What are the best things to do in Japan for a first visit?

Tokyo for the city, Kyoto for the temples, and one day out of each: a shrine morning, a mountain or a castle, and an evening on a food street. That covers the three kinds of day the country does best.

How many days do you need to see Japan's highlights?

Five gets you Tokyo and Kyoto. Ten adds Nara, Osaka and a day trip out of the capital without changing hotel every night. Beyond that you are choosing between Hiroshima, the Alps, Kanazawa and the islands, not fitting them all in.

What should I wear to temples and shrines in Japan?

There is no sarong rule here. Dress normally and behave well: bow at the torii, rinse your hands at the basin, put coins in the box, and at a Shinto shrine bow twice, clap twice and bow once. Shoes come off where a step and a shoe rack say so.

Do I need to book things in advance in Japan?

Hotels and long-distance seats, yes, especially in cherry blossom season from mid-March into April, from late October to early December for the autumn colour, and around Golden Week, Obon and New Year. Shrines and parks are mostly walk-up; Fushimi Inari-taisha is free and open around the clock.

What is worth doing outside Tokyo and Kyoto?

Himeji Castle, listed by UNESCO in 1993; Nara for the deer park and Todai-ji; Kanazawa for its garden and samurai streets; Miyajima for the island shrine; Hiroshima for the Peace Memorial Park. Each is a day, and each is a train.

What can you do in Japan when it rains?

Museums in Ueno, a covered market like Nishiki, a department store food hall, an arcade floor in Akihabara, or an onsen, which is better in bad weather anyway. The rainy season runs early June to mid-July, so plan indoor days into that window rather than fighting it.

Best Things to Do in Japan: Temples, Castles, Mountains,

Shrines, temples and the old capitals

Start in Kyoto, capital from 794 to 1868, with roughly 2,000 temples and shrines and seventeen historic monuments inscribed by UNESCO in 1994. Fushimi Inari-taisha, founded in 711, is free and open around the clock, with about 800 gates in the Senbon Torii tunnel out of roughly 10,000 on the hill. Kiyomizu-dera is older than the city itself; Kinkaku-ji, rebuilt in 1955, carries gold leaf on its top two floors. In Nara, Todai-ji was founded in 738 and opened in 752 and holds the world's largest bronze Buddha Vairocana. Tokyo's Senso-ji, founded in 645, is the most visited religious site in the world.

Castles, gardens and old quarters

Himeji Castle is the one to see if you see one: 83 structures, the finest surviving example of the old castle architecture, listed by UNESCO on 11 December 1993 among the country's first sites, and reopened after restoration on 27 March 2015. Kanazawa keeps its samurai streets, and its garden Kenrokuen, one of the three great gardens of Japan, opened to the public in 1875 across about 10 hectares; the Hokuriku Shinkansen has brought it within around two and a half hours of Tokyo since 14 March 2015. Shirakawa-go, a village of steep thatched gassho-zukuri farmhouses, is a UNESCO site together with Gokayama. Hiroshima's Peace Memorial Park draws over a million visitors a year and its A-Bomb Dome was listed in 1996.

Islands, mountains and hot springs

Itsukushima, the island better known as Miyajima in Hiroshima Bay, has been counted among the Three Views of Japan since 1643; its shrine is a UNESCO site, its five-storied pagoda dates to 1407, and Mount Misen rises to 535 metres with a ropeway that leaves a thirty-minute walk to the top. Mount Fuji, 3,776 metres and about 100 km south-west of Tokyo, was listed as a cultural site in 2013. The Japanese Alps cut across central Honshu, with Kamikochi as the walking base and ropeways that opened between 1967 and 1971. Everywhere in between there are onsen: bathe naked, wash first, keep the small towel out of the water, and check the tattoo policy before you pay.

Markets, food streets and the night

Nishiki Market in Kyoto runs about 400 metres between Takakura and Teramachi as a covered arcade of roughly 130 food shops, which is why it is called Kyoto's kitchen. In Tokyo, the Tsukiji outer market still sells breakfast, although the wholesale market closed on 6 October 2018 and moved to Toyosu. Osaka's Dotonbori runs along a canal begun in 1612 and finished in 1615, and it is where takoyaki and okonomiyaki belong. For the night, Shinjuku's Golden Gai packs over 200 tiny bars into six alleys, most opening at nine or ten, and photography in the street needs permission. Slurping is fine, tipping is not done, and the convenience stores are genuinely good.

The trains, and the days that are only about moving

The rail network is itself one of the things to do. Japan has 27,182 km of railway, some 250 shinkansen trains run on 2,951.3 km of dedicated line at 260 to 320 km/h, and the Tokaido Shinkansen has linked Tokyo, Yokohama, Nagoya and Osaka since 1964 over 552.6 km. Tokyo to Kyoto takes around two and a half hours and Kyoto to Osaka fifteen minutes, which is why two cities in one trip is normal here. Buy a reserved seat when you have a big case, since oversized luggage needs a booked space on the Tokaido line, and use a Suica or Pasmo for everything local. Trains leave on time, and that is not a figure of speech.

Things that only happen on a date, and staying online

Some of the best days in Japan are fixed to the calendar. Kyoto's Gion Matsuri runs through July, with its two float processions on 17 and 24 July and the yoiyama evenings before each, when the downtown streets close to traffic; the festival has been held annually since around the year 1000. Hiroshima holds its Peace Memorial Ceremony on 6 August. Cherry blossom comes mid-March into April and autumn colour from late October to early December. Against that, Golden Week from 29 April to 5 May, Obon in mid-August and the New Year days fill trains and hotels, so either book months ahead or travel around them.

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