Japan: Tokyo, the Alps and Kyoto

1. Day 1: Arrive in Tokyo

   Haneda or Narita airport to your hotel, welcome dinner

   • Welcome dinner
   • Stay in Tokyo
   Day 1 details

   Fly into Tokyo Haneda (HND) or Narita (NRT). We meet you in the arrivals hall and drive you to your hotel in central Tokyo, your base for three nights; Haneda is about 30 to 45 minutes away, Narita closer to 90. The afternoon is yours to rest or take a first walk. In the early evening your guide meets the group in the lobby and explains how the trip works: the early mornings, the trains, and the vehicle that will carry your suitcases from day 4 so you never haul them through a station. Then a welcome dinner at a neighbourhood izakaya, the small Japanese pubs where plates of yakitori, sashimi and pickles arrive one after another to share.

   Included

   • Pick-up at Tokyo Haneda (HND) or Narita (NRT) airport
   • Welcome meeting with your guide
   • Welcome dinner at an izakaya

   Free time: Afternoon free

2. Day 2: Old and new Tokyo

   Senso-ji at first light, Yanaka, Shibuya and Shinjuku after dark

   • By train
   • Breakfast
   • Stay in Tokyo
   Day 2 details

   Start early in Asakusa at Senso-ji, Tokyo's oldest temple, founded in the 7th century. At first light the red Kaminarimon gate and its giant paper lantern stand almost alone, the shutters on Nakamise street are still down and locals come to pray before work. Breakfast follows, then the metro to Yanaka, an old neighbourhood of temples, wooden houses and small family shops that survived the 1923 earthquake and the war. Walk its lanes and the Yanaka Ginza shopping street with your guide. After a rest at the hotel through the middle of the day, the evening shows the other Tokyo: the view over Shibuya Crossing from the Shibuya Sky rooftop deck, then the neon of Shinjuku and the tiny bars of Omoide Yokocho.

   Included

   • Senso-ji and Asakusa at first light
   • Guided walk in Yanaka
   • Shibuya Sky rooftop deck at dusk
   • Evening walk in Shinjuku and Omoide Yokocho
   • Metro fares on an IC card

   Free time: Midday free for rest

   Activity: A 6 am start and about 4 to 5 hours on foot over the day.

   

3. Day 3: Meiji Jingu, Tsukiji and a free afternoon

   Morning shrine walk and market tasting, then Tokyo on your own

   • By train
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Tokyo
   Day 3 details

   Meiji Jingu opens at sunrise, and the early hour is the time to walk its wide gravel paths through a forest of about 100,000 trees, planted when the shrine was built for Emperor Meiji and Empress Shoken in 1920. You pass under huge wooden torii and see the wall of sake barrels given by brewers. Then cross the city to the Tsukiji Outer Market, which stayed when the wholesale fish market moved to Toyosu in 2018. Your guide leads a tasting walk through its stalls: tamagoyaki omelette, fresh tuna, grilled scallops and matcha, enough for lunch. The afternoon is yours, with tips from your guide: the art museums of Ueno, the shops of Ginza, a Sumida River boat or simply a nap.

   Included

   • Meiji Jingu shrine early in the morning
   • Guided tasting walk in the Tsukiji Outer Market, as lunch

   Free time: Afternoon and evening free

4. Day 4: Mount Fuji and a ryokan night

   Tokyo to Lake Kawaguchiko by private vehicle, about 2 hours

   • Drive about 2 h
   • Breakfast and dinner
   • Stay in Lake Kawaguchiko
   Day 4 details

   From today a private vehicle and driver travel with the group, and your suitcases go in the back. The drive west to Lake Kawaguchiko, one of the Fuji Five Lakes at the foot of Mount Fuji, takes about 2 hours. In the afternoon walk the flower beds of Oishi Park on the north shore, where the 3,776 m volcano, a World Heritage site since 2013, rises across the water when the cloud allows. Then check in to a traditional ryokan for the night. Change into a yukata, soak in the hot spring onsen, and sit down to a kaiseki dinner of many small seasonal courses. You sleep on futons laid out on the tatami while you eat. Bring a small overnight bag; the rest stays in the vehicle.

   Included

   • Private vehicle and driver from Tokyo
   • Oishi Park on Lake Kawaguchiko
   • A night in a ryokan with onsen
   • Kaiseki dinner at the ryokan

   Free time: Late afternoon at the ryokan

5. Day 5: Fuji at dawn, Matsumoto Castle, into the Alps

   Chureito Pagoda at first light, Matsumoto, Route 158 to Takayama

   • Drive about 4.5 h
   • Breakfast
   • Stay in Takayama
   Day 5 details

   Leave the ryokan at first light for Arakurayama Sengen Park, where about 400 steps climb to Chureito Pagoda, the five-storey pagoda built in 1963 as a peace memorial. From the terrace behind it Mount Fuji stands framed beyond the roofs, and the dawn air is the clearest of the day. Back for a ryokan breakfast, then about 2 to 2.5 hours north to Matsumoto. Its castle, with black walls and a keep completed in the 1590s, is one of only twelve original castle keeps left in Japan and a National Treasure; climb its steep wooden stairs to the top floor. After lunch in town, Route 158 crosses the Northern Alps to Takayama, about 2 hours, for the first of three nights in the same hotel.

   Included

   • Chureito Pagoda at first light
   • Matsumoto Castle, with entry to the keep
   • The drive over the Northern Alps on Route 158

   Easier option: Skip the steps and watch from the base of the pagoda park.

   Free time: Evening free in Takayama

   Activity: The longest road day, about 4 to 4.5 hours in two halves, split by Matsumoto Castle and lunch.

   

6. Day 6: Kamikochi, the valley of the Northern Alps

   Takayama to Hirayu Onsen, shuttle bus into Kamikochi

   • Drive about 2 h
   • Breakfast
   • Stay in Takayama
   Day 6 details

   Kamikochi is a high valley at about 1,500 m in Chubu Sangaku National Park, closed to private cars to keep it quiet. Drive about an hour to Hirayu Onsen and ride the shuttle bus in through the forest. Start at Taisho Pond, formed in 1915 when an eruption of Mount Yakedake dammed the Azusa River; dead trees still stand in the still water, and early mist often lies on it. A level path follows the river through larch woods and past Tashiro Pond to Kappa Bridge, about 2 to 3 km and roughly an hour at an easy pace, with the Hotaka peaks, among the highest in Japan, above. Lunch at the bridge, then walk on to Myojin Pond or rest by the clear water before the bus back down.

   Included

   • Return shuttle bus between Hirayu Onsen and Kamikochi
   • Guided walk from Taisho Pond to Kappa Bridge

   Easier option: Take the bus from Taisho Pond to Kappa Bridge and walk only the short riverside loop.

   More active option: Continue from Kappa Bridge to Myojin Pond and back, about 6 to 7 km more there and back on the flat.

   Activity: About 2 to 3 km on level paths, with more for those who want it. The valley is cool, even in summer.

   

7. Day 7: Takayama before the day-trippers

   Morning market, Sanmachi Suji and Takayama Jinya on foot

   • Breakfast and dinner
   • Stay in Takayama
   Day 7 details

   Start at 7 am at the Miyagawa morning market, where farmers along the river sell pickles, miso, mountain vegetables and flowers. While it is still quiet, walk the three parallel lanes of Sanmachi Suji, the old merchant quarter, past dark wooden houses with low eaves and lattice windows. A ball of cedar leaves hung over a door marks a sake brewery, and you visit one for a tasting. Takayama Jinya, opening at 8:45, is the only surviving Edo-period office of its kind, where the shogun's governors ran the Hida region. After that the afternoon is free: the Hida Folk Village, a coffee by the river, or a nap. In the evening the group meets for a Hida beef dinner, the marbled beef the region is known for.

   Included

   • Miyagawa morning market
   • Guided walk in Sanmachi Suji
   • Sake tasting at a Takayama brewery
   • Takayama Jinya
   • Hida beef dinner

   Free time: Afternoon free

   

8. Day 8: Shirakawa-go and Kanazawa

   Takayama to Shirakawa-go, about 50 minutes, then Kanazawa

   • Drive about 2 h
   • Breakfast
   • Stay in Kanazawa
   Day 8 details

   Leave Takayama at 8 am to reach Shirakawa-go before the day coaches, which build from about 10. Ogimachi, a World Heritage village since 1995, is famous for its gassho-zukuri farmhouses, named for steep thatched roofs that look like hands joined in prayer and were built to shed heavy snow. Climb to the Shiroyama viewpoint first for the classic view over the roofs and rice fields, then go inside Wada House, the largest of them, to see the attic floors once used to raise silkworms. Drive on about 75 minutes to Kanazawa, a castle town that escaped bombing in the war. At dusk walk the Higashi Chaya district, a teahouse quarter of 1820, as its lamps come on.

   Included

   • Shirakawa-go and the Shiroyama viewpoint
   • Wada House
   • Evening walk in the Higashi Chaya district

   Free time: Afternoon free in Kanazawa before the evening walk

   

9. Day 9: Kenroku-en at opening, train to Kyoto

   Kanazawa to Kyoto by Shinkansen and limited express, about 2 hours

   • By train
   • Breakfast
   • Stay in Kyoto
   Day 9 details

   Be at the gate of Kenroku-en when it opens, 7 am in spring and summer and 8 am from mid-October. It is counted among the three great gardens of Japan, and in the early hours the Kotoji stone lantern on its two legs, the ponds and the old pines are calm. Then a hands-on gold leaf workshop: Kanazawa makes nearly all of Japan's gold leaf, and you lay a sheet on a small piece to take home. Lunch is yours at Omicho Market, the city's seafood market for about 300 years. In the early afternoon take the Hokuriku Shinkansen to Tsuruga and the Thunderbird limited express along Lake Biwa to Kyoto, about 2 hours, with only a day bag; your suitcases go ahead by road.

   Included

   • Kenroku-en garden at opening
   • Gold leaf workshop
   • Reserved seats on the Hokuriku Shinkansen and Thunderbird to Kyoto
   • Your bags taken by road to the Kyoto hotel

   Free time: Lunch on your own at Omicho Market; evening free in Kyoto

   

10. Day 10: Fushimi Inari at 6:30 am

    The torii path before the crowds, a craft workshop, a free afternoon

    • Breakfast
    • Stay in Kyoto
    Day 10 details

    Fushimi Inari Taisha is open all night, and at 6:30 am its tunnels of vermilion torii, thousands of them given by businesses and families, are almost empty. Walk up through the Senbon Torii with your guide to the Yotsutsuji crossing, about 45 minutes, where the view opens over southern Kyoto; carry on round the summit loop if you like. Breakfast follows back in town, then a visit to a Kyoto craft workshop to meet a maker in a trade the city has practised for centuries and try it with your own hands. The afternoon is free. If you want Pontocho, the narrow lane of restaurants beside the Kamo River, go at lunchtime or early evening, before it fills.

    Included

    • Fushimi Inari Taisha at 6:30 am, to the Yotsutsuji viewpoint
    • Kyoto craft workshop

    Easier option: Walk the first tunnels of torii only, about 20 minutes.

    More active option: Climb the full loop over Mount Inari, about 2 to 3 hours.

    Free time: Afternoon and evening free

    Activity: An early start and a steady climb on stone steps.

    

11. Day 11: Arashiyama, Kinkaku-ji and a tea ceremony

    The bamboo grove at 6:45 am, western Kyoto, tea in the afternoon

    • Breakfast
    • Stay in Kyoto
    Day 11 details

    By 6:45 am you are in the Arashiyama bamboo grove, where the tall green stems creak in the breeze and the path is quiet; by 10 it is packed. Walk on to Okochi Sanso, the hillside villa and garden of the silent-film actor Okochi Denjiro, for a bowl of matcha with views across the city, then the 14th-century garden of Tenryu-ji, a World Heritage Zen temple, and the Togetsukyo bridge over the Katsura River. In the late morning drive across to Kinkaku-ji, the Golden Pavilion, its upper floors covered in gold leaf above a mirror pond. In the afternoon a tea ceremony with a host who explains each slow step, from the whisking of the tea to how the bowl is turned.

    Included

    • Arashiyama bamboo grove at 6:45 am
    • Okochi Sanso villa and garden, with matcha
    • Tenryu-ji garden
    • Kinkaku-ji
    • Tea ceremony

    Free time: Evening free

    

12. Day 12: Nara, then Kiyomizu-dera at the end of the day

    Kyoto to Nara and back, about 1 hour each way, farewell dinner

    • Drive about 2 h
    • Breakfast and dinner
    • Stay in Kyoto
    Day 12 details

    Nara was Japan's capital from 710 to 784, and its great temples are still standing. Arrive as Todai-ji opens, 7:30 am in summer and 8 am in winter, to see the bronze Great Buddha, about 15 m tall, inside the Daibutsuden, one of the largest wooden buildings in the world. Walk through Nara Park, where more than a thousand deer, held sacred, wander freely, to Kasuga Taisha and its paths lined with stone lanterns. Lunch in the old Naramachi quarter, then back to Kyoto. In the late afternoon, as the day coaches leave, climb the Sannenzaka and Ninenzaka slopes to Kiyomizu-dera and its great wooden stage over the hillside. The farewell dinner is tonight.

    Included

    • Todai-ji and the Great Buddha at opening
    • Nara Park
    • Kasuga Taisha
    • Kiyomizu-dera in the late afternoon
    • Farewell dinner

13. Day 13: A last Kyoto morning

    Free morning, then Kansai International Airport

    • Drive about 1.5 h
    • Breakfast
    Day 13 details

    Your last morning is free. Kyoto rewards one more early walk: the canal and willows of Gion Shirakawa at first light, Nishiki Market as its stalls open, or the Kamo River path where locals jog and walk their dogs. Your guide can suggest a route the evening before. Then the vehicle takes you, with your bags, to Kansai International Airport (KIX), about 1.5 hours away, for your flight home. If you would rather stay on in Kyoto or travel on to Osaka, Hiroshima or Tokyo, tell us when you book and we can add nights or arrange a different transfer. Itami airport, for domestic flights, is also possible on request. Leave some space in your bag for what you found along the way, from Takayama pickles to Kanazawa gold leaf.

    Included

    • Drop-off at Kansai International Airport (KIX)

    Free time: Morning free

Wildlife and weather: Mountain weather in the Alps changes quickly and can close roads or the Kamikochi buses for a day; if that happens your guide moves the day around.

• Tokyo3 nights
• Lake Kawaguchiko1 night
• Takayama3 nights
• Kanazawa1 night
• Kyoto4 nights