100 varieties, open one after another from January into late March, so the smell of plum blossom lasts for weeks. Six of the varieties, the Six Famous Trees of Mito, are prized for flower, scent and colour; one, Rekkobai, is named after Nariaki himself.

Getting there: 35 min walk (2.6 km) from the north exit of JR Mito Station to the east gate. Best: Mid-February to late March (the Mito Plum Festival ran February 11–March 22 in 2026). Our Mito guide

20Ryuzoji wisteria and Imaichi incense, Nikko今市竜蔵寺の藤と線香Tochigi

Ryuzoji's Rokushaku Fuji, the 'six-foot wisteria', is more than 100 years old and a city natural monument; it starts flowering in late April and is at its best in early May, when its scent mixes with incense smoke in the temple yard. The incense is local too: Imaichi is known for sugi senko, sticks of powdered cedar leaf that smell of the cedar they come from.

Getting there: JR Nikko Line to Shimotsuke-Osawa Station, then 10 min by city bus to Osawa Kosaten and a 10 min walk. Best: Late April to early May.

21Kirifuri Highlands day lilies, Nikko日光霧降高原のニッコウキスゲTochigi

Nikko kisuge, a deep-yellow day lily named after Nikko, where it grew wild in great numbers, covers the Kisugedaira slope from mid-June into July. That is also when Kirifuri ('falling fog') most often lives up to its name, and on foggy days the slope smells of wet grass and lilies. The chairlifts that once carried visitors up were all retired in 2010; a stairway of 1,445 steps now climbs 240 m through the flowers to the Komaruyama lookout.

Getting there: 30 min by Tobu bus from JR Nikko Station (27 min from Tobu-Nikko) to Kirifuri Kogen, April to November only: five a day, ¥850, last bus back 15:45. Best: Mid-June to mid-July (in 2026 the lilies were in full bloom on July 6 and over by July 20). Our Nikko guide

22Yahata azaleas, Nasu那須八幡のツツジTochigi

At Yahata, on the Nasu highlands, 200,000 wild azaleas, yama-tsutsuji and renge-tsutsuji, cover 23 hectares of hillside, and when they flower, from mid-May, the slope turns red and boardwalks take you in close enough to smell them. You cross into the park on the Tsutsuji Tsuribashi, a suspension bridge 130 m long and 38 m above the valley.

Getting there: 56 min by Kanto Jidosha bus from the west exit of JR Nasushiobara Station (buses bound for the Nasu Ropeway) to Tsutsuji Tsuribashi Iriguchi, then across the bridge. Best: Mid-May to mid-June, best in the second half of May.

23Yubatake, Kusatsu Onsen草津温泉「湯畑」の湯けむりGunma

Kusatsu's Yubatake, the 'hot-water field' in the middle of town, sends 4,000 litres of spring water a minute steaming down its wooden troughs, and the hydrogen sulphide coming off them is the rotten-egg smell that follows you all over Kusatsu. It became a national Place of Scenic Beauty in 2017; come at dusk, when it is lit.

Getting there: 22–28 min by JR bus from Naganohara-Kusatsuguchi Station to the Kusatsu Onsen bus terminal, then a 5 min walk (340 m).

24Kashiya Yokocho candy lane, Kawagoe川越の菓子屋横丁Saitama

Sweets have been made in Kashiya Yokocho, a crooked, stone-paved lane, since early Meiji, and after the 1923 earthquake hit Tokyo the lane took over making the capital's cheap dagashi. Its 30-odd shops smell of scorched soy sauce, of cinnamon and mint candy and grilled dango, and the chips of coloured glass set into the paving are meant to look like candy.

Getting there: 17 min walk (1.3 km) from Hon-Kawagoe Station (Seibu Shinjuku Line), or 30 min from JR and Tobu Kawagoe Station. Our Saitama guide

25Soka senbei rice crackers草加せんべい醤油のかおりSaitama

Soka, once a post town on the Nikko Kaido, had 39 senbei shops at the city's last count in 2025, and outside them you smell soy sauce brushed onto rice crackers hot from the grill. At Shimeya, baking since 1901, you can bake your own for ¥100, holding it flat under a clay press as it puffs up. The tale of Osen, the teahouse woman credited with inventing senbei, is one the city itself says was made up in the Showa era.

Getting there: 14 min walk (1 km) from Soka Station (Tobu Skytree Line) to Shimeya on the old Nikko Kaido; Shimeya is closed on Fridays.

26Tanjoji incense and the Kominato shore, Kamogawa天津小湊町誕生寺の線香と磯風Chiba

Two smells meet in Kominato: incense from the burners at Tanjoji, the temple that marks Nichiren's birth here in 1222, and salt and seaweed off the rocky shore in front of it. In nearby Tai-no-ura cove, wild red sea bream, revered locally as Nichiren's incarnation, have been a protected natural monument since 1922, and nobody fishes them.

Getting there: 3 min by Nitto Kotsu bus (Kamogawa city line) from JR Awa-Kominato Station (Sotobo Line) to Tanjoji-iriguchi, then a 9 min walk; the grounds are open 6:00–16:00.

27Fuma no Okusu, Katori山田町府馬の大クスChiba

Fuma's 'great camphor' is not a camphor at all: the national register, which protected it in 1926, still calls it Cinnamomum camphora, but the tree is a tabunoki, a cousin in the same laurel family. Its branches roof over the whole yard of Uga Shrine, which stays dim at midday and smells of the tree, and a branch that drooped to the ground in the Genroku era (1688–1704) took root and now stands as a tree of its own.

Getting there: 13 min by Keisei Bus (Fuma line, weekdays only, four a day) from JR Omigawa Station (Narita Line) to Kobouchi, then a 10 min walk; otherwise a 7 km taxi ride.

28Kanda Jimbocho secondhand book district神田古書店街Tokyo

Around 120 secondhand bookshops, many with a speciality of their own, line Yasukuni-dori and the lanes behind it, and the whole district smells of old paper. For ten days each autumn the Kanda Furuhon Matsuri sets more than 100 carts of books along the pavement, a 500 m corridor of them; in 2026 it runs from October 23 to November 1.

Getting there: 1 min walk from exit A6 of Jimbocho Station (Toei Mita and Shinjuku lines, Tokyo Metro Hanzomon Line), or 10 min from JR Ochanomizu. Our Tokyo guide

29Shinkiba timber ponds, Tokyo江東区新木場の貯木場Tokyo

Shinkiba is Tokyo's timber town, and walking between its lumber yards and warehouses you smell sawn wood. The timber merchants of old Kiba moved out to this reclaimed land from 1973, 635 firms by 1981, and it was laid out around ponds where imported logs were floated; the ponds are still there.

No logs float here now: Tokyo's port bureau says raw-log handling peaked in 1973 and ended once timber began arriving in containers. The wood smell comes from the lumber yards around the ponds (checked September 2026).

Getting there: 7 min walk from Shin-Kiba Station (JR Keiyo, Rinkai and Tokyo Metro Yurakucho lines) to the Wood and Plywood Museum, open weekdays 10:00–16:30. Our Tokyo guide

30Owakudani, Hakone箱根大涌谷硫黄のかおりKanagawa

Step off the Hakone Ropeway at Owakudani and the first thing you notice is the bad-egg smell of hydrogen sulphide, carried up in white steam from vents across the slope. Until 1873, when it was renamed ahead of a visit by the Emperor Meiji, the valley was called Ojigoku, Great Hell. Eggs boiled for an hour in its hot pools come out with black shells, and the Kurotamago-kan beside the station sells them four for ¥500.

The 700 m nature trail into the vent field is open only on guided walks of about 40 min: four a day, 30 people each, booked online in advance, ¥800 a head paid on the day, helmets provided, and cancelled when gas levels are high or in rain, strong wind or fog. The station area and viewpoints need no booking (checked September 2026).

Getting there: 10 min by Hakone Ropeway from Sounzan, at the top of the Hakone Tozan Cable Car from Gora. Visitor guide · Our Hakone guide

31Kugenuma osmanthus, Fujisawa鵠沼、金木犀の住宅街Kanagawa

The quiet residential lanes around Hon-Kugenuma Station smell of kinmokusei in autumn, when the small orange flowers of sweet osmanthus open in the gardens and the scent comes over the hedges. Kugenuma grew into a villa district once the Enoden (1902) and then the Odakyu line (1929) reached it, and Tokutomi Roka, Akutagawa Ryunosuke and the painter Kishida Ryusei all put it into their work.

Getting there: 2 min by Odakyu Enoshima Line from Fujisawa to Hon-Kugenuma Station; the osmanthus gardens are in the lanes around it. Best: Late September to mid-October; the bloom moves with the weather (Kanagawa peaked in late September in 2026, in mid-October in 2025).

32Fukushimagata lagoon, Niigata福島潟の草いきれNiigata

Kusaikire is the Japanese word for the hot smell that rises from grass in summer sun, and at Fukushimagata it comes off the reed beds and water plants of a 262-hectare lagoon, the largest in Niigata City. More taiga bean geese winter here than anywhere else in Japan, and no wild prickly water lilies grow further north in the country; the seven-storey View Fukushimagata looks out over all of it.

Getting there: 19 min on the JR Hakushin Line from Niigata to Toyosaka, then 5 min by taxi or a 40 min walk to View Fukushimagata. Best: Late spring to early autumn, strongest on hot summer days. Our Niigata guide

33Tonami tulips砺波平野のチューリップToyama

Tonami has held a tulip fair since 1952, and for its two weeks 3.5 million tulips of 300 varieties flower in Tonami Tulip Park. Walk the paths between the beds to smell them, then climb the Tulip Tower or cross the skywalk to see the picture the great flowerbed makes from above.

Getting there: 15 min walk (1.1 km) from JR Tonami Station (Johana Line); free shuttle buses run from the station during the fair, when entry is ¥2,000. Best: Late April to early May (the 2027 fair runs April 22 to May 5).

34Kurobe Gorge forest黒部峡谷の原生林Toyama

Beech, oak and maple forest clings to the walls of Kurobe Gorge, and from the open carriages of the Kurobe Gorge Railway the smell of it comes straight in as the little train winds up the valley. The line was laid from 1923 to haul materials for hydroelectric plants, and before it was licensed to carry passengers in 1953, the permits given to riders stated that their safety was not guaranteed in any way.

Rockfall in the January 2024 Noto Peninsula earthquake damaged the line at Kanetsuri, so from 2024 until September 30, 2026 trains ran only from Unazuki to Nekomata. The full line runs again from October 1, 2026, but while repairs continue you can go no further at Keyakidaira than the station and visitor centre, and seats to Keyakidaira are limited and booked by phone only (checked September 2026).

Getting there: 76–82 min by the Kurobe Gorge Railway from Unazuki, a 5 min walk from Toyama Chiho Railway's Unazuki-Onsen Station, to Keyakidaira (full line from October 1, 2026). Best: Late April to November, while the railway runs (April 20 to November 30 in 2026).

35Toyama kampo medicine富山の和漢薬のかおりToyama

Toyama built an industry on medicine: its peddlers carried boxes of remedies to households all over Japan, left them, and on the next visit were paid only for what had been used. Step into Ikedaya Yasubei Shoten, a white-walled kampo pharmacy in one of the oldest wooden buildings in the city centre, and you smell dried roots and bark; the staff will let you roll pills by hand, free.

Getting there: Toyama city tram (bound for Minami-Toyama) from Toyama Station to Nishicho, then a 2 min walk to Ikedaya Yasubei Shoten. Our Toyama guide

37Heisenji Hakusan Shrine, Katsuyama白山神社境内菩提林の杉と蘚苔Fukui

Moss carpets the ground on either side of the stone path to Heisenji Hakusan Shrine, under old cedars, and the smell is damp earth, moss and cedar. Founded in 717 as a base for the worship of Mount Hakusan, Heisenji grew into a medieval temple town known as the place of '6,000 lodgings' before Ikko-ikki forces burned it in 1574; excavations have since uncovered its stone-paved streets.

Getting there: 13 min by the Dainagon city tour bus from Katsuyama Station (Echizen Railway) to Heisenji Jinja-mae; the bus does not run from December to mid-March. Best: Spring to autumn.

38Katsunuma and Ichinomiya vineyards勝沼・一宮のぶどう畑とワインYamanashi

Vines cover the slopes of Katsunuma and neighbouring Ichinomiya, and in harvest season the wineries smell of crushed grapes and wine barrels. At Budo no Oka, ¥2,200 buys you the run of the wine cellar from 9:00 to 17:30, with more than 100 wines from Koshu city's wineries to taste as you please.

Getting there: 15–20 min walk from JR Katsunuma-budokyo Station (Chuo Line) to Budo no Oka, which you can see from the station exit. Best: Autumn harvest (the Katsunuma Grape Festival is on October 3 in 2026); the wine is there all year. Our Kofu guide

39Akasawa Kiso hinoki forest, Agematsu赤沢自然休養林の木曽ヒノキNagano

Kiso hinoki cypresses more than 300 years old stand shoulder to shoulder at Akasawa, and the smell under them is the one you know from a hinoki bath. It is not primeval forest: the Owari domain began guarding it in the mid-1600s, it was later a timber reserve for Ise Shrine, and in 1982 it hosted Japan's first shinrin-yoku, the forest-bathing walk the Forestry Agency had just proposed.

Getting there: 30 min by the Akasawa bus from JR Agematsu Station, or 45 min from Kiso-Fukushima; there is no bus on some Wednesdays. Best: Late April to early November, while the forest is open (April 25 to November 8 in 2026).

40Daimyocho-dori lindens, Matsumoto松本大名町通りのシナノキNagano

From mid to late June the lindens planted along Daimyocho-dori in 1973, on the 300 m street from the Metoba River to Matsumoto Castle, open pale yellow flowers with a strong, sweet smell. The tree is the shinanoki, and local tradition traces Shinano, the old name of Nagano, to it.

Matsumoto began rebuilding Daimyocho-dori in May 2026 and is replacing its lindens section by section: the southern 87 m, from Chitose-bashi to the City Museum, is under works until March 2027, the middle section follows from April 2027 and the castle end from April 2028 (checked September 2026).

Getting there: 9 min walk (700 m) from JR Matsumoto Station to Chitose-bashi, the south end of the street. Best: Mid to late June. Our Matsumoto guide

41Ringo Namiki apple avenue, Iida飯田りんご並木Nagano

Twenty-six apple trees grow down the middle of a firebreak avenue in central Iida, and the street smells of their blossom in April and of ripening fruit from October. Pupils of Iida Higashi Junior High School planted the first trees in November 1953, six years after a fire had burned most of the town centre, and the school's students still thin, prune and harvest them, picking the Fuji last, in November.

Getting there: 10 min walk (730 m) from JR Iida Station (Iida Line) to the middle of the avenue. Best: April for the blossom; October and November for the apples.

42Kirigamine Highlands霧ヶ峰の高原と風Nagano

The wind that crosses Kirigamine smells of grass and flowers, and the grass is there because people cut it: from the Edo period this rolling plateau, all of it above 1,500 m, was mown for fodder and field fertiliser. Renge azaleas turn it deep red in mid-June and orange Nikko kisuge lilies open in July, the lilies now mostly behind deer fences at Kurumayama-kata and Fujimidai.

Getting there: 36 min by Alpico bus from the Suwako exit of JR Kami-Suwa Station to Kirigamine Interchange (¥1,700); in 2026 it runs at weekends and on holidays from May 2 to October 25, and daily August 1–30. Best: Mid-June (renge azaleas) and July (Nikko kisuge, usually best in mid-July).

43Kashimo hinoki and sasayuri lilies, Nakatsugawa加子母村の檜とササユリGifu

Kashimo is 94 per cent forest, and the air smells of hinoki: the cypress grown in these hills is sold as Tono hinoki, and the national forest here has supplied timber for rebuilding Ise Shrine every 20 years and, when Himeji Castle's keep was taken apart for repair, one of its central pillars. In June the wild sasayuri, white and pink lilies that were the old village's flower, open in the woods and smell sweet.

Getting there: 1 hr by Kita-Ena Kotsu bus (Tsukechikyo line) from outside JR Nakatsugawa Station to Kashimo Sogo Jimusho-mae; nine buses a day run the full route on weekdays, eight at weekends. Best: June, for the sasayuri.

44Takayama morning markets and old town飛騨高山の朝市と古い町並Gifu

Takayama's two morning markets set up every day of the year, one along the east bank of the Miyagawa between Kaji-bashi and Yayoi-bashi, the other on the square in front of Takayama Jinya, and what you smell is pickles, mountain vegetables, cut flowers and, in autumn, apples. Both trace their roots to a mulberry-leaf market for silk farmers around 1820; the Jinya is a listed historic site, so the stalls in front of it sell nothing cooked on the spot.

Getting there: 10 min walk from JR Takayama Station to either market; they are 500 m apart. Miyagawa: 7:00–12:00 (8:00–12:00, December to March); Jinya-mae: 6:00–12:00 (7:00–12:00, January to March). Our Takayama guide

45Tanekura terraces, Hida種蔵棚田の雨上がりの石積Gifu

After a summer thunderstorm the stone walls of Tanekura's rice terraces, baked all day by the sun, give off steam, and the smell is of hot wet stone. Plank-built itakura storehouses stand among the paddies, and Hida city signs up volunteer 'villagers' from all over Japan to help with the mowing and the walls; on November 14–15, 2026, volunteers are due to rebuild a stretch that wild boar brought down.

Getting there: Realistically a car trip: 15 min by car from JR Sakakami Station (Takayama Line), or 40 min from Hida-Furukawa. Best: Summer, after an afternoon shower.

46Toyoda Kaori Park and Museum of Fragrance, Iwata豊田香りの公園Shizuoka

Iwata's Museum of Fragrance, opened in 1997, is about smell itself: incense-ceremony tools and perfume bottles in the galleries, and on the free ground floor a corner where you can blend a perfume of your own (20 minutes, from ¥2,200). The one-hectare park beside it is planted for scent, with lavender for early summer, herbs, and for autumn kinmokusei, the osmanthus that was Toyoda's town tree before the town merged into Iwata.

Getting there: 5 min walk (350 m) from the north exit of JR Toyodacho Station, 8 min by Tokaido Line from Hamamatsu; the museum is open 9:30–17:30, closed Mondays, ¥310. Best: Early summer (lavender) and autumn (osmanthus).

47Makinohara and Kawane tea country牧之原・川根路のお茶Shizuoka

Tea growing on the Makinohara plateau began in 1869, when samurai who had guarded the last shogun, led by Chujo Kageaki, gave up their swords to clear it. From mid-April, when the new tea comes in, its factories smell of steaming leaves, steamed longer here than elsewhere because the local style is fukamushi, deep-steamed sencha; upriver in the Oi valley, Kawane grows its tea in the morning mist and mostly steams it the ordinary, shorter way.

Getting there: 1.3 km uphill on foot from JR Kanaya Station (Tokaido Line) to Makinohara Park, with the prefecture's tea museum beside it (9:00–17:00, closed Tuesdays, ¥500). Best: Spring to early summer; the first new tea is ready from mid-April.

48Matsuzaki salted cherry leaves松崎町桜葉の塩漬けShizuoka

Seven in ten of the salted cherry leaves wrapped round Japan's sakura mochi come from Matsuzaki, where Oshima cherries grow in fields and are cut back every winter so that they never flower. The leaves are picked by hand from May to August, tied in bundles of 50 and salted the same day, and after five or six months in salt they turn the colour of tortoiseshell and smell of coumarin, the scent of sakura mochi; three sweet shops in town sell the mochi all year.

Getting there: 50 min by Tokai bus from Izukyu-Shimoda Station to Matsuzaki. Best: May to August, while the leaves are picked and salted.

49Hamamatsu eel浜松のうなぎShizuoka

Lake Hamana became Japan's first large-scale eel-farming area after eels were successfully reared at Maisaka, on its shore, in 1900. Hamamatsu's eel restaurants smell of kabayaki, eel glazed with tare and grilled, and halfway between Tokyo and Osaka the city serves it both ways: split down the back and steamed between grillings, as in Kanto, or split along the belly and never steamed, as in Kansai.

Getting there: JR Hamamatsu Station, on the Tokaido Shinkansen.

50Handa vinegar and sake storehouses半田の酢と酒、蔵の町Aichi

Walk the Handa canal past storehouses blackened with tar against the salt wind and you catch a faint, sour smell of vinegar, brewed here since 1804, when the sake brewer Nakano Matazaemon found a way to make it from sake lees and founded what is now Mizkan. The company's museum on the canal shows its present-day brewing, and the Kunizakari sake museum nearby covers the sake.

Getting there: 3 min walk from JR Handa Station (Taketoyo Line), or 13 min from Meitetsu Chita-Handa. Mizkan Museum: 9:30–17:00, closed Thursdays, ¥500, booking advised; the Kunizakari museum is free, by reservation.

51Salted wakame at Wagu, Toshijima答志島和具浦漁港の塩ワカメづくりMie

The quay at Wagu, on Toshijima in Ise Bay, steams from February into April as the island's wakame farmers strip the roots and stems from the morning's harvest, blanch the fronds in near-boiling seawater and pack them in salt, and the whole port smells gently of the sea. Toshijima grows more farmed wakame than anywhere else in Mie.

Getting there: 10 min walk from Toba Station to the Sadahama pier (Toba Marine Terminal), then 15–19 min by Toba city ferry to Wagu, ¥550; nine sailings a day on the timetable in force since April 2026. Best: February to April.

52Odaigahara beech forest and Osugidani gorge大台ヶ原のブナの原生林Mie

Natural forest of beech, fir and spruce still stands in large tracts on Odaigahara, the plateau where the Miyagawa rises, though trees blown down in the 1959 Ise Bay typhoon, too many deer and too many visitors thinned it, and the Ministry of the Environment has been restoring it since 1986. On the Mie side the river drops through the Osugidani gorge past seven waterfalls, and the trail smells of wet bark, moss and spray.

Getting there: From Mie, the Osugidani trail climbs 16 km from the trailhead at the Miyagawa No. 3 power station to Odaigahara, with a night in a mountain hut on the way. As a day walk, Senpiro Falls, the highest of the seven, and back is 6.6 km, 4–5 hours. The plateau top can also be reached by road from the Nara side. Best: Spring to autumn (the Osugidani trail opened for 2026 on April 20).

53Ise Grand Shrine approach and Oharai-machi伊勢神宮参道千年の杜Mie

Beyond the 101.8 m Uji Bridge, whose deck and rails are hinoki, the approach to Ise's Inner Shrine is a gravel path under the shrine's own cedars, cypresses and native trees, and it smells of the forest. Oharai-machi, the stone-paved street of gable-fronted shops that runs 800 m along the river from the bridge, smells of what it sells: tea, sweets, and the dark tamari sauce of Ise udon.

Getting there: 12–20 min by Mie Kotsu bus (route 55 or 51) from stop 10 outside Iseshi Station to Naiku-mae, which the CAN Bus loop also serves. Visitor guide

54Enryakuji cedars and incense, Mount Hiei比叡山延暦寺の杉と香Shiga

Giant cedars shade Enryakuji's halls on Mount Hiei, and between them you smell cedar and the incense burning at the altars; the temple treats its 1,700 hectares of forest as the robe of its founder, Saicho, who built his first hall here in 788. Down in Sakamoto, the town at the mountain's foot where Saicho was born, incense also comes from the retired priests' lodgings behind their walls of piled natural stone.

Konpon Chudo, the main hall, has been under restoration since 2016, and its interior is closed to visitors from January 6, 2026 until about January 2028. Meanwhile its Fumetsu no Hoto lamp and the stand-in for its hidden Yakushi Buddha are shown up close in the Manpaido hall, and the viewing deck over the works is due to stay open until the end of 2026 (checked September 2026).

Getting there: 11 min by the Sakamoto Cable (2,025 m, Japan's longest) from Cable Sakamoto, a 900 m walk uphill from Keihan Sakamoto-hieizanguchi Station; Konpon Chudo is 825 m on foot from the top station. The Todo halls open 9:00–16:00, and ¥1,000 covers all three areas. Our Otsu guide

55Shigaraki climbing kilns古窯信楽の登り窯Shiga

Shigaraki has made pottery since the middle of the Kamakura period, and at Soutouen the old way of firing survives: the workshop's huge 12-chamber climbing kiln is stoked with red-pine wood for seven days and nights, and its smoke drifts over the surrounding lanes. Lately it has been lit in February and again in late summer, most recently in September 2026; between firings you can walk round the kiln any day the workshop is open.

Getting there: 24 min by Shigaraki Kohgen Railway from JR Kibukawa to Shigaraki (¥470), then a 24 min walk (1.8 km) to Soutouen, open 8:30–17:30.

56Oshiroi and bintsuke oil in Gion祇園界隈のおしろいとびん付け油のかおりKyoto

Before a maiko puts on her white oshiroi paste, bintsuke oil is warmed until soft and spread thin over her face, neck, nape and back, and that make-up is what you may catch at close range as she passes, most likely on Hanamikoji or around Shinbashi a little before 6 pm, when evening engagements begin. South of Shijo-dori, twelve private lanes now carry signs banning entry and photography, so keep to the streets.

Getting there: 4 min walk (300 m) east along Shijo-dori from Keihan Gion-Shijo Station to the Hanamikoji junction. Our Kyoto guide

57Byodoin approach tea shops, Uji宇治平等院表参道茶のかおりKyoto

Tea merchants line the 160 m approach to Byodoin, some in business since the Muromachi period, and tea roasting in the shops gives the street a toasty smell all year. On the first Sunday of October (October 4 in 2026) the Uji Tea Festival opens at 9 am on Uji Bridge, where water for the tea is drawn from the river as it was for Hideyoshi's tea gatherings.

Getting there: 10 min walk from JR Uji Station, or cross Uji Bridge from Keihan Uji Station. Our Kyoto guide

58Fushimi sake breweries伏見の酒蔵Kyoto

Sake brewing peaks in the coldest weeks of winter, and then the air around Gekkeikan's Uchigura brewery, where a toji of the Tajima school still works by the old methods, smells of steamed rice and fermenting mash. White-walled sake storehouses line the Horikawa canal close by, once the outer moat of Fushimi Castle.

Getting there: 5 min walk from Keihan Chushojima Station to the Gekkeikan Okura Sake Museum (9:30–16:30, ¥600 with a tasting of three sakes, cashless only). Best: Midwinter, at the height of the brewing season. Our Kyoto guide

59Altar-goods shops of the Honganji temples, Kyoto東西両本願寺仏具店界隈Kyoto

Incense from the altar-goods trade hangs over the few blocks between the Shin Buddhist head temples of Nishi Honganji and Higashi Honganji, where a dozen members of Kyoto's altar-goods cooperative keep shops and two of the blocks are called Juzuya-cho, 'rosary-shop quarter', and Butsuguya-cho, 'altar-goods quarter'. Facing Nishi Honganji, Kungyokudo has traded on the same spot since 1594 and still supplies incense to temples and homes.

Getting there: 13 min walk (950 m) north from JR Kyoto Station to the shops around Shomen-dori; Kungyokudo is on Horikawa-dori, opposite Nishi Honganji. Our Kyoto guide

60Hozenji incense, Osaka法善寺の線香Osaka

Turn into Hozenji Yokocho from the Sennichimae arcade and the incense reaches you before the temple does: at the end of the flagstone lane stands Mizukake Fudo, splashed so often with ladles of water by people making wishes that it is covered in green moss. When a fire in 2002 meant the building code would force the lane wider, 300,000 people signed to keep it as it was, and a special exemption left it at its old 2.7 m.

Getting there: 5 min walk (400 m) from Namba Station (Osaka Metro Midosuji Line). Our Osaka guide

61Tsuruhashi market, Osaka鶴橋駅周辺のにぎわいOsaka

The smell of yakiniku reaches you the moment you step off the train at Tsuruhashi, from the grill restaurants packed around the station, and deeper into the lanes it mixes with the tang of kimchi. About 800 shops fill the maze, Korean grocers, fishmongers and chima jeogori sellers among them; it began as a black market in the autumn of 1945, when the air raids had left the railway lines through this junction largely intact.

Getting there: The market lanes start right outside Tsuruhashi Station (JR Osaka Loop Line, Kintetsu, Osaka Metro Sennichimae Line); from the JR platforms, the market's sign is in front of the west exit and just east of the central exit. Our Osaka guide

62Hiraoka Shrine forest and plum grove, Higashiosaka枚岡神社の社叢Osaka

Hiraoka Shrine keeps its own thick wood on the lower slopes of Mount Ikoma, and from the steps that start beside the station you climb into the smell of old trees. Its plum grove, which the shrine calls the oldest in Osaka, was felled to the last tree after plum pox virus was found in 2015; the 200 young trees of 15 varieties planted in 2021 flower one after another from January, and among them you catch a faint scent of plum.

Getting there: 22 min by Kintetsu Nara Line local train from Tsuruhashi, or 24 min from Osaka-Namba by section semi-express, to Hiraoka Station, where the shrine approach begins; only local trains and some section semi-expresses stop there. Best: Mid-February to mid-March for the plum blossom (the earliest trees open in January); the wood all year.

63Awaji Island incense, Ei一宮町の線香づくりHyogo

Incense factories line the lanes of Ei, an old port on Awaji Island's west coast, and their smell mixes with the sea air as you walk between them. Sailors who lost their work to the winter winds off Harima-nada took up incense-making here in 1850, learning from craftsmen in Sakai; the same winds dry the sticks, and Awaji now makes more incense than anywhere else in Japan.

Getting there: 68–77 min by the Sannomiya–Nishiura highway bus (Shinki Bus and Awaji Kotsu, 15 a day) from the Shinki Bus Kobe Sannomiya terminal to the Ei stop.

64Nada Gogo sake breweries, Kobe and Nishinomiya灘五郷の酒づくりHyogo

Nada's traditional storehouses were built with their backs to the Rokko-oroshi, the winter wind off the mountains, to keep the brewing cool, and from October, when the new season's sake is started, the brewery streets between Nishinomiya and Kobe smell of it. The 1995 earthquake flattened Hamafukutsuru's wooden brewery; rebuilt the next year with glass walls, it lets you walk past the working tanks and the sweet smell of fermenting mash.

Getting there: 8 min by Hanshin limited express from Kobe-Sannomiya to Uozaki, then a 9 min walk (680 m) to Hamafukutsuru's Ginjo Kobo (free, 10:00–17:00, closed Mondays); the free Hakutsuru Sake Brewery Museum is a 5 min walk from Hanshin Sumiyoshi. Best: Autumn and winter, the brewing season (Hamafukutsuru's glass-walled brewery works all year). Our Kobe guide

65Thousand-year wisteria of Dasai Shrine, Shiso山崎大歳神社の千年藤Hyogo

Dasai Shrine's precinct is small, and its wisteria covers nearly all of it: branches from a single trunk 3.8 m round spread over a trellis of 420 square metres, and from late April clusters up to 1.4 m long hang down and scent the whole yard. It is called the thousand-year wisteria after a local tradition that it was planted in 960.

Getting there: 61–67 min by Shinki bus from the north exit of JR Himeji Station to Yamasaki, then an 8 min walk (630 m). Best: Late April to mid-May (the 2026 wisteria festival ran April 25 to May 5).

66Nara sumi inkならの墨づくりNara

Nara makes 90% of Japan's solid ink, and its old ink houses smell of what goes into it: soot, hide glue melted in hot water, and the scent kneaded in with them. Kobaien, making ink here since 1577, works only through the cooler months, away from the summer heat, and in season you can squeeze a stick of your own by hand (from ¥4,000) or, if you book, watch the ink being made.

Getting there: 6 min walk from Kintetsu Nara Station, or 10 min from JR Nara, to Kobaien (weekdays 9:00–17:00). Best: Mid-October to the end of April, while ink is made (hand-pressing sessions November to April). Our Nara guide

67Nara Tokae candle festivalなら燈花会のろうそくNara

For ten August evenings, volunteers set out more than 10,000 candles in cups across the lawns of Nara Park and around its ponds, and once they are lit the park smells of warm wax. The name comes from toka, the flower-shaped knot that forms at the tip of a burning wick and is taken as a sign of luck; for ¥1,000 you can light a candle of your own, and the money buys next year's candles.

Getting there: 16 min walk (1.2 km) east from Kintetsu Nara Station to Ukigumo-enchi, the central field; buses from Kintetsu and JR Nara stations stop at Daibutsuden Kasuga Taisha-mae. Best: August 5–14 every year; lit 19:00–21:30 in 2026 (2027 times not yet announced). Visitor guide · Our Nara guide

68Okunoin cedars and incense, Koyasan高野山奥之院の杉と線香Wakayama

Cedars up to a thousand years old tower over the 2 km path from Ichi-no-hashi bridge to Kobo Daishi's mausoleum, and between their trunks stand more than 200,000 graves and memorials, feudal lords' tombs included; the air smells of cedar, moss and incense. The path ends at the Lantern Hall in front of the mausoleum, whose lamps are never allowed to go out.

Getting there: 1 hr 47 min from Nankai Namba to Koyasan by limited express Koya and the cable car up from Gokurakubashi (1 hr 54 min by rapid express), then the Nankai Rinkan bus to Okunoin-guchi, by Ichi-no-hashi; the Lantern Hall is open 6:00–17:00. Our Wakayama guide

69Momoyama peach blossom, Kinokawa桃源郷一目十万本の桃の花Wakayama

In spring the orchards of Momoyama, on the south bank of the Kinokawa, flower so thickly that the place is known as 'a hundred thousand trees at a glance', and they smell faintly sweet. The trees belong to the farmers who grow Aragawa peaches, known across Japan, and since this is not a park they ask you to take every scrap of rubbish home.

Getting there: 25 min walk (2.2 km) from JR Shimo-Isaka Station (Wakayama Line), south across the Kinokawa to the growers' temporary car park. Best: Late March to early April.

70Kurayoshi white-walled storehouses酒と醤油のかおる倉吉白壁土蔵群Tottori

Along the Tamagawa canal in Kurayoshi, white-walled storehouses with red Sekishu roof tiles and charred-cedar skirts face the water across bridges of single stone slabs, and in those behind Kuwata Shoyu, in business since 1877, soy sauce is still brewed the old way, in wooden barrels. The sake that once added its smell has moved out: Gensui still sells from its old shop by the canal but brews a few minutes' drive away.

Getting there: 12 min by Nihon Kotsu bus from JR Kurayoshi Station to Akagawara Shirakabe Dozo, then a 5 min walk; Kuwata Shoyu is open 9:00–17:30.

71Iwami Tatamigaura rock shelf, Hamada石見畳ヶ浦磯のかおりShimane

Walk through the tunnel from Kokubu beach and you come out on Senjojiki, 4.9 hectares of flat rock shelf cracked into squares like tatami, where the smell is seaweed and brine from the rock pools. The shelf is 16-million-year-old seabed full of shell and whale fossils; it was long said to have risen from the sea in the 1872 Hamada earthquake, but a coastal map made around 1845 already shows it.

Getting there: 21 min walk (1.6 km) from JR Shimoko Station (San'in Line) to Kokubu beach, then through the tunnel to the shelf.

72Kibi hills white peaches, Okayama吉備丘陵の白桃Okayama

The orchards of the low Kibi hills, around Ichinomiya in Okayama city, Tamashima in Kurashiki and Akaiwa, flower pink and sweet-smelling each April. Shimizu Hakuto, called the queen of peaches, turned up as a chance seedling in an Ichinomiya orchard in 1932, and in summer the hills smell of ripe white peaches, each grown in its own bag to keep the sun off its skin.

Getting there: Realistically a car trip from Okayama or Kurashiki; the prefecture's tourism federation asks visitors to stay out of the orchards and not to drive or park on the narrow farm lanes. Best: Early to mid-April for the blossom; July and August for the ripe peaches. Our Okayama guide

73Mount Kenashigasen beech forest and katakuri, Shinjo毛無山ブナとカタクリの花（毛無山）Okayama

Beech forest mixed with natural cedar covers most of the 2 km climb from the mountain hut to the 1,218 m summit of Kenashigasen, and in May the trail smells of new beech leaves. A few weeks earlier katakuri, the purple dogtooth violet, flowers for about ten days along the ridge path toward Hakubasan; the slopes are a protected zone of Daisen-Oki National Park, so pick nothing and bring no plants in.

Getting there: Realistically a car trip: 30 min from the Hiruzen interchange of the Yonago Expressway to the Kenashigasen mountain hut at the trailhead, then 2 km on foot to the summit. Best: Mid to late April for the katakuri; May for the new beech leaves.

74Itsukushima Shrine at high tide, Miyajima厳島神社潮のかおりHiroshima

The smell here is the sea itself. Tradition says the shrine was built in 593 where the tide came and went, and the sea still comes in beneath the vermilion corridors, whose floorboards are laid with gaps so that storm surges can well up between them; at low water the same inlet is sand you can walk across to the great torii.

Getting there: 27 min on the JR Sanyo Line from Hiroshima to Miyajimaguchi, 10 min on the JR ferry (every 15 min by day), then a 13 min walk (980 m) from Miyajima pier; the shrine opens at 6:30, ¥300. Best: A tide above 250 cm puts the corridors over water, and below 100 cm you can walk out to the torii (Miyajima Tourist Association tide table, Hiroshima port). Visitor guide · Our Miyajima guide

75Citrus Park Setoda, Ikuchijimaシトラスパーク瀬戸田の柑橘類Hiroshima

Lemon trees, 1,300 of them, cover a hillside of Ikuchijima above the Seto Inland Sea at Citrus Park Setoda, and through the winter the park is ringed with ripening citrus. Entry is free, and 800 cherry trees flower on the same slope.

Citrus Park Setoda closed in December 2015 and reopened in August 2022, run by the company Setomos, as a public park with lemon groves, a dog run and glamping cabins; the pavilion of about 600 citrus varieties that the park was chosen for in 2001 is not part of it (checked September 2026).

Getting there: Realistically a car or bike trip: 5 min by car from the Ikuchijima-Minami interchange of the Shimanami Kaido, 13 min from Ikuchijima-Kita. Best: Winter for the citrus; the cherries flower in spring.

76Hagi natsumikan blossom萩城下町夏みかんの花Yamaguchi

Natsumikan, big tart summer oranges, were planted in the gardens of Hagi's samurai houses from 1876 so that families who had lost their stipends could live off the fruit, and around 1900 the crop was worth eight times the town's annual budget. Each May their white blossom still gives the lanes between the earthen walls a sweet, fresh smell; on a visit in May 1926, the future Emperor Showa asked whether the town had been sprinkled with perfume.

Getting there: 60 min by the Super Hagi-go bus from JR Shin-Yamaguchi Station (Sanyo Shinkansen) to Hagi Meirin Center, six a day, then a 12 min walk (910 m) to the old lanes around Kikuya Yokocho. Best: Early to mid-May (the 2026 Hagi Natsumikan Festival was on May 9–10). Our Yamaguchi guide

77Awa indigo at Ai no Yakata, Aizumi吉野川流域の藍染めのかおりTokushima

Ai no Yakata takes up the 13 buildings of the Okumura family's estate; the family grew rich trading indigo on the lower Yoshino River from the 1830s into the Meiji era. Its dye vats have a smell of their own, because the dye is made from sukumo, indigo leaves left to ferment, and you stand right over them to dye a handkerchief (from ¥1,000, about 30 minutes, no booking needed).

Tours of the Okumura family's main house stop for renovation from October 16, 2026, with no date yet for reopening; the rest of the museum stays open as usual (museum notice of September 17, 2026).

Getting there: Tokushima Bus (Kajiyabara line) from JR Tokushima Station to Okuno, then a 10 min walk; open 9:00–17:00, closed Tuesdays unless a public holiday, ¥300.

78Awa bancha tea-making, Kamikatsu上勝町の阿波番茶Tokushima

In high summer the valleys of Kamikatsu smell of tea being made by a method that has been a national Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property since 2021. The leaves are picked by hand, boiled in a cauldron and rubbed, pounded down into wooden tubs to ferment with lactic bacteria for two to four weeks, then dried for two or three days in the sun; brewed, Awa bancha comes out golden and clean-tasting.

Getting there: 1 hr 15 min by Tokushima Bus (Katsuura line) from JR Tokushima Station to Yokose-nishi, then 35 min on the Kamikatsu town bus to the town office. Best: July to September: picking from July to mid-August, sun-drying after two to four weeks in the tubs.

79Camphor trees of Shirotori Shrine, Higashikagawa白鳥神社のクスノキKagawa

About ten camphor trees shade Shirotori Shrine, and under them the grounds smell of camphor; the one Kagawa prefecture protects as a preservation tree, 30 m tall, towers over the rest. Wander the precinct and the year 1664 keeps turning up on offerings and rebuilt halls, most of them the work of Matsudaira Yorishige, the first lord of Takamatsu, who took the shrine under his protection.

Getting there: 1 hr 19 min by JR Kotoku Line local train from Takamatsu to Sanuki-Shirotori (51 min if you take the Uzushio limited express to Sanbonmatsu and change there), then a 3 min walk.

80Uchiko old town and wax candles内子町の町並と和ろうそくEhime

Warm wax is what you smell at Omori Warosoku, Ehime's only maker of hand-made Japanese candles, which set up its workshop on the old Yokaichi street in 1978, answering the call of the campaign to preserve it. Each day starts with sumac-berry wax melting over charcoal, and behind the workshop glass father and son roll wicks across their bare palms, rubbing on wax at 40–45°C layer after layer until the cut end shows rings like a tree.

Getting there: 25 min by JR limited express from Matsuyama to Uchiko (58 min on a local train), then a 12 min walk (870 m) to Omori Warosoku, open 9:00–17:00, closed Tuesdays and Fridays. Our Matsuyama guide

81Oshimoriji osmanthus, Saijo西条王至森寺の金木犀Ehime

The kinmokusei (sweet osmanthus) by the gate of Oshimoriji is one of the largest in Japan, 4 m round at the roots and split into three trunks near the ground; wind and insects broke off its crown, and care has brought it back into full leaf. When its orange-yellow flowers open in autumn the smell carries through the whole neighbourhood, and people in Saijo say the Saijo Festival rides in on it.

Getting there: 43 min walk (3.3 km) east of JR Iyo-Saijo Station (Yosan Line), or 3.7 km by taxi; the temple is open every day and has free parking. Best: October in most years; after the record heat of 2025 it flowered a month late and was at its best in early November.

82Nishiuwa mikan blossom, Yawatahama愛媛西宇和の温州みかんEhime

In May the unshu mikan trees of Nishiuwa flower white, and a fresh citrus smell comes off terraces that climb from the seaside road to the hilltops; stand at the Yawatahama Minatto roadside station and you face the stone-walled slopes of Mukainada. Growers credit their fruit to three suns: the one overhead, its glare off the sea, and its glare off walls that farmers stacked from the stones they dug out of these slopes.

Getting there: 57 min by JR limited express from Matsuyama to Yawatahama, then a 24 min walk (1.8 km) to the Yawatahama Minatto roadside station. Best: May, while the mikan trees flower.

83Shimanto River sinking bridges四万十川の沈下橋をわたる風Kochi

Out on a chinkabashi, a low bridge built to go under in floods, with no railings to hold back the current or snag driftwood, the wind coming down the Shimanto brings you the river itself, the green of its banks and, after the harvest, rice straw. Kochi and the river's towns protect 48 of these bridges on the main river and its tributaries; the longest, at Sada, runs 291.6 m on 19 blue piers.

Getting there: 1 hr 42 min by limited express from Kochi to Nakamura (JR to Kubokawa, then the Tosa Kuroshio Railway), then 8 km by car or taxi to the Sada sinking bridge. Our Kochi guide

84Kanzaiko rice terraces, Yusuhara梼原神在居の千枚田Kochi

Stone-walled paddies climb the hillside at Kanzaiko, 2 hectares of them at the gateway to Yusuhara, and through the growing season they smell of water, wet earth and grass, then of rice straw after the harvest. Japan's first terrace-owner scheme started here, letting plots to people from outside who came to learn rice growing from the farmers; interest has faded, a third of the paddies now lie idle, and villagers are learning to rebuild the walls that have fallen.

Getting there: Koryo Kotsu bus from JR Susaki Station (37–43 min by limited express from Kochi) toward Yusuhara, seven a day, to the Kanzaiko stop, then a 5 min walk; by car, 50 min from the Susaki-Chuo interchange. There is no car park at the terraces.

85Dazaifu Tenmangu plum grove and camphors太宰府天満宮の梅林とクスノキの森Fukuoka

Umegae-mochi toasting in the shopfronts is the smell of the approach to Dazaifu Tenmangu; inside, it depends on the month. Some 6,000 plum trees of 200 varieties, every one of them planted as an offering, flower in late winter, and in April and May the shrine's 51 camphor trees drop last year's leaves as the new ones push through, and the grounds smell of camphor.

Getting there: 26–29 min by Nishitetsu train from Fukuoka (Tenjin) to Dazaifu (¥480), usually changing at Futsukaichi, then a 5 min walk. Best: Late January to early March for the plums (the sacred Tobiume tree opens first: January 19 in 2026, February 14 in 2025); April and May for the camphors. Our Fukuoka guide

86Oma Bamboo Grove Park, Kitakyushu合馬竹林公園の竹と風Fukuoka

Bamboo covers the hills of Oma, in Kokura-minami, and in spring the groves smell fresh and green, with the richer scent of new shoots underneath; grown in red clay, Oma's shoots fetch the top price on the Kansai market. The free Bamboo Grove Park grows some 150 kinds of bamboo and sasa, from rakkyo-yadake, its stems swollen like little onions, to kikko-chiku, whose joints are patterned like tortoiseshell.

Getting there: Nishitetsu bus (routes 12, 21 or 45) from the Kokura Station bus centre to Ryotani Shucchojo-mae, then a 20 min walk; the park is open 10:00–17:00 (to 16:00 November to January) and closed on Tuesdays. Best: March and April for the shoots (farms in Oma let you dig your own from late March to late April, ¥300); May for the new leaves.

87Yanagawa canal boats and steamed eel柳川川下りとうなぎのせいろ蒸しFukuoka

Yanagawa's punts pole along the old castle moats for 60 to 70 minutes, from near Nishitetsu Yanagawa Station to Okinohata, where the eel houses wait with the sweet, salty smell of kabayaki sauce. The local dish is seiromushi, rice tossed in that sauce, topped with grilled eel and ribbons of omelette and steamed in a wooden box; most eel houses stop serving lunch at 2:30 or 3 pm, so take a morning boat.

Getting there: 49 min by Nishitetsu limited express from Fukuoka (Tenjin) to Nishitetsu Yanagawa (¥960); the boat landings are 5–10 min on foot from the station. The boats run one way, and some boat companies run a free bus back to the station; in the canal-cleaning weeks of mid to late February only short courses run. Our Fukuoka guide

88Niji no Matsubara pine forest, Karatsu虹の松原潮のかおりSaga

Step off the train at Nijinomatsubara Station and you are among the pines: a belt of black pine 4.5 km long and 500 m deep that curves round Karatsu Bay like the rainbow in its name. Terazawa Hirotaka, the first lord of Karatsu, had it planted to hold back wind and salt spray, and the smell is new pine growth on the breeze off the Genkai Sea.

Getting there: 1 hr 15 min to 1 hr 26 min from Hakata (¥1,170) on the Fukuoka subway Airport Line, which runs through onto the JR Chikuhi Line (some trains need a change at Chikuzen-Maebaru), to Nijinomatsubara Station.

89Okawachiyama kiln village, Imari伊万里焼土と炎のかおりSaga

Okawachiyama is the valley where the Nabeshima lords moved their official porcelain kiln in 1675, and its lanes are still lined with workshops that smell of clay. For wood smoke, come around September, when the village's potters fire their climbing kiln, recreated in 1990, to teach younger kiln owners how it is done; pieces from the firing are presented to castle towns and other places around Japan.

Getting there: 15–19 min by Saihi bus from Imari-ekimae (JR Chikuhi Line and Matsuura Railway) to Okawachiyama; five buses a day on weekdays and four at weekends, the last one back at 16:33. Our Saga guide

90Narcissus Hill, Nomozaki野母崎水仙の里公園と潮Nagasaki

Nomozaki's farmers have grown narcissus since before the war, and in 1988–89 the old town turned a slope at the tip of the Nagasaki Peninsula into Narcissus Hill, paid for with national grant money. In flower it is white above the open sea, with Gunkanjima on the horizon, and smells of narcissus and salt air; on festival Sundays bunches are handed out.

Getting there: 60 min by Nagasaki Bus (bound for Kabashima) from the Nagasaki Ekimae south-exit stop to Kyoryu Park-mae, as the hill now stands inside the Nomozaki Dinosaur Park; midday buses need a change at Sakaegami. Best: Late January to early February (the 2026 festival ran January 31 to February 15, though wind and snow on February 8 ended the best of the flowering). Our Nagasaki guide

91Daigakuyama evergreen forest, Minamata大学山の照葉樹林Kumamoto

Daigakuyama, at the head of the Minamata River, keeps 27 hectares of evergreen broadleaf forest, big shii chinquapins and kashi oaks left to grow for more than a century since the last felling, and under them the air smells of damp earth and wood. Scientists have studied these trees since the International Biological Programme of the 1960s, and from 1996 Minamata's people, fishermen and Minamata disease patients among them, planted broadleaf trees around the forest for the water that runs down to the Shiranui Sea.

Getting there: Realistically a car trip: Okawa is 19 km by road east of Shin-Minamata Station (Kyushu Shinkansen). The forest has no trail or visitor facilities; Minamata's Airinkan centre in Kugino (closed Mondays), which organised the planting, is the local base.

92Sakitsu fishing village and church, Amakusa河浦崎津天主堂と海Kumamoto

Sakitsu's houses crowd so close along their inlet of Yokaku Bay that metre-wide lanes called toya run between them down to the water, where fishermen moor boats and dry fish on kake, platforms of bamboo and hemp palm built out over the sea, and the village smells of salt and fish. The church, built in 1934 on the site of the headman's house where villagers were made to trample Christian images, still has a tatami floor.

Getting there: Realistically a car trip: 50 min from Hondo, Amakusa's main town. Park at the Sakitsu Guidance Center rather than in the village, and book ahead to go inside the church, which is closed to visitors during services.

93Beppu Hatto hot-spring steam別府八湯の湯けむりOita

Steam plumes rise all over Kannawa, and its lanes smell of the springs beneath them, which are split into hot water for the inns and communal baths and steam vented high over the roofs; people here still cook in that steam. Uphill at Myoban, thatched huts have made yunohana bath salts since the Edo period, growing them a millimetre a day from fumaroles and blue clay.

Getting there: 20 min by Kamenoi bus (route 5 or 7) from the west exit of JR Beppu Station to Kannawa (¥330); the free Yukemuri Tenbodai lookout over the steam is a 20 min walk from the stop. Our Beppu guide

94Kaori no Mori, Heisei Forest Park, Oita大分野津原香りの森Oita

Up in the hills of old Notsuharu, now part of Oita city, the Kaori no Hiroba of Heisei Forest Park is a meadow of lavender that already smells while the flowers are in bud. A suspension bridge crosses from the meadow into the Kaori no Mori, the scented woods, and the park's forest-therapy walk through those woods starts and ends at the meadow.

The Oita Kaori no Mori Museum, the heart of the park when it was chosen in 2001, was abolished at the end of March 2006. About 3,600 items from its collection are on loan from the prefecture to the Oita Fragrance Museum in Beppu, opened by Beppu University in 2007; the lavender meadow and the scented woods are kept by the prefecture's Citizens' Forest (checked September 28, 2026).

Getting there: Realistically a car trip: 50 min from central Oita. Best: Mid-June to early July for the lavender (the 2026 viewing ran June 20 to 28). Our Oita guide

95Kabosu of Usuki and Taketa臼杵・竹田の城下町のカボスOita

Oita grows 99% of Japan's kabosu, a green citrus prized for its fresh aroma and mellow sourness, and in the old castle towns of Usuki and Taketa it was long grown in house gardens as a medicine; the story in Usuki is that an Edo-period doctor brought the first seedling home from Kyoto. The orchards smell of blossom in early summer and of green peel from August into October, when the fruit grown in the open is picked.

Getting there: Usuki is 33–40 min from Oita by JR limited express (44 min by local train); Taketa is 1 hr 14 min to 1 hr 32 min from Oita by local train on the JR Hohi Line to Bungo-Taketa. Best: Early summer for the blossom; August to October for the fruit. Our Oita guide

96Kuju highland grasslandsくじゅう四季の草原、野焼きのかおりOita

Kuju's grassland year starts in March with noyaki, when the slopes are burned to keep the grass from turning to scrub and the air smells of smoke and char; the fire sweeps Tadewara, the Ramsar-listed wetland right behind the Chojabaru visitor centre, and yellow violets and primroses then flower on the blackened ground. In early summer miyama-kirishima azaleas turn the summits pink, a sight found only in Kyushu, and in autumn the highland smells of hay.

The Kumamoto earthquake of July 28, 2026 caused no disruption to the roads here and no reported damage to the trails, but heavy rain in early July closed the Gakurokuji and Ichibansui trailheads, on the southern side of the mountains in Taketa, with no date set for reopening (Chojabaru Visitor Center, checked September 28, 2026).

Getting there: 30 min by car from the Yufuin interchange along the Yamanami Highway to Chojabaru; a bus run by Kokonoe town links JR Bungo-Nakamura Station with Chojabaru. Best: March for the burning (Tadewara was burned on March 8 in 2026); mid-May to June for the miyama-kirishima; autumn for the hay.

97Ayu weir on the Ose River, Nobeoka五ヶ瀬川の鮎焼きMiyazaki

Every autumn Nobeoka builds a yana, a fishing weir, across the Ose River, a branch of the Gokase and more than 100 m wide at this point, to catch ayu swimming downstream to spawn, a way of fishing kept up for more than 300 years. Beside the weir the Ayu-yana Sasaki restaurant grills ayu by hand, salted or brushed with miso, and the riverbank smells of them.

Getting there: 42 min walk (3.1 km) or 3.6 km by taxi from JR Nobeoka Station; 10 min by car from the Nobeoka interchange, with free parking. Best: October to early December (in 2026 the restaurant is open October 1 to December 6, and the weir is due to be finished in late October).

98Yakushima forest and Isso sababushi屋久島の照葉樹林と鯖節Kagoshima

Isso, the fishing village on Yakushima's north coast, smells of smoke and fish from its workshops, where mackerel is smoke-dried into sababushi with the craft used for katsuobushi, prized for the stock of high-end soba shops in Tokyo. The evergreen forest comes right down behind the houses, and up at Shiratani Unsuikyo its moss-covered floor gave Studio Ghibli the look of the forest in Princess Mononoke.

Shiratani Unsuikyo is shut: landslides in Typhoon No. 24 closed the prefectural road up to it on September 4, 2026, and the ravine will reopen only once the road and its paths are repaired and checked, with no date set. Yakusugi Land, the island's other recreation forest, reopened on September 16. Entry to either costs ¥800 from April 2026 (checked September 28, 2026).

Getting there: Isso is 11 km by road west of Miyanoura, the port for jetfoils and ferries from Kagoshima, and one of its makers, Baba Suisan, shows visitors round its sababushi works free, Monday to Saturday, if you book ahead; Shiratani Unsuikyo is 10 km, 25 min by car, above Miyanoura. Our Kagoshima guide

99Chiringashima sandbar, Ibusuki指宿知林ヶ島の潮風Kagoshima

Between March and October, at low water on spring and middle tides, an 800 m road of sand surfaces in Kagoshima Bay and you can walk out to Chiringashima, an uninhabited island 3 km round, with salt wind on both sides. The sand road has been nicknamed the Chiririn Road; take water, as the island has none, and do not swim, because the currents around it are strong.

Walking round the island has been banned since landslides in the downpour of June 20, 2024, with no date set for reopening; crossing the sandbar is still allowed (Ibusuki city and tourism association, checked September 28, 2026).

Getting there: 10 min by taxi (or a 55 min walk) from JR Ibusuki Station to Tarahama, where the sandbar starts; Ibusuki is 51 min from Kagoshima-Chuo on the Ibusuki no Tamatebako limited express, or 66–88 min by local train. Best: March to October, at low tide on spring and middle tides; the Ibusuki tourism site posts predicted crossing times for each month and warns that a typhoon can shift the sandbar and the times. Our Kagoshima guide

100Taketomi Island village竹富島の海と花のかおりOkinawa

Nowhere on Taketomi is far from the smell of the sea, and in the village the lanes are laid with white sand between walls of coral stone, with hibiscus and bougainvillea over the walls and shisa lions on the red-tiled roofs. Water-buffalo carts plod through the village, a preservation district since 1987, and from them you hear Asadoya Yunta, the song known across Japan that grew from one of this island's old work songs.

Getting there: 10–15 min by high-speed boat (Anei Kanko or Yaeyama Kanko Ferry) from the Ishigaki port remote-islands terminal (¥970 one way on Anei), then an 18 min walk (1.4 km) to the middle of the village; visitors are asked to pay a ¥300 island entry fee at ticket machines in either port. Our Ishigaki guide