Kushimoto

Kushimoto is a fishing town at the southernmost tip of Honshu, hanging off the bottom of the Kii Peninsula in Wakayama Prefecture. The warm Kuroshio Current sweeps past, keeping coral alive offshore and the climate mild, and giving the town an end-of-the-map character all its own.

The Hashigui-iwa rocks march in a broken line toward Oshima island, a row of stone pillars that legend says a monk raised in a single night. Divers and glass-bottom boats explore Japan's first marine park at the cape, and the Shionomisaki lighthouse marks Honshu's southern edge above open ocean.

A memorial museum honors the Ottoman frigate Ertugrul, wrecked here in 1890 and the start of a long Japan-Turkey friendship. The Kisei line loops the peninsula through town, and Kushimoto pairs well with Nachi Falls and the Kumano shrines up the coast. Summer brings divers; winter stays gentle.