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Japan top 10

• Onsen (hot springs)
  The Japanese have bathing down to a fine art. It's best in winter, when you really appreciate slipping into the chin-high, almost unbearably hot water. Better still if it's a natural, hot-spring bath on some snow-dusted mountainside, or beside a spring-time, snow-melt river (see Onsen top 10).
  
  
• Enryaku-ji, Hiei-zan, near Kyoto
  The first time I visited this temple complex was on a damp autumn day when the hill-top was enveloped in a thick, swirling fog. Eventually I found the main hall. It seemed deserted - eerily so - but as I drew closer the sound of chanting monks broke the silence, echoing among the magnificent cryptomeria trees and tingling down my spine.
  
  
• Dewa-sanzan, Yamagata-ken
  Another place with a strong spiritual undercurrent, Dewa-sanzan is one of Japan's top pilgrimage spots. It's also home to yamabushi, itinerant mountain priests, who dress in natty, check jackets and pill-box hats. These colourful characters carry a conch-shell horn, which they use to summon the gods - or, these days, perhaps "wave" off a coach-party!
  
  
• Okunoin, Koya-san, Wakayama-ken
  Well, you can see the sort of places I like! This spectacularly atmospheric cemetery is part of the Koya-san complex, the HQ of Shingon Buddhism. Try to visit either in the very early morning or last thing at night, when there's a chance of being alone. Thousands of jumbled, moss-covered stupas sprout among the roots of ancient cedar trees. At the end of the path, you'll find the simple mausoleum of Kobo Daishi, the sect's founder, behind a hall festooned with oil-lamps.
  
  
• Craftshops
  I could spend hours poking round Japanese crafts shops, where a simple comb or wooden bucket becomes a work of art. Best of all are shops selling hand-made paper (washi) - I'm a real sucker for the heavily-textured varieties showing off their chunky fibres.
  
  
• Kyushu
  This island has so much to offer, it makes a great holiday destination in its own right (see Kyushu top 10).
  
  
• Ago-wan, Mie-ken
  One early summer evening I found myself sitting on the balcony of a waterside ryokan, watching the sun set over Ago-wan. This vast, sheltered bay is scattered with hundreds of low, pine-clad islands. Between them, floating oyster farms sketched geometric patterns on the silver-still water.
  
  
• Chichibu Yomatsuri, Saitama-ken
  The Yomatsuri, or Night Festival (Dec 2), was the first major festival I experienced in Japan. I had no idea anywhere could be quite so crowded, but the good-natured - generally tipsy - crowd, ornate festival floats and driving, hypnotic drums more than made up for it. Getting back home, however, was another matter.
  
  
• Kaiten-zushi (conveyor-belt sushi joints)
  I love these places, where you sit at a counter and pick off passing plates of sushi. They're fun, easy and cheap.
  
  
• Entertainment districts
  Any Japanese city worth its salt has a raunchy entertainment district, packed with bars, clubs, restaurants, soft-porn cinemas, pachinko parlours and "soap-lands". Just wandering the streets - glittering canyons of neon - can be wonderfully energising. These places are the perfect antidote to temple-fatigue.