Kyushu National Museum

Japan's history seen through Asia, the Kyushu National Museum sits on a wooded hillside in Dazaifu, on the edge of Fukuoka, and is one of only a handful of national museums in the country. Opened in 2005, it takes a distinctive angle among its peers, framing the story of Japanese culture through the island nation's long history of exchange with the wider Asian continent, a fitting theme for a museum in Kyushu, Japan's historic gateway to the mainland.

The building itself is a landmark. A vast, gently undulating roof of glass and titanium curves against the green hills, its mirrored surface reflecting the surrounding forest so that the structure seems to dissolve into the landscape. Inside, a soaring, light-filled hall leads to galleries that trace prehistory, trade, Buddhism and the arrival of foreign ideas across the centuries through ceramics, scrolls, sculpture and archaeological finds.

It is tied to a famous shrine. The museum is linked to the celebrated Dazaifu Tenmangu, dedicated to the deity of learning, by a walkway and a set of escalators and a moving tunnel through the hill, so many visitors combine the ancient shrine and the modern museum in a single outing. The pairing of spiritual pilgrimage and cultural learning makes for a rich half-day.

For practical planning, the museum lies a short walk from Dazaifu Station and charges a reasonable admission for the permanent galleries, with additional fees for special exhibitions. It is fully accessible and comfortable in any weather. Spring, when plum blossoms cloud the neighbouring shrine, is an especially rewarding time to visit, though the collection rewards a stop in any season. The escalator link to the neighbouring shrine makes pairing ancient devotion with modern scholarship remarkably easy.