Japan, the short version Friends keep asking "what to do in Japan?" This is the answer. Stay in Tokyo, get out of Tokyo, eat well. Stay in Tokyo, but get out of TokyoMake Tokyo your home for the trip, then take the train somewhere every few days and come back. Stay in Roppongi / Akasaka-mitsukeCentral, walkable, lots of hotels, and never as crushed as Shinjuku or Shibuya at night. Never Golden WeekLate April to early May. All of Japan travels at once: trains sold out, hotels tripled, queues everywhere. 1Get out of Tokyo Kyoto is the obvious one and it's worth it. These are the ones people don't tell you about. KyotoThe classic Temples, gardens, Fushimi Inari's thousand red gates. Go early in the morning before the crowds, and stay a night or two rather than day-tripping. All year SapporoMagic snow, delicious food Hokkaido in winter is another country: powder snow, the Snow Festival in February, and the best seafood, miso ramen and soup curry in Japan. Bring real boots. Winter OkinawaJapanese Hawaii Turquoise water, its own food and its own pace. Naha is fun: Kokusai-dori at night, awamori, and the market. Winter is the trick: mild and empty while Tokyo shivers. Winter FukuokaGood any time of year The home of tonkotsu ramen and the yatai: open-air food stalls along the river where you sit next to strangers and eat until late. Relaxed, friendly, cheap. All year KobeSan Francisco with hills A port city squeezed between mountains and sea, with steep streets, old foreign houses in Kitano, a harbor to walk, and the beef you've heard about. All year NagasakiThe other San Francisco Hills, a harbor, streetcars and old European houses in Glover Garden. Ride the ropeway up Mount Inasa for the night view, eat champon, and take the ferry to Gunkanjima, the abandoned island. All year OsakaThe LA of Japan Louder, funnier and hungrier than Tokyo. Dotonbori's neon, takoyaki and okonomiyaki on every corner, and people who actually talk to you. Half an hour from Kyoto. All year KanazawaLittle Kyoto, minus the tourists Kenroku-en, one of Japan's three great gardens, a preserved geisha district, a samurai quarter and a famous fish market. Everything Kyoto has, at a fraction of the crowd. All year Small towns are cute Any small town you pass through will have a shrine, a local dish and an old street. Ask ChatGPT or Claude what to see there and it'll do better than a guidebook. 2If you want an onsen One place. Don't overthink it. Kusatsu OnsenThe best hot springs A mountain town built around a steaming hot-spring field in its centre. Sulphur baths, wooden inns, yukata in the street. A few hours from Tokyo, best as an overnight. Map 3Where to eat in Tokyo My favorites. Tap Map, go. Best hambagu NikutoTamago Shinjuku. A hot-plate hambagu on top of a fluffy omelette and rice, drowned in demi-glace. Eat it while it still hisses. Map Best hambagu Hikiniku to Come Shibuya. One dish only: charcoal-grilled patties served one at a time while you eat, endless rice, a raw egg. Register on their site the morning you go. Map Omakase Sushi Umiji Azabu-juban. Sister of Michelin-listed Ginza Yamaji, open until 3am. Take the omakase or order piece by piece. Map Best sushi Sakaezushi Shinjuku, since 1958. Old-school neighbourhood sushi, generous cuts, no theatre. Lunch sets are a steal. Map Best ramen Ramen Afro Beats Shinjuku. Tiny counter, loud music, rich creamy broth under folds of chashu. Buy a ticket at the machine, sit down, slurp. Map Best washoku Aoi Gyoen Shinjuku Gyoen. Fish lunch on a tray: sashimi, tofu, pickles, miso, rice. Thirty servings a day, then they close the door. Dinner is omakase, reservation only. Map Bar with a view Bellovisto Top of the Cerulean Tower in Shibuya, 40th floor. Live jazz, cocktails, and the whole city from Shinjuku to Tokyo Tower. Celebrities drink here, DiCaprio included. Map Upscale yakitori Toriguchi Gotanda, five minutes from the west exit. Ten counter seats, rare cuts over binchotan charcoal, natural wine picked by a sommelier. Course only, book ahead. Map Chains that are actually delicious Seafood Isomaru Suisan Seafood izakaya, open 24 hours. You grill scallops, crab and squid yourself on a little stove at the table. Loud, cheap, fun. Yakitori Torikizoku Big chicken-and-leek skewers, the kizokuyaki, grilled to order. Every item on the menu is one low price, beer included. There's one near every station. 4One weird thing to do Dr. Stretch About $60 for an hour. A trained expert stretches you, properly, while you lie there. After a week of walking 20,000 steps a day it feels like a new body. Branches all over Tokyo. Photo credits Tokyo: kevin dooley, CC BY 2.0, via Openverse Kyoto: Sjaak Kempe, CC BY 2.0, via Openverse Sapporo: SteFou!, CC BY 2.0, via Openverse Okinawa: Guwashi999, CC BY 2.0, via Openverse Fukuoka: Yoshikazu Takada, CC BY 2.0, via Openverse Kobe: 663highland, CC BY, via Wikimedia Commons Osaka: JKT-c, CC BY, via Wikimedia Commons Nagasaki: hwat, CC BY 2.0, via Openverse Kanazawa: Isabelle + Stéphane Gallay, CC BY 2.0, via Openverse Kusatsu: hoge asdf, CC BY, via Wikimedia Commons Restaurant photos are from the venues' own sites (NikutoTamago, Sakaezushi, Toriguchi, Isomaru Suisan, Torikizoku), their reservation pages (Sushi Umiji via TableCheck, Bellovisto via Good Luck Trip) and food blogs (Hikiniku to Come: takaido-lunch.com; Aoi: mopeco.net). Afro Beats: my own photo. Made for friends. Ask me anything else.
