世論 What Japan Thinks

As my entry for the upcoming Japan Blog Matsuri, this time being hosted by Bill at Rising Sun of Nihon, may I present the latest research from goo Ranking on one of the strange and uniquely Japanese (well, I’ve never heard of such a thing back home at least!) custom of enumerating famous locations, etc, as the Three Great Things. The research for this was conducted between the 18th and 20th of January, but no further demographic information is available. All the sights will be linked to relevant images or web pages, so feel free to click through to see what the fuss is about. However, some of the text may be Japanese if I can’t find a suitable English web page. Note there is also a WikiTravel article on a few of Japan’s Three Greats. Also note that the order they appear doesn’t imply a 1, 2, 3 rank.

Ranking results

Q: Which of the “Japan’s Three Greats” do you most want to see?

Rank	Greatness	Locations	Score
1	Japan’s Three Great Views	Matsushima, Miyagi, Amanohashidate, Kyoto, Miyajima, Hiroshima	100
2	Japan’s Three Famous Mountains	Mount Fuji, Mount Tateyama, Mount Hakusan	94.1
3	Japan’s Three Great Night Views	Hakodate City, Kobe City, Nagasaki City	90.4
4	Japan’s Three Great Fireworks Festivals	Omagari Fireworks Competition, Akita, Tsuchiura All Japan Fireworks Competition, Ibaraki, Nagaoka Matsuri, Niigata	77.9
5	Japan’s Three Famous Gardens	Kairakuen, Ibaraki, Kenrokuen, Kanazawa, Korakuen, Okayama	61.7
6	Japan’s Three Great China Towns	Yokohama China Town, Kobe Nankinmachi, Nagasaki Chinatown	57.2
7	Japan’s Three Famous Castles	Nagoya Castle, Himeji Castle, Kumamoto Castle	55.1
8	Japan’s Three Great Ancient Sakura (Cherry blossom trees)	Miharu Takizakura, Usuzumi Sakura, Jindai Sakura	54.5
9	Japan’s Three Great Gorges	Kurobe Gorge, Toyama, Kiyotsu Gorge, Niigata, Osugi Gorge, Mie	51.6
10	Japan’s Three Old Springs	Dogo Onsen, Ehime, Shirahama Onsen, Wakayama, Arima Onsen, Hyogo	49.7
11	Japan’s Three Great Limestone Caves	Ryusendo, Iwate, Akiyoshido, Yamaguchi, Ryugado, Kochi	48.4
12	Japan’s Three Great Buddhas	Todaiji Temple’s Great Buddha, Nara, Great Buddha of Kamakura, Great Buddha of Takaoka	48.1
13	Japan’s Three Great Festivals	Gion Festival, Kyoto, Tenjin Festival, Osaka, Kanda Festival, Tokyo	47.9
14	Japan’s Three Famous Waterfalls	Nachi Waterfall, Wakayama, Kegon Waterfall, Tochigi, Fukoroda Waterfall, Ibaraki	44.4
15	Japan’s Three Great Secluded Regions	Shiragawa-go, Gifu, Iya Valley, Tokushima, Shiiba, Miyasaki	38.3
16	Japan’s Three Great Sand Dunes	Kujukuri-hama, Chiba, Tottori Sand Dunes, Enshu Bay (Nakatajima) Sand Hill, Shizuoka	37.2
17	Japan’s Three Great Zoos	Ueno Zoo, Tokyo, Tennoji Zoo, Osaka, Toyama Zoo, Aichi	37.2
18	Japan’s Three Great Clear Streams	Kakita River, Nagara River, Shimanto River	34.0
19	Japan’s Three Great Dams	Okutadami Dam, Kurobe Dam, Miboro Dam	30.9
20	Japan’s Three Great Strange Festivals	Onbashira Festival, Namahage Festival, Yoshida Fire Festival	30.9
21	Japan’s Three Great Burial Mounds	Tomb of Emperor Nintoku, Tomb of Emperor Ojin, Tomb of Emperor Richu	27.1
22	Japan’s Three Great Temples	Daianji Temple, Gankouji Temple, Koufukuji Temple	26.9
23	Japan’s Three Famous Bridges	Nihonbashi, Tokyo, Kintaikyo Bridge, Yamaguchi, Spectacles Bridge, Nagasaki	24.5
24	Japan’s Three Great Electrical Districts	Akihabara, Tokyo, Nipponbashi (Den-Den Town), Osaka, Osu, Nagoya	23.4
25	Japan’s Three Great Rapid Rivers	Mogami River, Fuji River, Kuma River	20.7
26	Japan’s Three Great Rivers	Shinano River, Tone River, Ishikari River	19.9
27	Japan’s Three Great Disappointments	Shureimon, Okinawa, Harimaya Bridge, Kochi, Sapporo Clock Tower	19.9
28	Japan’s Three Great Morning Markets	Wajima Morning Market, Ishigawa, Takayama Morning Market, Gifu, Katsuura Morning Market, Chiba	19.1
29	Japan’s Three Tathagata (Buddhas)	Thus Come One Amida, Nakano Zenkoji Temple, Thus Come One Shakamuni, Kyoto Seiryoji Temple, Thus Come One Medicine Master, Kyoto Inabado Hall	17.3
30	Japan’s Three Great Tunnels	Kanetsu Tunnel, Mount Ena Tunnel, Shin Kobe Tunnel	14.1