Fuji at dawn, ramen by midnight.
Sushi counters at Toyosu, cedar avenues at Nikko, snow monkeys sitting in their own hot spring, and a rail network that turns half the country into a day trip. What each one is really like, what it costs, and where to book.
The days people fly for.
A dawn practice session at a working sumo stable, a knife-sharp sushi counter at Toyosu, the train out to a mountain that decides its own weather. These are the reservations the rest of an itinerary gets built around.
Mt Fuji and Hakone 1-Day Bus Tour Return by Bullet Train
Bus and Shinkansen day trip to Mt. Fuji and Hakone, with 5th Station views, Ropeway, Lake Ashi cruise, and lunch options.
From $163 per person
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The mountain decides the day.
Fuji spends a fortnight behind cloud and then stands there all morning as if it never left, so the good trips plan around the gamble: an early departure, the lake shore while the water is still flat, a cable car for the height, and a reserved seat home before the evening rush. Check the forecast two days out and move this one to the clearest sky.
Which Japan are you booking?
Two weeks does not cover the country and neither does three. Pick the version you want this time, and the list behind each card does the rest of the work.
City first
Tokyo and Osaka
from $86 · 6,603 reviews
Neon, department-store food halls and a train every two minutes. Book the walks that get you off the main crossing and into the standing bars under the railway arches, then spend the next evening eating your way along Dotonbori. Best for short trips and first visits.
See the city walks →
Temples and tea
Kyoto and Nara
510 minutes - 9 hours · from $122 · 4,316 reviews
Torii tunnels climbing the hill behind Fushimi, a tea room that runs to the minute, deer that bow for crackers under the eaves at Todai-ji. Mornings are the whole trick here: many gates open around six, and the coach groups do not arrive until ten.
See the Kyoto days →
Mountains and coast
Hakone, Hida, Hokkaido
from $163 · 26,383 reviews
Sulphur steam drifting off Owakudani, a lake ferry with the mountain behind it, thatched roofs at Shirakawa-go, snow monkeys sitting in their own hot spring. Fewer trains, longer views, and the part of the country most first trips leave out.
See the slower days →
Japan gets better after seven.
The places worth finding seat eight, hang a cloth over the door and print nothing in English. A guide gets you through the noren and orders the thing that is not on the wall: skewers under the railway arches in Osaka, a standing bar in Sapporo, one more stop before the last train.
Dinner is where the trip happens.
Standing sushi in a side street off the market, a ramen counter in Fukuoka with nine seats and one broth, gyoza folded badly by you in a Kyoto kitchen. Three hours of eating that beat a week of reading about it.
Leave with a skill, not a keyring.
A knife sharpened until it frightens you, indigo dye that stays on your fingers for two days, a sword drawn the correct way in a working dojo. Short sessions, real teachers, and something to carry home that you actually made.
Kyoto keeps its own hours.
Gravel raked before breakfast, incense in a hall that has burned it for twelve centuries, a machiya kitchen two streets off the tourist route. The city rewards early starts and quiet feet: shoes off where the sign says so, no photographs inside the halls, and the coaches are gone again by four.
Japan comes in regions, not cities.
Tokyo for the first three days. Kyoto and Nara for the temples and the deer. Osaka to eat. Hiroshima for the ferry across to the torii standing in the water. Hakone and Hida when the trains have worn you out.
Walk, eat, ride or sit still.
Some days you walk fifteen kilometres. Some days you sit down and eat for three hours. Choose the sort of day you are after and the list behind it is ready.
The country starts past the ticket gate.
The rail network turns half of Japan into a day trip. A ferry out to a torii standing in the sea, a garden pruned to the same plan for four hundred years, thatched farmhouses under snow, and a reserved seat back in time for dinner.
Three bases, ten days.
Nobody sees Japan in one trip. Three bases and a rail pass will show you a great deal of it, and this is the order that works: land in the east, move west, finish somewhere slower.
Days 1–4
Tokyo, straight off the plane
Jet lag is useful here: the fish market and the sumo stables both start before six. Give the afternoons to a walking tour and the evenings to a guide who knows which doorways open.
Start in Tokyo →
Days 5–7
West to Kyoto and Nara
Two and a quarter hours on the shinkansen buys you temples, tea and a park full of deer. Book the early temple slots, keep one afternoon for Nishiki Market, and give Nara a day of its own.
Plan the Kyoto days →
Days 8–10
Finish somewhere slower
Trade the timetable for a soak. Hakone for the lake and the sulphur steam, Hida for the thatched roofs and the sake cellars, Okinawa if you would rather end the trip in the sea.
Pick the last stop →
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