Four islands. One free afternoon. Spend it well.
A rail pass gets you there. This is the part that decides the trip: which morning at Fushimi Inari beats the crowds, what a tatami tea hour actually costs, and which Fuji coach turns back when the cloud sits low.
The tours that fill up before you land in Japan.
Every Japan review →Coach seats to the Fuji fifth station, a Shinjuku table for thirteen dishes, a dawn ticket for the market. These are the days travellers keep taking, and what each one is really like.
1
Mt Fuji and Hakone 1-Day Bus Tour Return by Bullet Train
Review the Mt Fuji and Hakone day tour from Tokyo, with Fuji views, ropeway, Lake Ashi cruise, buffet lunch, and bullet train return.
From · $163
Read our review →
2
1-Day Tokyo Bus Tour
from $129
3
PERFECT KYOTO 1-Day Bus Tour
from $129
4
TOKYO SKYTREE® Admission ticket
from $13
5
teamLab Planets TOKYO Digital Art Museum Entry Ticket
from $25
6
Mt Fuji & Hakone Cruise, Drum Show Bullet Train 1 Day from Tokyo
from $149
7
Sumo Show Experience with Chicken Hot Pot and a Photo
from $103
8
Shinjuku Food Tour (13 Dishes at 4 Local Eateries)
from $86
Japan is cheaper by the hour than you think.
Three price shelves, drawn from what the tours on this site actually charge. Most trips end up mixing all three.
Shrine walks, matcha on tatami, an observation deck at dusk, a market breakfast. The filler between the big days, and often the part people remember.
The full-day shape: Fuji and Hakone by coach, a Nishiki-to-Gion food walk, a sushi class where you eat what you rolled.
A licensed guide for the day, a chartered car through the Alps, a private boat off Ishigaki. Worth it when the group is four or the day is once.
- 1Mt Fuji and Hakone 1-Day Bus Tour Return by Bullet Trainfrom $163
- 21-Day Tokyo Bus Tourfrom $129
- 3PERFECT KYOTO 1-Day Bus Tourfrom $129
Tokyo runs on timetables. Book to the hour.
Thirteen million people share this city with you and most of them are already booked. The good tables seat eight, the sumo stables open at six, and Tsukiji is finished trading by the time a slow morning starts.
Kyoto opens early or not at all.
Two thousand temples and one narrow window. The torii tunnel at Fushimi is a private walk at seven and a shuffling queue by ten; Gion turns from postcard to lantern-lit street the moment the day trippers catch their train home.
Osaka eats standing up, and Kansai is half an hour away.
Dotonbori is loud, greasy and worth every yen — thirteen dishes down Shinsekai and you will not want dinner. Then the rest of Kansai sits inside a commuter fare: the deer at Nara, the white keep at Himeji, beef in Kobe.
- 1Osaka Go Karting Tour with Funny Costumefrom $46
- 2Osaka Castle: Museum and Tower Entry Ticketfrom $7
- 3Shinsekai Food Tour with 13-15 Dishes at 5 Eateriesfrom $53
The hours in Japan that are not sightseeing.
You can photograph a temple in four minutes. These three take an afternoon and are the reason people come back.
Sitting for Matcha
Chanoyu is choreography: the host turns the bowl so its face never points at you, and you turn it back before drinking. Kyoto has the machiya tea houses, Tokyo the garden pavilions, and most sessions run under an hour with the whisking done at your own knees. Wear socks without holes; the tatami sees everything.
- 1Tea Ceremony in a Traditional Tea House in Kiyomizu★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 3,519 reviews
- 2Tea Ceremony Ju-An at Jotokuji Temple★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 3,207 reviews
- 345-Minute Tea Ceremony Lesson Experience★★★★★★★★★★ 4.3 · 2,378 reviews
A Day in Kimono
A rental is not a costume shop. Dressing takes twenty minutes of folding and cording by a professional, and the obi is tied so you can still climb the steps at Kiyomizu. Hire is usually until six the same evening, hair and sandals included, with winter sets lined against the cold off the Kamo river.
- 1Kyoto Geisha Walking Tour: Gion District & Hidden Gems★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 3,273 reviews
- 2Gion Magical Night Walking Tour with Geisha Trivia★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 2,393 reviews
- 3Gion Geisha District Walking Tour – Stories of Geisha★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 2,187 reviews
Reading a Sake Label
Junmai or honjozo, how far the rice was polished, whether the brewery is in Nada or Niigata: it is all on the bottle if you can read it. A tasting flight is the cheapest way to find out whether you like the dry mountain style or the fruity ginjo end, and the good ones pour from tanks that never leave the prefecture.
- 13-Hour Kyoto Insider Sake Brewery Tour with Tastings & Pairings★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 917 reviews
- 2Arashiyama Bamboo, Temple, Monkeys, or Secret Sake Brewery★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 886 reviews
- 3Insider Sake Brewery Tour with Sake and Food Pairing★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 704 reviews
Snow reaches Japan in November and stays until April.
All winter tours →
1-Day Snow Monkeys, Zenko-ji Temple & Sake in Nagano
Read our review →
World Heritage Shirakawa-go and Experience Tours from Kanazawa
Read our review →Four things in Japan you cannot sort out on the day.
Almost everything here can be booked the night before from your hotel. These four run on tournament calendars, ticket drops and paperwork issued in your own country, and no amount of asking nicely at the door changes that.
- 01Flagship 2-Hours Official Street Go-Kart Tour – Tokyo Bay ShopThe licence you drive on is an International Driving Permit, issued at home before you fly. Nothing else is accepted at the garage.
- 02Sumo Morning Practice Viewing TourSix tournaments a year, fifteen days each. Outside those dates the only way in is a stable morning, and the stables take a handful of visitors.
- 03teamLab Planets TOKYO Digital Art Museum Entry TicketEntry is by timed slot and the evening slots clear first. There is no walk-up queue to join.
- 04DisneySea 1-Day PassportPassports are dated and capped per day. A sold-out date stays sold out however early you arrive at the gate.
The gap between two trains is enough for one good thing.
Japanese itineraries leave odd shapes: three hours before a Shinkansen, a morning after checkout, an afternoon when the temple you wanted is shut on Mondays. Short bookings fit those holes and cost less than the sandwich on the train.
The Shinkansen spine, city by city.
Sapporo
Tokyo
Nagano
Kanazawa
Kyoto
Osaka
HiroshimaBy city — where are you sleeping?
By experience — what shape is the day?
Six days that make a Japan trip worth the flight.
Each one leads to the full ranked list, with prices, group sizes and the traveller verdicts underneath.
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Gifu Samurai Sword Town;Japanese Damascus Knife Making Experience
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Sagano Romantic Train & Arashiyama, Kiyomizudera, Fushimi Inari Taisha Day Tour
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Food & Cultural Walking Tour around Zenkoji temple in Nagano
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