Matsue-Shi, Japan

Straddling the strip of land between the lagoons of Nakaumi and Shinji-ko is MATSUE, the appealing prefectural capital of Shimane-ken, 180km east of Tsuwano, and one of the highlights of the San'in coast. Although the city's main sights – one of Japan's few original castles, Matsue-jō, an area of samurai residences, and the museum and one-time home of nineteenth-century expat writer Lafcadio Hearn – are so closely grouped together that they can all easily be seen in half a day, it's worth lingering here. The lakes, rivers and castle moat lend this modern city a soothing, faintly Venetian atmosphere, and it's still possible to catch glimpses of the old Japan that so enchanted Hearn a century ago, such as fishermen casting their nets in Shinji-ko, or prodding the lake bed with poles, searching out shellfish.