With its apple orchards, cherry trees and backdrop of the Hakkoda Mountains, this city on the northern tip of Honshu island is a gateway to some of Japan's most beautiful landscapes. About 30 miles south is UNESCO World Heritage Site Shirakami Sanchi, a mountainous area with the last of East Asia' virgin beech forests. Walking trails here lead to waterfalls and lakes, and you may spot golden eagles, black woodpeckers, Japanese macaques and even shy black bears as you go. Some 40 miles southeast, deep-blue Lake Towada is serenely breathtaking and offers gentle activities from walking to canoeing and boat rides. The Aomori area also enjoys a vibrant contemporary arts scene, from the gleaming white Aomori Museum of Art, complete with a colossal dog statue by Yoshitomo Nara, to the Hirosaki Museum of Contemporary Art, strikingly set in a former brewery, and Towada Art Center with eye-popping sculpture.

If Japan conjures up images of sprawling mega-cities and neon-decked skyscrapers, the northernmost island of Hokkaido offers a very different experience. Kushiro, on the east coast, is most famous for its natural landscapes, particularly the Kushiro Marsh – home to deer, sea eagles, and the iconic Japanese crane, which overwinters on the island. The city has much to offer, too, from the bustling Fisherman's Wharf, which is dominated by the EGG (Evergreen Garden), and a spectacular dome-shaped greenhouse filled with indigenous plants and trees, to a bowl of kattedon at the Washo Fish Market – a bowl of rice, topped with seafood of your choice.

If you're going on a bear hunt, there are few better places to do – the 3,500 Kodiak bears on this island equates to one every 0.7 square mile. You'll find this unique sub-species of brown bear and mainland grizzly reaching a paw into a salmon-rich river or ambling about the Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge – its pristine forests and meadows explain why Kodiak's moniker is the Emerald Isle. This could equally be called the fishing island, with halibut, salmon, and king crab all found in the waters lapping its shores. And don't forget the whales – this is one of Alaska's best places to watch them.

With snow-ringed peaks and the icy-blue waters of Kachemak Bay as a backdrop to paintbox-bright wooden buildings on stilts, Homer is known as a creative hub for good reason. Do an art crawl of the galleries from Pioneer Avenue to the end of the 4.5-mile Spit to see works rendered in paper, beads and glass, and afterwards feast on catch of the day at one of the restaurants on the shoreline (this is the halibut fishing capital of the world). The wilderness is never too far away in Alaska: here, sightings could include bears digging for clams at low tide and eagles soaring overhead.