Our favourite Japan tours and excursions

Japan is where it all began for us. We led our first tour here in the year 2000, and we’ve spent the years since building a network of the very best guides, tour leaders, hoteliers, inn owners, enthusiasts and experts across Japan. 

Lady assisting Japanese swordsmith banging metal

Visit a Japanese swordsmith

More than a weapon, the Japanese sword is the symbol of loyalty between a warrior and his warlord, the ceremonial tool used in religious rites, and the physical manifestation of the owner’s soul.  

Visit a Japanese swordsmith today and you’ll see one of a dwindling number of masters of this art making katana as they have been for centuries. Watch as he folds and welds the layers of tamahagane steel to yield both strength and flexibility, then curves and polishes the blade — a process that can take weeks. Through an interpreter, you’ll be able to ask about this meticulous operation, the significance of the sword in Japanese culture, and how to tell a katana’s quality. Depending on the stage of the process, you might even get to try your hand yourself. Sword enthusiast or not, it’s hard not to be impressed by such supreme skill and dedication to a centuries-old art that might not survive much longer.

Monks in orange robes lined up to pray outside wooden temple

Temple stay

You don’t need to be particularly spiritual to agree that staying at a shukubo, or temple lodging, is one of those only-in-Japan experiences that’ll stay with you long after you’ve returned home. 

We wouldn’t call it roughing it, but staying at a shukubo isn’t for the high maintenance. These Buddhist temple guesthouses were (and still are, for the most part) pilgrims’ hostels, not plush ryokan —  though both have tatami mats, sliding doors and shoji paper screens. Ranging from the simple to the austere, shukubo usually have shared bathrooms, chilly corridors (in winter) and few mod-cons. Don’t expect Wi-Fi or a TV, but do expect to enjoy delicious, beautifully prepared vegetarian cuisine, and to get up early to absorb the sombre, incense-infused atmosphere of morning prayers. It’s all about disconnecting from the modern world and immersing yourself in a way of life that’s remained unchanged for centuries, and for us that’s a magical experience. 

Group cycling tour through rice fields of Hida, Takayama

Cycling tour of Hida

Our favourite cycling tour takes you out of old-town Takayama and into the slow-paced rhythms of the countryside. 

Start in the little town of Hida Furukawa, where the streets are lined with carp streams and sake breweries. From here, head out into the Hida countryside: mile upon mile of pancake-flat paddy field and steep-roofed farming villages, all surrounded by the thickly forested peaks of the Hida mountain range. With your guide to interpret, you’ll be able to say hello to whoever’s about — whether it’s schoolchildren on their way home from lunch, or elderly locals selling strawberries at the local market. Stop to refuel with snacks at a local deli or farm shop, and find out what life is like outside of Japan’s big cities. We’ve never met anyone who hasn’t had a smile and time to stop and chat.

Tatami room with low-lying table and floor cushioned seats has beautiful view of the garden

Ryokan & Onsen

If we had to pick one experience to sum up Japan (and thank goodness we don’t), it’d be the traditional ryokan inn. 

The ryokan isn’t just a Japanese-style hotel, it’s the encapsulation of what hospitality means to the Japanese. The quality of a ryokan isn’t measured in the plushness of its luxuries or the opulence of its interior décor. In fact, even the most exclusive ryokan room might contain nothing but a low table and a futon laid on a tatami-mat floor. Instead, you tell the quality of a ryokan by its exquisite multi-course, seasonal cuisine, by the warm, heartfelt hospitality of the host, and most of all by its onsen hot spring baths — arguably the most Japanese cultural experience of all.