Wildlife Sanctuaries

Hi Aziz,

It really depends on where in Japan you're going to be based, but I have 2 recommendations for places that I've been to if you're still making up your mind:

[Kamikochi] Kamikochi is a spectacular National Park in central Japan. It's a little tough to get to but the JR Pass can get you there on a mixture of rail and bus travel. Here's the access details for using your Japan Rail Pass.

Yakushima Yakushima, an island off bottom of Kyushu, is a wonderful natural UNESCO World Heritage Site with ancient woodlands and marshlands. There is good hiking to be had throughout the island, with mountain huts dotted all over it's cloud topped peaks. It's also home to one of the oldest trees in the world: Jomon Sugi, an incredibly old Japanese cedar estimated to be ~6000 years old. Your JR Pass will get you to the port at Kagoshima, possibly through using the new Sakura service to take you down kyushu on the new Kyushu shinkansen, where you'll have to board a non-JR paid ferry or Hydrofoil to make the last leg over to the island (approx. 1.5 hour trip costing ¥12,800 roundtrip). Expensive, but from personal experience well worth the trip and cost.

There are others, such as Shiretoko in Hokkaido, but these are ones that I can personally vouch for!

Hope this helps!

Great! Thanks for the reply. i'll definitely check those out.