What we would skip in Japan

Here is what we take out, written the way we would say it on the phone from the Tokyo office.

The big ones

Buying the nationwide rail pass without doing the sum

The most expensive habit in Japanese trip planning. Since the 2023 price rise the pass frequently loses, and it loses hardest on exactly the itineraries we recommend, which have fewer and better chosen legs. A compressed Tokyo, Kyoto, Hiroshima and back loop can still justify it. A ten day trip with two moves almost never does.

Regional passes, which far fewer visitors know about, are often the right answer, and sometimes the right answer is simply individual tickets. We price every route both ways and show the difference. The arithmetic on three real itineraries is in is the Japan Rail Pass still worth it.

Seven ryokan nights

A proper ryokan with a private onsen and a full kaiseki dinner is one of the great experiences in travel. It is also a fixed structure: dinner at six thirty, breakfast at seven thirty, ten courses of it, and a room you are expected to be in.

Two nights across two weeks is our standing advice. The first night is spent learning how it works and the second is the one you enjoy. By the fourth, most people want toast, a chair and a lie-in. The money saved buys guiding, which changes days.

A fifth and sixth city

The single most common thing we remove from a draft somebody sends us. Above one hotel change every two and a half days a Japan trip becomes a job, and the trains being excellent does not change the arithmetic of packing, checking in and finding out where anything is. See how many days do you need in Japan.

Hiroshima as a day trip from Kyoto

It is possible and it is a long day with four hours on trains in it, and it means you see Miyajima at its most crowded and miss the island in the evening. One night in Hiroshima or on Miyajima itself costs you nothing extra in days and changes the quality of both.

Climbing Mount Fuji, on a cultural trip

The climbing season is roughly July to early September, the ascent is an overnight slog on volcanic gravel in a queue of head torches, and the summit is frequently in cloud. People who want it should have it, and we build it with the mountain hut booked and the right start time. It does not belong bolted onto a two week temple and food trip, and it has nothing to do with seeing Fuji, which you do from Hakone, the Fuji Five Lakes or the train window.

Hokkaido on a ten day trip

Hokkaido is wonderful and it is a long way north. On ten days it costs you a third of your trip in transfers. It belongs on a three week itinerary or on a dedicated winter trip.

The tourist-facing things

The Shibuya crossing photograph, as an activity

The crossing is genuinely impressive and it takes four minutes. Paid viewing decks and long escalator queues to look at a road junction are the definition of a manufactured attraction. Go once, from the window of the coffee shop above the station, and get on with your evening.

The robot and character dinner shows

Loud, expensive, and food that would be poor at half the price. If you want spectacle, a sumo practice visit or a small theatre programme is a better use of the same evening.

Geisha spotting in Gion

Some of the streets in Gion are private, photography is restricted in places and there are fines, and the practice of following working women down a lane to photograph them is unpleasant to watch. If the culture genuinely interests you, our office books a proper evening with a geiko or maiko where you sit, talk through an interpreter and watch the dances, which is the actual thing rather than a chase.

The tuna auction viewing gallery

An early start for a distant view through glass, capped numbers and a ballot. For most people the Toyosu market at a civilised hour and a breakfast sushi counter is the better version of the same morning.

Themed cafes, and queueing two hours for ramen

The famous ramen shops with two hour queues are good. They are not two hours better than the shop with nine seats around the corner that has no queue, which is where our office actually eats. Lunch at a serious restaurant, at a third of the dinner price and from the same kitchen, is the better trade every time.

Osaka Castle, inside

The exterior is magnificent. The interior is a concrete reconstruction with lifts and a museum. Look at it from the park, walk the grounds and spend the afternoon eating instead.

The ones that need conditions attached

Kinkakuji, Fushimi Inari and the Arashiyama bamboo grove

None of these is a skip. All three are ruined by arriving at eleven in the morning.

Fushimi Inari is a mountain of ten thousand gates and it is open all night. At seven in the morning or after dark it is one of the great places in Japan. The Arashiyama bamboo grove is fifteen minutes long and is best at seven thirty. Kinkakuji, the Golden Pavilion, is a single view and a twenty minute walk, so we schedule it at opening and never in the middle of a day.

Nara

Half a day, from a Kyoto or Osaka base. The Great Buddha and Kasuga’s forest earn it completely. A full day plus a hotel change does not, and the deer cracker scrum at the park entrance is not the reason to be there.

Nikko

Superb, and it is a two hour journey from Tokyo each way. As a day trip it is long. As one night, with the shrines in the early morning and the Kegon falls afterwards, it is one of the best additions to a Tokyo week.

The theme parks

A whole day each and genuinely well run. If your family wants one, we build it in with the tickets timed. What we will not do is pretend a day at a theme park is a day in Japan, and we will tell you what it costs you in the rest of the itinerary.

The Fuji view

Weather, not scheduling. Fuji is visible on roughly half the days in the cooler months and far fewer in summer haze. We build an alternative into the Hakone day rather than promising a mountain.

The practical skips

Skip the large suitcase. Japanese hotel rooms are small and station lockers are limited. One medium case each travels far better, and luggage forwarding at $15 to $20 a bag makes transfer days painless.

Skip tipping. It is not the custom and it causes confusion.

Skip the car, except in Hokkaido, the Noto and Izu peninsulas and rural Kyushu. Everywhere else it is a liability.

Skip booking a restaurant every night. Three or four booked dinners across two weeks, plus depachika food halls and neighbourhood counters for the rest, is a better fortnight than fourteen reservations you have to keep.

Skip same-day tickets for the capped experiences. The popular museums and digital art venues sell timed entry that goes weeks ahead. Our office books them with the itinerary.

Skip trying to catch both blossom and autumn. They are seven months apart and the attempt usually means travelling in a compromise week that is neither.

Skip the assumption that the hotel tier is what matters. The month you travel moves the cost and the quality of a Japan trip more than the standard of the room. The same Kyoto room in the first week of April can cost double what it costs in the second week of May.

What we would add instead

• Koyasan, a night in a temple lodging with a vegetarian dinner, morning prayers at six and the Okunoin cemetery among cedars and 200,000 graves.
• Kanazawa and the alps, which is where the classic route stops feeling classic.
• A fourth Tokyo day, spent in one neighbourhood rather than four, as set out in Tokyo in four days.
• A night on Miyajima, after the day visitors have gone.
• Naoshima and the Setouchi islands, slow and better for it, which is the shape of boutique Japan in 12 days.
• A genuine rest day, in the middle, with nothing in it. It is the single most valuable thing we add to a first draft.

The honest summary

Japan does not need to be seen quickly. The country is long, the trains make everything look close, and the trip that people remember has fewer stops than the one they first drafted. If we send back an outline with three of your cities removed and two rest days added, that is not us being unhelpful, it is the whole of the job.

Plan this trip

Send us the draft you already have and we will tell you what we would take out of it, and what our Tokyo office would put in. Free first outline, no obligation.

Start planning

Keep reading

• Japan: the complete guide to planning your trip
• How many days do you need in Japan?
• Is the Japan Rail Pass still worth it?
• Tokyo in four days, by neighbourhood
• Classic Japan in 14 days
• All our Japan trips

Frequently asked questions