Photo location game · Asia
Japan landmarks quiz: guess where 22 photos were taken
22 photos taken in Japan, each marked on the map with a line about the place. Each round picks five.
★ 4.7 on Google Play· 60 ratings· 1000+ downloads· Free
Five photos from Japan. Tap the map for each one and see how far off you were.
Tap the map where you think this is
Where they are
20 on the mapAll 22 places
Japan's highest peak, a near-symmetrical volcanic cone.
Photo: Ximonic (Simo Räsänen) / CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
A white hilltop castle nicknamed the 'White Heron'.
Photo: Bernard Gagnon / CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
A red-and-white lattice tower echoing the Eiffel Tower.
Photo: David Kernan / CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Japan's easternmost point, a lonely coral island 1,800 km from Tokyo.
Photo: Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Japan's second highest volcano, a sacred mountain of pilgrims that erupted in 2014.
Photo: Atsushi Ueda / CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
The capital of Okinawa, with the red-lacquered Shuri Castle of the Ryukyu kings.
Photo: 663highland / CC BY 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons
A shrine whose great torii gate appears to float on the sea at high tide.
Photo: JordyMeow / CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
A hillside temple whose wooden stage juts out over the trees without a single nail.
Photo: Martin Falbisoner / CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
The skeletal dome left standing beneath the 1945 atomic blast.
Photo: Oilstreet / CC BY 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons
The Silver Pavilion, a Zen temple with a raked sand garden and moss grounds.
Photo: Basile Morin / CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
A temple with the world's oldest surviving wooden buildings, from the 7th century.
Photo: 663highland / CC BY 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons
The Golden Pavilion, a Zen temple covered in gold leaf, mirrored in its pond.
Photo: Basile Morin / CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
A red-brick station from 1914, restored to its original domes after WWII damage.
Photo: MaedaAkihiko / CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Kyoto's western hills, with the Togetsukyo bridge and a famous bamboo grove.
Photo: Takeshi Kuboki from Amagasaki, Japan / CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
A 97-metre waterfall near Nikkō, one of Japan's three great falls.
Photo: Jordy Meow / CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
A vast wooden hall in Nara sheltering a 15-metre bronze Buddha.
Photo: 663highland / CC BY 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons
The last great virgin beech forest of northern Japan.
Photo: らんで / CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
The Phoenix Hall, an 11th-century temple pictured on Japan's 10-yen coin.
Photo: Martin Falbisoner / CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
The Great Buddha of Kamakura, a 13-metre bronze sitting in the open air since 1495.
Photo: 663highland / CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
A subtropical Japanese island of coral reefs and mangroves, nearer Taiwan than Tokyo.
Photo: 663highland / CC BY 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons
Seventeen temples, shrines and a castle across Japan's thousand-year imperial capital.
Photo: Basile Morin / CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Mountain villages of steep thatched farmhouses built to shed heavy snow.
Photo: 663highland / CC BY 2.5, via Wikimedia CommonsHow to place them
Shirakami-Sanchi in the north and Naha in the south are 1,950 km apart. Learn where Himeji Castle is and you are close on nine photos, because places such as Kiyomizu-dera, Ginkaku-ji Temple and Hōryū-ji Temple are all within 120 km of it. Naha stands apart: Itsukushima Shrine, the closest other place, is 1,000 km away. The map below does not reach Minamitorishima and Ishigaki Island, so they are not in the round.
By rating, the photos are six easy, nine medium and seven hard. Photos rated hard include Minamitorishima, Naha and Ginkaku-ji Temple. The easy ones include Mount Fuji, Tokyo Tower and Itsukushima Shrine. On Shirakami-Sanchi you can be 150 km out and still score 5,000. Kiyomizu-dera is a hillside temple whose wooden stage juts out over the trees without a single nail.
The daily in the app mixes photos from all 167 countries in the game, five a day, the same five for everyone.
Play the dailyQuestions & answers
How many places in Japan are in the game?
22 places. Shirakami-Sanchi is the furthest north and Minamitorishima the furthest south. Minamitorishima and Ishigaki Island are off the map.
What is the hardest photo from Japan?
The hard ones include Minamitorishima, Naha and Ginkaku-ji Temple. On any photo the score halves for every 693 km you are outside the accuracy radius.
Which photo is the easiest to score full points on?
Shirakami-Sanchi, with a 150 km radius. A pin anywhere inside it scores the full 5,000.