Intensive
Japan's Greatest Hits
Greatest hits, no padding, mostly trains.
- First visit
- Base cities: Tokyo · Kyoto · Osaka
- culture
- food
- urban
- history
Itinerary
Chasing the Autumn Leaves
- 12 nights
- Medium pace
- Interest-led
- Autumn
AutumnMedium pace
A fortnight built for autumn colour across the centre of the country. Matsumoto under the Alps, gold-leaf Kanazawa, and Kyoto's temple gardens, with the pace set to let you chase a good forecast.
Timed to the koyo front, temple gardens at their reddest.
Trip facts
- Length12 nights
- PaceMedium
- Designed forInterest-led
- Best seasonAutumn
- 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: Nikko
- Day 3Explore
The world's largest city and Japan's beating heart - an overwhelming, endlessly layered metropolis where every kind of Japan coexists.
A UNESCO World Heritage mountain shrine complex of overwhelming opulence, built to enshrine Tokugawa Ieyasu, unifier of Japan.
- Day 4Travel in
- Day 5Explore
Home to Japan's most beautiful original castle - the black and white Crow Castle - at the gateway to the Northern Alps.
- Day 6Travel in
- Day 7Explore
- Day 8Explore
The 'Kyoto of the north' - a preserved castle town with Japan's most-visited garden, a samurai district, and exceptional seafood.
- Day 9Travel in
- Day 10Explore
Japan's ancient capital - 1,200 years of temples, gardens, geisha districts, and craft traditions in a city that still feels imperial.
- Day 11Travel in
- Day 12Depart
Japan's food capital and most exuberant city - a working-class energy that takes eating very seriously.
Your JP Adventure
Plan a trip to Tokyo
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