Intensive
Japan's Greatest Hits
Greatest hits, no padding, mostly trains.
- First visit
- Base cities: Tokyo · Kyoto · Osaka
- culture
- food
- urban
- history
Itinerary
Kilns and Craft Towns
- 11 nights
- Medium pace
- Interest-led
Medium pace
A trip for people who care how things are made. Mashiko's folk pottery within a day of Tokyo, four nights in Kanazawa for gold leaf, Kutani porcelain and Kaga craft, then Kyoto's Nishijin weavers and the kiln-lined slopes below Kiyomizu, finishing in Osaka. Workshops where you want them.
Mashiko pottery, Kanazawa gold leaf and Kutani, Kyoto's weavers and kiln slopes.
Trip facts
- Length11 nights
- PaceMedium
- Designed forInterest-led
- GatewaysIn via Tokyo, out via Osaka
The route, city by city
Where you sleep and what each base is for. Load it into the planner to reshape the cities, dates, and day-by-day plan.
- Day 1Arrive
- Day 2Day trip: Mashiko
The world's largest city and Japan's beating heart - an overwhelming, endlessly layered metropolis where every kind of Japan coexists.
Japan's most famous pottery town, where Hamada Shoji established the mingei folk craft movement and 500 kilns still fire daily.
- Day 3Travel in
- Day 4Explore
- Day 5Explore
- Day 6Explore
The 'Kyoto of the north' - a preserved castle town with Japan's most-visited garden, a samurai district, and exceptional seafood.
- Day 7Travel in
- Day 8Explore
- Day 9Explore
Japan's ancient capital - 1,200 years of temples, gardens, geisha districts, and craft traditions in a city that still feels imperial.
- Day 10Travel in
- Day 11Depart
Japan's food capital and most exuberant city - a working-class energy that takes eating very seriously.
Your JP Adventure
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