East to west across Japan — Senso-ji in Tokyo, Lake Kawaguchi beneath Mount Fuji, the torii gates of Fushimi Inari in Kyoto and Dotonbori after dark.
Photo: Alberto Gallego / Unsplash
Day 1
The group meets at Da Nang International Airport for the flight to Tokyo. Your guide meets you at Narita and transfers you to the hotel. Depending on arrival time, the evening is free.
Day 2
We begin in Asakusa at Senso-ji, founded in 645 and the oldest temple in Tokyo, entering through the Kaminarimon gate with its enormous red lantern and walking Nakamise street with its traditional sweet stalls. We stop at the Imperial Palace plaza and Nijubashi bridge. In the afternoon we go to Shibuya for the world's busiest pedestrian crossing and the Hachiko statue, then leave you free to shop in Shinjuku.
Day 3
We leave Tokyo for the Fuji Five Lakes. Weather and road conditions permitting, the coach climbs to the Fifth Station at 2,300 metres on the flank of Mount Fuji. The afternoon is at Lake Kawaguchi, where the still water reflecting the snow-capped cone is the most familiar image in Japan. We stop at Oshino Hakkai, a village built around eight pools fed by snowmelt filtered through the mountain, clear enough to see straight to the bottom. Tonight we stay at an onsen hotel in the Fuji region or Nagoya, with time to use the hot spring baths.
Day 4
We travel to Kyoto, Japan's capital for more than a thousand years. First is Fushimi Inari, where thousands of vermilion torii gates form tunnels climbing the slope of Mount Inari. We continue to Kiyomizu-dera, a wooden temple built out over a hillside on tall pillars, with a veranda looking across the whole city. The afternoon is spent walking Gion, the old entertainment district, where traditional teahouses still operate and you may see a geiko on her way to work. We move on to Osaka in the evening.
Day 5
The morning is at Osaka Castle, begun by Toyotomi Hideyoshi in 1583 and set in a large park behind moats and massive stone walls. The afternoon is free for shopping on Shinsaibashi. In the evening we go to Dotonbori, the canal-side food district with its neon signs, the Glico running man and takoyaki and okonomiyaki stalls open late.
Day 6
We check out with time for last-minute shopping, then transfer to Kansai International Airport for the flight home to Da Nang, where the programme ends.
Japan is the hardest of our outbound routes to schedule. Tokyo and Osaka are a long way apart and every stop in between deserves more time than the calendar allows. Six days is the minimum that covers Kanto, Fuji and Kansai without turning the trip into a sprint.
We build in one night at an onsen hotel near Mount Fuji. For a lot of our travellers that ends up being the part of the week they talk about afterwards, ahead of anything they saw during the day.
One honest caveat: the road to the Fifth Station closes in bad weather and through the deep-snow months, and Mount Fuji itself is only clearly visible on roughly a third of days in the year. Your guide will pick the time of day with the best odds, but no operator can promise you the mountain. Flights, hotel category and visa paperwork are all settled before the contract is signed.
Overseas ToursThe classic Korea route from Da Nang — Gyeongbokgung Palace, the tree-lined avenues of Nami Island, a full day at Everland and evenings in Myeongdong.
Overseas ToursSouthern Korea when the maples turn — Haeundae beach, the painted hillside of Gamcheon, the thousand-year-old Bulguksa temple and the old Silla capital at Gyeongju.