Look down on the town from a hilltop cafe
In Japan's hillside port towns, some cafes and viewing rooms sit high above the streets, and from their windows the rooftops, harbor and sea spread out below you. Order a drink or a sweet, sit back and let the view be the main event. All of these are in western Japan, between Hiroshima and Nagasaki, so they fit best into a trip to that region.
This cafe is in an old Japanese house at the top of a steep lane in Onomichi, a port town built on a hillside above the Seto Inland Sea. From the tatami room and the terrace, you look over tiled rooftops to the Onomichi Channel, the narrow strip of sea between the town and the island across it. The lanes are steep and partly stepped, so wear comfortable shoes.
This guesthouse sits right beside Senkoji, the temple high on the hill above Onomichi, in a villa built in the early 20th century. From the counter at its big window, the town, the channel and the islands look like a miniature garden laid out below. It is about a 20-minute uphill walk from JR Onomichi Station, and whether its cafe-bar is open to non-guests may vary, so check before you go.
From this cafe on a hillside in Nagasaki's Aburagi area, big windows look out over the city spread across the valley below. Along with coffee it serves local favorites such as Turkish rice, a Nagasaki plate that combines a pork cutlet, spaghetti and pilaf, and melon cream soda, a bright green soda topped with ice cream.
From 103 m up, this glass-walled viewing room looks down on the old harbor of Mojiko and the Kanmon Strait, the narrow channel between Japan's main island and Kyushu, with ships sliding past below. It stays open into the evening, so you can come back after dark for the lights along the strait. It is a few minutes' walk from Mojiko Station in Kitakyushu.