KANTO

Kanto Japan - Guide to Kanto region Japan includes Kanto cities, Kanto attractions, Kanto Map and Kanto Hotels. The Kanto region of Japan includes Tokyo city and surrounds.

The Kanto (関東) region of Japan, on the eastern side of the main island Honshu, is a broad plain dominated by and nearly synonymous with the megalopolis of Tokyo and its suburbs.

Understanding Kanto

In feudal times, Kanto was the home of the Tokugawa shogunate and Edo (modern Tokyo) the military seat of power, while the western region of Kansai represented commerce (Osaka) and culture (Kyoto). But the pendulum shifted decisively in Tokyo's favour after the 1869 Meiji Restoration when the Emperor moved to Tokyo, and today Kanto sets the pace that the rest of Japan tries to follow.
 

Kanto Prefectures

Chiba — suburban sprawl to the east and the site of Narita of airport fame
Gunma — mountains and hot springs to the north of Tokyo
Ibaraki — coastal prefecture containing the hometown of natto, Mito
Kanagawa — suburban sprawl to the south containing Yokohama, Japan's second largest city, and Kawasaki
Saitama — suburban sprawl to the north containing very little
Tochigi — popular escape known for historical site Nikko and many hot springs
Tokyo — the largest city in the world
Yamanashi — at the foothills of Mount Fuji
 

Cities of Kanto

Chiba — another Tokyo offshoot to the east
Kawasaki — suburb sandwiched between Tokyo and Yokohama
Tokyo — capital of Japan, largest city in the world
Yokohama — officially Japan's 2nd largest city, in practice a giant Tokyo suburb

National parks
Chichibu-Tama National Park — mountain hiking within easy striking distance of Tokyo
Fuji-Hakone-Izu National Park — for hot springs and views of Mount Fuji

Other attractions
Atami — coastal hot spring resort a short Shinkansen hop from Tokyo
Enoshima — Japan's surfing paradise in style and attitude (a shame there isn't much in the way of waves)
Kamakura — temple town within easy striking distance of Tokyo
Kinugawa — former hot spring boomtown fallen on hard times
Mount Fuji — although it's in neighbouring Chubu, the tallest mountain in Japan is accessible from Tokyo
Nikko — the grandiose mausoleum of the Tokugawa shoguns

Getting to Kanto
Most visitors arrive in the Kanto region via Tokyo, and most of those arrive via Narita Airport, Japan's main international gateway.

Talk
The Kanto dialect is the base of the standard Japanese taught in schools and spoken on TV.

(Article based on Wikitravel article by Based on work by Mitch Sako, Evan Prodromou and Paul N. Richter, Wikitravel user(s) Jpatokal, Nzpcmad and Nils and Anonymous user(s) of Wikitravel.  Article used under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 1.0.)