Deep Japan: 21 days
Three weeks is where Japan stops being a highlights route and becomes a country. This one goes north into Tohoku, which almost no foreign visitor reaches, then back down through the craft towns of the centre and out to the Setouchi art islands in the west.
- Duration
- 21 days
- Pace
- Moderate
- Hotel changes
- 8
- Best months
- May, Jun, Sep, Oct, Nov
- From
- $7,800 per person
Who it suits: second visits, retired travellers with time, and first-timers who would rather do it once and properly.
Day by day
Days 1 to 4: Tokyo. Arrival, two guided days across the old east and the modern west, and a free day for Kamakura, Nikko or the city.
Day 5: Tokyo to Sendai. Shinkansen north into Tohoku. Afternoon at the Zuihoden mausoleum.
Day 6: Matsushima and Yamadera. The pine-island bay, then the mountain temple with its thousand steps and the view that justifies them.
Day 7: Sendai to Nyuto Onsen. Deep into the mountains to a group of remote hot-spring inns, some of them 350 years old. Milky white water, wooden bathhouses, snow in season.
Day 8: Nyuto and Lake Tazawa. Nothing scheduled beyond the bath and the lake.
Day 9: Nyuto to Kakunodate and Hirosaki. The samurai streets of Kakunodate, then north to Hirosaki’s castle and apple country.
Day 10: Hirosaki to Kanazawa. A long rail day, broken with a stop. Evening in the teahouse district.
Day 11: Kanazawa. Omicho market, Kenroku-en, the 21st Century Museum and a gold-leaf workshop.
Day 12: Kanazawa to Takayama. Shirakawa-go on the way. Evening in the old town.
Day 13: Takayama to Kyoto. Morning market, then rail south.
Days 14 to 16: Kyoto. Eastern Kyoto, western Kyoto, Nara, and a free day. Early access at one temple before it opens.
Day 17: Kyoto to the Kii Peninsula. Koyasan by cable car, the Okunoin cemetery at dusk, temple lodging and a vegetarian dinner.
Day 18: Koyasan to Naoshima. Morning prayers, then west to the art islands.
Day 19: Naoshima and Teshima. Chichu, Benesse House and the Teshima Art Museum, by bicycle and ferry.
Day 20: Naoshima to Osaka. Afternoon free, a proper last dinner.
Day 21: Departure.
What is included
Accommodation throughout including three ryokan and one temple lodging with meals, all rail and the regional passes that make this route affordable, four guided days, museum admissions on the islands, the Kanazawa workshop, luggage forwarding on every leg, restaurant reservations, and our Tokyo office on WhatsApp for three weeks.
Honest notes
Tohoku’s rural accommodation is traditional: futons, tatami and shared bathing. That is the point. English is thinner here than anywhere else on this route, which is exactly why the document and the Tokyo office matter. Winter closes some of the mountain roads, so this itinerary runs May to November.
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