Sacred sights of Japan - photo gallery

Once you leave Japan's congested cities and venture out into nature you will discover a land of untold beauty which in recent years is touching the hearts of people from all the world, as Japan becomes one of the world’s top destinations. I have been fortunate to travel to many countries around the world, but no country has transformed me the way Japan has and I always felt sure that one day the rest of the world would catch on too!

From majestic mountains to breathtaking vistas of tiny islands afloat golden sunset seas, you cannot visit Japan and leave the country unchanged by a certain energy which has shaped the land and spirit of Japan since ancient times. In the moving film The Last Samurai (2003) , the protagonist Nathan Algren  played by Tom Cruise expresses the mysterious land of Japan as follows -

Spring, 1877. This marks the longest I've stayed in one place since I left the farm at 17. There is so much here I will never understand. I've never been a church going man, and what I've seen on the field of battle has led me to question God's purpose. But there is indeed something spiritual in this place. And though it may forever be obscure to me, I cannot but be aware of its power. I do know that it is here that I've known my first untroubled sleep in many years.
I have been lost for words at times to behold places of such great beauty you cannot believe still exist on our planet. I hope you will enjoy visiting some of these places through my photos and without getting on a plane, be changed in some way by the mysterious spirit of Japan which transports you into a world which you may have thought long ago disappeared from our planet.