Regions & cities Updated 18 August 2026
Hiroshima and Miyajima in One Day
A city rebuilt around a memorial and an island with a torii standing in the sea: how to fit both into a day, and why the order matters more than the timetable.
#day trips
Every guide tagged day trips, for a trip to Japan.
Regions & cities Updated 17 August 2026
Kyoto Without the Crowds: Where the City Goes Quiet
The northern mountain villages, the temples nobody queues for and the neighbourhoods that still feel lived in, plus how to fit them around the famous sights rather than instead of them.
Regions & cities Updated 16 August 2026
Takayama and Shirakawa-go: Two Mountain Towns Worth Leaving the Cities For
A preserved Edo-era merchant town and a living village of steep thatched farmhouses in the Japanese Alps, with how to get between them, what to eat, and whether to stay the night.
Attractions, temples & culture Updated 11 August 2026
Nikko: Ornate Shrines, a Sacred Bridge and a Mountain Waterfall
A couple of hours north of Tokyo: a UNESCO shrine complex carved with gilded ornament, a red sacred bridge, and a caldera lake with a waterfall above it, doable as one long day.
Attractions, temples & culture Updated 23 April 2026
Kamakura: A Bronze Buddha, a Bamboo Garden and a Surf Beach
An hour from Tokyo, the medieval capital sits between wooded valleys and the sea, with temples in the hills, a small railway along the coast and surfers on the sand.
Regions & cities Updated 5 February 2026
Tokyo Guide: Neighborhoods, What to Do and How to Do It
A first-timer guide to Tokyo: the neighborhoods that matter, how to ride the trains, the sights worth your time and the ones you can skip, plus food, nightlife and day trips.
Nature, mountains & onsen Updated 4 February 2026
Hakone: A Loop of Trains, Ropeways and Hot Water
Ninety minutes from Tokyo: a volcanic valley you tour by switchback railway, cable car, ropeway and pirate ship, with Mount Fuji at the end of it if the weather agrees.
Attractions, temples & culture Updated 29 January 2026
Nara: The Deer, the Great Buddha and the Half Day That Should Be a Whole One
Japan's first permanent capital, forty minutes from Kyoto or Osaka, with a bronze Buddha in the largest wooden building of its kind and twelve hundred bowing deer.