Why should you holiday in Japan?

Japan offers the best of Asia, with some of the continent’s biggest attractions and shrines, fantastic and incredibly varied landscapes and gardens, cutting-edge technology and excellent gastronomic experiences.

Japan is a unique travel destination for a variety of reasons. Japanese culture is deeply different from Western European culture, and many truly unique experiences with an exciting and very different country and its people await. You can expect that encountering the Japanese people themselves, and their many quirks and proud traditions, hospitality, humbleness and irreproachable helpfulness will lead you to an unforgettable experience.

The contrast between the centuries-old traditions, that still keep the tea houses going, the stunning geisha, shrines, temples and Japanese gardens on one hand, and the ultra-modern, cutting-edge Japan with some of the world’s fastest trains (Shinkansen) and modern architecture on the other, is sure to enthral any visitor.

What few people know, however, is that you can conclude your tour with an exotic beach holiday at one of the thousands of Japanese islands in the Pacific Ocean with palm trees, fine sandy beaches and excellent opportunities for snorkelling and diving. 

Our tours of Japan

Some tours offer more time to go in-depth in a smaller geographic area such as Kyoto and Tokyo, while other tours give you the option to see more of Japan. Selected tours can also be extended to include a beach holiday.

Read more below about the selected highlights you can experience on one or more of our tours.

Kyoto

Here you find yourself in the heart of Japan, and you are surrounded by traditional Japan on all sides. Many of the streets are still paved with cobblestones, and for a day, you can see tourists clad in traditional kimono all over the city. You experience a traditional tea ceremony. You walk through a living, active geisha district, where you are likely to see the geisha trainees, the maiko, in their gleaming silk kimono walking through the street from one tea house to the next. About 2000 shrines and other important, ancient buildings lend Kyoto a unique, historical atmosphere. At the same time, beautiful gardens and waterways can be seen all over the place.

Tokyo

In Tokyo, everything is big, and new, and efficient. Here you find many city centres, each with their own importance.

Shinjuku has enormous glass and steel skyscrapers, and some architectural pearls in between. A hyper-efficient transport system has its roots in the mega-stations, which are worth a visit on their own. But you will also find pockets of ancient history and culture, guarded closely and dearly by the city’s inhabitants, e.g. the Imperial Palace, the beautiful, popular parks, and the Sensoji Temple.

In the Shibuya district, you experience the world’s largest and most impressive street crossing with signal lights, where thousands of people pass one another as the lights turn green for pedestrians and red for drivers going every direction. Don’t miss this experience from above, in one of the many buildings around the crossing.

Parks and Zen gardens

The Japanese parks and gardens are world famous, and not without reason.

You can often experience these around the shrines and temples. On a tour of one of the bigger parks of Tokyo, such as Ueno, in the “Sakura” cherry blossom season at the end of March/April, you can experience the public festivities. The Japanese become utterly euphoric under the Sakura. They bring their picnic baskets and their families and sit down in the parks to celebrate, while the petals of the pale pink cherry blossoms gently rain down around them. In Kyoto, you experience the Daitokuji temple complex, which encompasses several temples, each with their own Zen gardens, including one of the most photographed in the world: Ryogenin.

Shinkansen

It’s a great experience to take a trip on one of the world’s fastest trains, the Shinkansen.  You easily pass a good 500 km in 2 hours.

The trains are a stylish sight with a streamlined design. They have platforms all to themselves at the train stations. If you are standing at a platform, waiting for the Shinkansen, you may see other Shinkansen trains pass by at a breathtaking speed, giving an impressive rush when they pass. When the train starts, you barely feel it. It shoots like an arrow across the land, and is an utterly fantastic sensation.

Onsen

If you want to try feeling Japanese, you must not miss the Onsen.

Onsen are baths where the water comes from hot springs. Bathing in the onsen is a tradition dating hundreds of years back in Japanese history. You bathe completely nude in onsen baths, and there are fixed rules for how it should be done. Up until the arrival of Western tourism not too long ago, all the baths were co-ed.

Today most baths are separated by gender, but you still experience a unique part of Japanese culture. Onsen can be found in the form of both public and private baths, and bathing in the mineral-rich water is believed to be good and healthy for you. The baths can be found in many places, and are often at Ryokan, which are traditional Japanese inns with futon beds and traditional Japanese kitchens.

Active, healthy and culinary holiday

There are rich opportunities for an active and healthy holiday in Japan, with plenty of culinary highlights. The average life expectancy in Japan is the highest in the world, and this is primarily due to their wholesome diet, which includes plenty of fresh vegetables, fish, tofu and more. The Japanese keep a high level of quality here too. Fresh ingredients are essential, and will give you the opportunity for multifaceted, delightful culinary experiences.

You can go exploring in Japanese gastronomy, with everything from miso soup to yakitori, sukiyaki, noodles, green tea, sake – and of course, sushi and Kobe beef. Fish and shellfish in all shapes and sizes are clearly the first choice in Japan, but you can also get chicken, beef, pork – and horse meat, a common delicacy all over Japan.

Most Japanese people prioritise a healthy and active lifestyle that is good for both body and soul. They often walk or cycle, making it easy to take part in their active lifestyle as a tourist, following their various hiking trails and cycling routes.

Want to know more about our tours?

If you want to read more about each Japan tour, click on ”Read more”, further up the page. where you will find information about what to expect on the tour, prices and much more besides.

Any questions?

You can read more about practical issues regarding Japan by looking at our practical info page.

If you have any further questions about Japan, how to book, or our other tours in East- and South-East Asia, you are very welcome to contact us.

We look forward to helping you on the holiday of your lifetime!

TourCompass – From tourist to traveller