The #1 Place to Visit in Japan Is (Not Where You Think)

A Different Side Of Japan

When BBC Travel released its list of the 20 best places to travel in 2026, the single Japan entry wasn't Tokyo's neon fever pitch or Kyoto's temple lined streets. It was Ishikawa, a prefecture most international travelers have never heard of, and one where the real draw isn't energy or monuments. Rather, it’s in the hands still creating things the way they were made centuries ago.

Kanazawa, the prefecture's cultural capital, is just an easy bullet train ride from Tokyo. It’s a place where 26 traditional crafts hold official designation, a concentration of living artisan trades rarely found in a single city in the world. In 2009, UNESCO named Kanazawa a City of Crafts and Folk Art, a true celebration of the prefecture's full craft heritage which spans silk dyeing to metalwork to lacquerware.

Where Crafts Become The Destination

In Ishikawa, crafts themselves are the real itinerary. Kanazawa is one of the world’s leading producers of gold leaf, responsible for nearly 100 percent of Japan's domestic production, a trade dating to the Edo era, when the ruling Maeda clan drew master craftsmen from across the country into the region.

Visitors can step into still working gold leaf studios and watch sheets beaten thinner than paper, then even try the technique by their own hands. A short walk away, Kaga Yuzen studios keep alive a dyeing technique developed in the 1600s, painterly depictions of flowers, birds, and landscapes rendered directly onto kimono silk, again where visitors can take part by dyeing a piece of their own.

Kanazawa lacquerware utilizes the technique of dusting wet lacquer with gold or silver before it sets, carries over 400 years of continuous practice. Add Kutani porcelain, known for its bold, jewel toned glazes, and Kaga Zogan metal inlay, originally developed for samurai swords and armor, and Kanazawa is truly discovered less in actual craft shops but rather through its living breathing studios and archives of artisanship.

Noto’s Living Traditions After The Earthquake

North of Kanazawa, on the Noto Peninsula, that same living tradition carries even more weight. In 2024, a 7.6 magnitude earthquake devastated the region. Two years on, local leaders are asking the world to do something simple: come back.

Noto is home to Wajima nuri, a form of lacquerware recognized as one of Japan's finest, built through a laborious, multi layered application process passed down across generations of artisan families, and to sake crafted by legendary toji, master brewers whose techniques are taught hand to hand rather than in any classroom.

Many of the region's breweries are operating again, in part through grassroots efforts like the Don't Stop the Noto Sake project, which channels revenue directly back into earthquake damaged producers.

Travel That Helps Keep Tradition Alive

Visitors can stay in traditional farmhouse inns and join seasonal work like rice planting, with proceeds helping sustain both local families and the centuries old terraced paddies.

Every reopened restaurant, every artisan workshop, every family run inn booked is a direct line of support to a region working to keep its cultural heritage alive at the exact moment it's most at risk.

Why Ishikawa Deserves A Place On The List

Ishikawa's case for the top of Japan's must visit list isn't scenery. It's substance: a place where travelers aren't just observers of a craft tradition, but active participants in keeping it alive.

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For more information about traveling to the region, visit ishikawatravel.jp/en. Travelers can also follow Instagram @visitishikawa for updates and inspiration about Ishikawa.