Plan the Japan days that fill up first.
Which Fuji coach still beats the cloud. What an hour on tatami costs in Kyoto and what it costs in Kanazawa. Whether the karts are worth the paperwork. Priced, timed and rated, tour by tour.
Fuji coaches, Shinjuku food alleys, sumo mornings.
Every review →Nothing else on the site sells like these. Each one priced, timed and rated, with what actually happens on the day.
1
Mt Fuji and Hakone 1-Day Bus Tour Return by Bullet Train
See Mt Fuji and Hakone in one long day, with 5th Station, ropeway, Lake Ashi cruise, and Shinkansen return to Tokyo.
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
The Japan you came for: Fuji, torii gates, tatami tea rooms.
The kinds of day most Japan itineraries are built around, and which version of each is worth the booking.
In Tokyo the good counters and the dawn stables go weeks out.
Thirteen dishes down a Shinjuku alley, a stable at six in the morning, a kart lap around the Shibuya crossing. The capital’s best hours are the ones somebody reserved.
A day out in Japan starts at the price of a bowl of ramen.
Every tour on the site, grouped by what the day actually costs. The middle of the range sits around $83.
Entry tickets, market mornings, tea rooms and standing-bar crawls.
The full-day classics: Fuji coaches, Hiroshima and Miyajima, cooking classes with lunch.
- 11-Day Tokyo Bus Tourfrom $129
- 2PERFECT KYOTO 1-Day Bus Tourfrom $129
- 3Mt Fuji & Hakone Cruise, Drum Show Bullet Train 1 Day from Tokyofrom $149
Private guides, chartered cars and the one splurge a trip can carry.
Mount Fuji shows up before ten, or not at all.
All 57 Mount Fuji day trips →
Cloud builds over the Fifth Station by early afternoon, so the coaches out of Shinjuku at eight see a mountain the later ones miss. These three carry the most travellers; the full list splits the rest by how you want to travel.
Fifth Station, Lake Ashi and the ropeway
Up the mountain road early, across Lake Ashi by boat, over the sulphur vents at Owakudani, back in Tokyo for dinner.
Arakurayama, Oshino Hakkai, the north shore
The pagoda-and-mountain frame from the Arakurayama steps, then the spring-fed ponds and Kawaguchiko’s far shore while the water is still flat.
Lakes, soba and an open-air bath
Swans on Lake Yamanaka at first light, soba by the water, and an outdoor bath with the summit sitting over the fence.
Kyoto is a city of doorways you have to reserve.
A thousand-odd temples, a handful of tea houses that take strangers, and lanes in Gion worth walking twice — once at four and once at eight. Kyoto pays back whoever booked ahead.
All 165 Kyoto tours →
A dawn stable, a thatched valley, a train worth boarding for its own sake.
Temples and night markets turn up all over Asia. These three do not travel.
The Sumo Keiko
A handful of Tokyo stables let visitors sit in on morning practice. No commentary, no music, no applause — salt on clay and the slap of a two-hundred-kilo shoulder, from six until about nine. Tournaments are a different animal: six a year, fifteen days each, and the chair seats go the day they are released.
- 1Sumo Show Experience with Chicken Hot Pot and a Photo★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 6,678 reviews
- 2Sumo Show and Dining Experience★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 2,742 reviews
- 3the SUMO show★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 1,960 reviews
The Gassho Villages
Three hours inland from Kanazawa the Shokawa valley still farms out of steep-thatched gassho houses, built at that angle to shed several metres of snow. The roofs are rethatched by the whole village, one house at a time, because no single family could manage it. Winter is the photograph; autumn is the easier road in.
- 1World Heritage Shirakawa-go and Experience Tours from Kanazawa★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 4,049 reviews
- 2World Heritage Shirakawa-go Morning Guided Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 988 reviews
- 3Gujo, Hida Takayama, and Shirakawa-go Day Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.4 · 398 reviews
The Shinkansen Leg
Nowhere else is the transport itself an attraction. Tokyo to Kyoto runs about two hours and ten minutes, leaves within seconds of the printed time, and puts Fuji in the right-hand windows roughly forty minutes out. Sit on the correct side and the ride does half the sightseeing.
- 1Mt Fuji and Hakone 1-Day Bus Tour Return by Bullet Train★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 26,383 reviews
- 2Mt Fuji & Hakone Cruise, Drum Show Bullet Train 1 Day from Tokyo★★★★★★★★★★ 4.0 · 7,413 reviews
- 3Tokyo Mt Fuji 5th St & Hakone Cruise Bus Tour w/Bullet Train★★★★★★★★★★ 4.4 · 5,024 reviews
Osaka measures a night out in skewers, not hours.
Kuidaore — eat until you fall over — is the local boast, and Dotonbori takes it literally. Work the canal one takoyaki stall at a time, climb the castle to earn the next round, then finish in the kushikatsu alleys under Shinsekai. One rule down there: never double-dip the sauce.
- 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
Tsuyu arrives in June and washes out the view, not the trip.
The rain front sits over Honshu for roughly six weeks from early June, and August throws down without warning. The answers are all indoors and most of them beat the view you lost: a tatami tea room, a knife and a cutting board, a brewery cellar, a workshop with a kiln in the back.
The Japan bookings that close before you land.
Most of Japan can be arranged from your hotel the night before. These cannot. They run on timed ticket releases, monthly sales and paperwork that has to be issued in your own country.
- 01teamLab Planets TOKYO Digital Art Museum Entry TicketTimed-entry slots, released ahead of the date. Evening windows go first.
- 02Tokyo Studio Ghibli Museum and Ghibli Film Appreciation TourTickets go on sale once a month and are gone the same day. There is no window at the gate.
- 03Flagship 2-Hours Official Street Go-Kart Tour – Tokyo Bay ShopAn International Driving Permit has to be issued at home before you fly. No permit, no kart.
- 04Sumo Tournament Tour with Chair Seat TicketsSix tournaments a year, fifteen days each. The chair seats go the day they release.
- 05DisneySea 1-Day PassportDate-stamped passports, and peak weekends sell out well before the gate opens.
Neon, paper lanterns and engine noise: Japan after nine.
All night tours →
Osaka Bar Hopping Night Walking Tour in Namba (3 bars, 6 tastes)
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EVO, WRX, Skyline – JDM Night Run to Daikoku Car Meet
Read our review →By region — where are you based?
By experience — what do you want the day to be?
The Tokaido and Sanyo line, stop by stop.
Nagoya
HimejiNewest Japan reviews.
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From Takayama: Guided Day Trip to Takayama and Shirakawa-go
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Cycling Tour at Uji’s Matcha Green Tea Fields and Heritage
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Cool Kyoto: 5-Hour Walking Tour with the Last Samurai
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Private Japanese Cooking Class with a Local Chef
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Guided Cup Noodles Museum Tour & Make Your Own Cup
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Kyoto Ume Liqueur Experience with CHOYA – Make Your Souvenir
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Calligraphy & print your calligraphy on a T-shirt.
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Calligraphy Class for Beginners in a Century-old House
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Casual Japanese sake tasting and snack experience, Kabukicho
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Candlelit Zen: Evening Meditation at Kyoto’s Secret Temple
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