If you travel to countries hoping to experience another culture, Japan is still rich with it and Nara is the perfect place surrounded by culture and history. It is many things at once: traditional, natural, delightful, heartfelt, and all around wonderful. Come to Nara and be amazed. I honestly could name 100 things in Nara that would make for an amazing trip, but I have narrowed it down to the top 15 spots that you will not find even in most guidebooks.

A long row of monks and a hidden gorge in central Nikko that’s well worth a visit.

The river is the historic Ara River, known by its Japanese name, Arakawa, and is the source of the water you drank half an hour ago. It flows north down from the Chichibu mountains, then curves east out onto the Kanto Plain until it bends south at around Kumagaya City.

Oboke Gorge, deep in the secluded mountains of Tokushima and Kochi, has some of the clearest waters in Japan. The winding stretch of the Yoshino River has a rocky bottom that the bright blue-green water runs through creating—given ideal weather—an incredible rafting experience.

Saitama is rare because it is a Prefecture with balance. Sandwiched between Tokyo in the south and the mountains of Gunma in the north, it's easy to escape from one jungle to another.

Out of the many tourists destinations to witness in winter, lake Hyo or Hyoko (Ko meaning lake in Japanese) is one the most popular one. To meet and greet those gorgeous guests you better be there between November to March.

Baba Brook is a hidden stream which crisscrosses a low-rise residential area in Yokohama's Tsurumi-ku. Walking along the Baba Brook gives you a rarely seen side of Japan.

If you go to Sapporo, never skip this beautiful port city. Otaru, situated in the western part of Hokkaido, the city has developed and prospered as "the sea entrance of Hokkaido" over the last 100 years and it has gained the nickname "Wall Street of the North".

You have to go to Tokyo. But while you’re up that way it would be rude to ignore Kanagawa, the prefecture that sits underneath Tokyo and borders Shizuoka. Here is a 3-day itinerary to Kanagawa.

Taking a water bus on the Sumida River, one of the most famous rivers in Tokyo, is a great experience especially for tourists visiting Japan for the first time.

The Cormorant fishing festival of Nagara River of Gifu is one of the famous and important summer festivals of the place. It is conducted during the summer months starting from May 11th to October 15th.

The Muko river in Hyogo prefecture finds its source all the way up in Himeji city. It falls from a mountain named Mt Shirakami in the Tamba highland range and travels all the way into Osaka bay and splits the cities of Itami and Takarazuka, doing the same to Nishinomiya and Amagasaki, along the way.