One moment
Temples
Osorezan Bodaiji Temple
A temple people come back to · Mutsu, Japan
Photo: あおもりくま · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons
4.4★Rating
2,300Reviews
$Price level
May–OctBest time
The experience
A 1,200-year-old temple set in a steaming volcanic caldera the Japanese have long called the gateway to the afterlife, where sulfur vents hiss beside stone cairns and pinwheels left for lost children. Milky-turquoise Lake Usori and a red bridge over the 'Sanzu River' complete the borderland-of-the-dead landscape.
At the far tip of the Shimokita Peninsula — buses from Shimokita Station run only every three hours and stop entirely November through April.
otherworldlyvolcanicsacreddesolatehaunting
It's only worth the detour May–Oct. Turn up outside that window and you're looking at a different place; we'd rather say so than sell you the photo.
What a membership adds.
Everything above is free: the name, the photo, the rating, the exact spot. What members get is the part you can't Google: the sourced insider tip for this place (what to order, when to go, what to skip), every day of your trips unlocked in full with the insider tip on every researched stop, and the concierge at full strength, answering with your own insider tips, no daily meter.
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