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. 

Hands are shaping clay on a pottery wheel, cast in a warm light

Traditional craft class and workshop visit

Gone are the days when the only Japanese arts and crafts the West had heard were origami and ikebana flower-arranging.  

In Japan, there is no hierarchy between art and craft. Origami and ikebana are just two drops in a deep ocean, and each of these myriad techniques and practices is treated as an art form. These range from (to name a few) dyeing, weaving and embroidery to ceramics, paper-making, lacquerware, printing, metalworking and calligraphy. Running through much of Japanese craft is a philosophy that imperfections can be beautiful. For instance, in the art of kintsugi, broken pottery is repaired with powdered gold or silver, while sashiko is a type of decorative embroidery used to mend and reinforce fabric. We can arrange one-off workshops in almost any craft imaginable, or, if you’re a real enthusiast, we can organise a deeper dive into a craft, including guided visits to ateliers and even whole trips themed around your passion.

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.