1. Top 3 nighttime views (Hakodate, Kobe, Nagasaki)
About a quarter of the respondents said that they would like to visit these three cities to see what many consider the best three nighttime views. Hakodate on Japan’s northernmost island of Hokkaido is famous for its gorgeous nighttime landscape as seen from the top of a nearby mountain. From its unique position on a peninsula, the city’s hourglass-like shape makes for a fantastic light display.
The nighttime view of Kobe, in Hyogo Prefecture, is best seen from the Mt. Maya observatory in the mountain range behind the bustling port city. From Mt. Maya, tourists can see a panoramic landscape of the densely populated Hanshin area where the cities of Kobe and Osaka merge into a sprawling metropolis of lights. And the hilly city of Nagasaki on Kyushu island in southern Japan makes for a breath-taking nighttime landscape of lights from the top of Mt. Inasa.