Japan beyond Tokyo and Kyoto

Tokyo and Kyoto deserve their fame. But the Japan that stays with you often lies a train ride further.

Naoshima, in the Seto Inland Sea, is an island given over to art — Tadao Ando museums sunk into hillsides, pumpkins on piers, silence engineered as carefully as the galleries.

In Gokayama, steep-roofed gassho-zukuri farmhouses have weathered four centuries of snow. Stay overnight and the village is yours once the day-trippers leave.

And Kyushu — Japan's volcanic south — offers sand baths in Ibusuki, the smoking cone of Sakurajima, and some of the country's warmest welcomes. Go slowly; Japan rewards it.