6 spots β sorted by traveller rating
Japan's second most sacred Shinto shrine after Ise β Atsuta Jingu enshrines the Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi sword, one of the three Imperial treasures. Over 6 million visitors come each year to its ancient forested grounds in central Nagoya.
Japan's oldest surviving original castle keep (1537), designated a National Treasure β perched dramatically on a cliff above the Kiso River. Until 2004 it was privately owned by the Naruse family for 229 years, an extraordinary piece of living history.
One of Japan's finest castle complexes β the original keep was destroyed in WWII, but the reconstructed donjon and the fully restored Honmaru Palace are outstanding. The golden shachihoko (tiger-fish) roof ornaments are Nagoya's most iconic symbol.
A vast open-air museum near Inuyama preserving 67 relocated Meiji-era buildings β including the lobby of Frank Lloyd Wright's original Imperial Hotel, a lighthouse, bathhouse, and army barracks spread across forested hills.
A world-class industrial museum tracing Toyota's evolution from a textile loom factory to the world's largest automaker β housed in the original red-brick spinning factory in Nagoya's Noritake district.
In the restored Toyoda Automatic Loom factory where Toyota was born, this vast museum demonstrates the evolution from weaving looms to automobiles through interactive exhibits and working machinery demonstrations. Factory robots assemble engines in real time, vintage looms weave cloth, and the full arc of Japan's industrial transformation is brought to vivid life.
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