Boutique Japan: 12 unhurried days
For travellers who judge a trip by the rooms and the rhythm. Small architect-designed hotels, one exceptional ryokan, private transfers instead of dragging cases through stations, no departure before nine, and the Setouchi art islands at the end where the whole point is slowness.
- Duration
- 12 days
- Pace
- Slow
- Hotel changes
- 4
- Best months
- Apr, May, Oct, Nov
- From
- $5,900 per person
Who it suits: design-minded travellers, second visits, and anyone who has done the classic route and wants a different register.
Day by day
Day 1: Arrive Tokyo. Private transfer to a small hotel in Nihonbashi or Aoyama, not a tower.
Day 2: Tokyo: architecture. A private guided morning through Omotesando’s buildings and the Nezu Museum, afternoon in the galleries of Roppongi or the boutiques of Daikanyama.
Day 3: Tokyo. Free. Coffee, ceramics, a bathhouse, whatever the day asks for.
Day 4: Tokyo to Hakone. Private car. One night in a ryokan suite with its own open-air bath and a kaiseki dinner.
Day 5: Hakone to Kyoto. Morning in the open-air museum, then rail west with luggage sent ahead. A machiya townhouse hotel in central Kyoto.
Day 6: Kyoto: private access. A temple opened for you before public hours, then a morning with a ceramicist in the eastern hills. Afternoon free.
Day 7: Kyoto. Free. Our document lists the galleries, the coffee and the two gardens that are empty on a Tuesday.
Day 8: Kyoto to Naoshima. Rail and ferry to the art islands. Two nights at a design hotel on the water.
Day 9: Naoshima and Teshima. Chichu Art Museum, the Benesse House collection, and the Teshima Art Museum, which is the one people do not stop talking about. Bicycles between them.
Day 10: Naoshima to Osaka. Ferry and rail. Afternoon free, a considered dinner.
Day 11: Osaka. Free day, or a private day trip to Nara’s quieter temples.
Day 12: Departure. Private transfer to Kansai.
What is included
Design hotels and one ryokan suite throughout, private transfers on the long legs, Green Car rail elsewhere, all museum admissions on the islands including the timed-entry ones, two private guided mornings, the ceramicist session, luggage forwarding, restaurant reservations, and our Tokyo office on WhatsApp.
Booking notes
The island hotels are small and book out six to nine months ahead in spring and autumn. Several island museums close on Mondays and some close seasonally, so the day order is fixed around them rather than around convenience.
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