시마네현

Shimane is a remote prefecture on the San'in coast of western Honshu, facing the Sea of Japan far from the shinkansen corridors. It is Japan's mythic heartland, where the nation's gods are said to gather each autumn, and its shrines and gardens repay the long way around.

Izumo Taisha, the shrine of that divine assembly, draws pilgrims praying for good matches beneath enormous twisted straw ropes. The Adachi Museum of Art frames a garden ranked the finest in Japan through its windows like living paintings, and the UNESCO-listed Iwami Ginzan silver mine hides in wooded hills.

Finish with Izumo soba served in stacked lacquer bowls and a soak at Tamatsukuri Onsen, whose waters have been praised since the ancient chronicles. Matsue's lakeside castle town makes the natural base, reached by limited express from Okayama. October, the gods' month by the old calendar, suits the theme.