Photo location game · Asia
Japan landmarks quiz: guess where 22 photos were taken
Japan in 22 photographs, each pinned to the map with a line of context. Five are dealt per round.
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Five Japan photos. For each one, tap the spot on the map and see how far off you were.
Tap the map where you think this is
Where they are
20 on the mapAll 22 places
by id
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
The long axis is north to south: 1,950 km from Shirakami-Sanchi to Naha, with the rest of the 20 mainland places strung between. One 120 km circle near the middle takes in Himeji Castle, Kiyomizu-dera, Ginkaku-ji Temple, Hōryū-ji Temple and five more. Nothing else comes within 1,000 km of Naha. The map below cannot hold Minamitorishima and Ishigaki Island, so they stay out of the map round.
Ratings run the whole range: Mount Fuji and Tokyo Tower at the easy end, Minamitorishima and Naha at the hard end, nine medium between. Any pin within 150 km of Shirakami-Sanchi scores 5,000; that is the widest radius in the set. Kinkaku-ji Temple is the Golden Pavilion, a Zen temple covered in gold leaf, mirrored in its pond.
Japan is one country. The daily draws from all 167.
Play the daily in the appQuestions & answers
How many places in Japan are in the game?
22 places, two of them beyond the mainland map. Shirakami-Sanchi is the top of the map and Minamitorishima the bottom.
Which photo from Japan is the hardest?
Minamitorishima, Naha and Ginkaku-ji Temple, with four others. Rated hard, so 451 km past the radius leaves 2,500 of the 5,000.
Which one is easiest to score full points on?
Shirakami-Sanchi, which forgives 150 km in every direction before a single point is lost.