Chugoku Travel Guide — Things to Do, Food & Hotels
region of Japan
About Chugoku
The nameChugokuliterally means "Middle Country", the sole surviving relic of a historical division of Japan into "Near Countries" (近国Kingoku), "Middle Countries" and "Far Countries" (遠国Ongoku), based on distance from the capitalKyoto. Strictly speaking, today's Chugoku covers only the Middle Countries along the San'indo and San'yodo roads, and henceOkayamais sometimes not considered a full part of Chugoku, as only 1 of its 3 component provinces (Bitchu Province) belonged to the Middle Country. Bizen and Mimasaka Provinces, along with Tottori's Inaba Province, were part of the Near Countries. InJapanese, the characters 中国 and the readingChugokuare also used to mean "China". (The same characters are used in Chinese, but pronouncedZhongguo.) So the Chugoku region is usually referred to with
Chugoku Travel Guide Sections
Our comprehensive guide covers 11 sections including: