Book nowCherry blossom fortnight is Japan's busiest: book the hotels, the Hakone ryokan and teamLab now, and reserve Shinkansen seats the day they open.
Hours, prices, timetables and coordinates are from general knowledge; the cherry blossom dates move each year, so follow the forecast.
For about ten days a year the cherry trees flower; parks fill with picnics, and riverbanks and moats are lit at night.
Dates from general knowledge — check the official site
Ten days: three of Tokyo, Hakone and an onsen, three of Kyoto's temples in blossom, Nara's deer on the way to Osaka, two nights of street food before the flight.
Land at 7:00, bags to the Shinjuku hotel. Meiji Shrine's forest, Harajuku, Shibuya Crossing from above at sunset, yakitori in Omoide Yokocho.
🗺 The whole day in Google Maps →about ¥600 each40 min
Add Suica to the phone's wallet on the plane with a foreign card, or buy a Welcome Suica at the airport. Keikyu line to Shinagawa, then the JR Yamanote line to Shinjuku; or the limousine bus straight to the hotel, about ¥1,400.
The reception keeps the bags. A coffee and an onigiri from a konbini, the corner shop, for breakfast.
The Shinto shrine of the Emperor Meiji, who opened Japan to the world, set in a forest of 100,000 trees planted in 1920.
free
JR one stop to Harajuku. The gravel path runs 15 minutes through the forest under giant wooden torii gates to the shrine. Bow at the gate, wash hands at the basin; on weekends you may see a wedding procession.
A narrow pedestrian street of youth fashion and sweet shops, the centre of Tokyo's teenage street style since the 1980s.
freecrowds
Opposite the station exit. A rolled crepe with cream is the snack. Then the side streets of Ura-Harajuku and Omotesando's avenue of designer buildings.
¥1,000–1,500 each
Walk down Omotesando and Cat Street to Shibuya, 25 minutes. Ramen shops order by ticket machine at the door: pick the button, pay, hand the ticket over. Slurping is normal.
The world's busiest pedestrian crossing, where up to 3,000 people cross at once from every side, and Shibuya Sky, an open roof 230 metres up beside it.
about ¥2,500 eachday's highlightbook the sunset slot
After check-in and a rest. Cross the scramble first at street level, then up to Shibuya Sky; sunset slots sell out a few weeks ahead. Mount Fuji shows on clear evenings to the west.
Sunset is about 18:00. Bags and hats go in lockers before the open roof.
A cramped alley of tiny yakitori bars by Shinjuku station, left over from the post-war black market.
¥3,000–5,000 eachcover charge
Each bar seats six to ten at a counter over the grill. Point at the skewers; a small cover charge comes with a snack. Cash in some.
Senso-ji before the crowds, a picnic under the cherry trees in Ueno Park, Akihabara's game arcades. teamLab Planets at a booked 17:00, sushi after.
🗺 The whole day in Google Maps →Tokyo's oldest temple, founded in 645, entered through the Thunder Gate with its giant red lantern and up a street of stalls.
free
Forty minutes by Marunouchi and Ginza lines. At 8:00 the Kaminarimon gate and Nakamise street are quiet; the stalls open from 9:30. Shake an omikuji fortune for ¥100; tie a bad one to the rack.
Tokyo's oldest park, with about 800 cherry trees lining its main avenue, the city's most famous hanami spot.
freeday's highlightpacked at weekends
Ginza line three stops to Ueno. Buy a picnic at the konbini or the station's food hall: onigiri, karaage, strawberry sandos. Office groups claim blue tarps under the trees from dawn; find a gap along the Shinobazu pond.
Take your rubbish away; there are few bins.
Tokyo's district of electronics, anime, manga and multi-storey game arcades.
¥100 a game
Two JR stops. The arcades on Chuo-dori have rhythm games on one floor and crane games on another; retro game shops sell old cartridges. Lunch at a curry or tonkatsu counter.
A museum of immersive digital art by the collective teamLab, where you walk barefoot through water and rooms of light.
about ¥4,000 eachtimed tickets
After a rest at the hotel, 40 minutes to Shin-Toyosu. Tickets are timed and sell out weeks ahead in spring. Wear trousers that roll above the knee: one room is knee-deep water. Ninety minutes.
¥3,000–8,000 each
Fifteen minutes by the Yurikamome and Ginza lines. Ginza's basement food streets and side lanes have counter sushi shops at fixed set prices; conveyor-belt shops are cheaper and fun.
Breakfast at Tsukiji's outer market, a rowing boat on the cherry-lined moat at Chidorigafuchi. Nakameguro's lit canal at dusk, the tiny bars of Golden Gai.
🗺 The whole day in Google Maps →The streets of food stalls and knife shops that stayed when Tokyo's wholesale fish market moved to Toyosu in 2018.
¥2,000–4,000 each
Thirty minutes by subway. Graze: tamagoyaki on a stick, grilled scallops, a bowl of tuna over rice. Many stalls close by 14:00; some on Wednesdays and Sundays.
A moat of the Imperial Palace lined with cherry trees leaning over the water, one of Tokyo's best-known blossom views.
boats about ¥800 for 30 minday's highlightqueues
Subway to Kudanshita. Walk the path along the moat's edge, 700 metres under the trees. The rowing-boat pier at the far end has a queue of an hour or more in blossom week; join it at opening if you can.
The Imperial Palace East Gardens are 15 minutes south, free, closed Mondays and Fridays.
¥1,000–1,800 each
Jimbocho, the booksellers' district next door, has old soba shops; zaru soba, cold buckwheat noodles with a dipping sauce. Then back to the hotel to rest.
The Meguro river canal in Nakameguro, lined for four kilometres with cherry trees that are hung with lanterns in blossom season.
freecrowds
Twenty-five minutes by train. Stalls sell strawberry sparkling wine along the banks; walk downstream as the lanterns come on at dusk. Police keep the crowd moving on the bridges.
Six alleys of about 200 bars in two-storey wooden shacks in Shinjuku, most with five to ten seats.
cover ¥500–1,500 + drinks
Dinner first at an izakaya in Shinjuku. In Golden Gai, bars that welcome visitors post their cover charge in English at the door; some are members only. Every bar has its theme: punk, film, jazz.
Suitcases sent ahead to Kyoto, the Romancecar from Shinjuku. The Hakone loop by mountain train, ropeway and boat, Fuji over Lake Ashi, then a ryokan's baths and dinner.
🗺 The whole day in Google Maps →about ¥2,500 a case
Takkyubin, door-to-door delivery: the hotel reception fills the form and the case arrives at the Kyoto hotel the next day. Take an overnight bag.
Hakone Freepass about ¥6,500reserved seats
The Odakyu Hakone Freepass covers the return trip and every train, cable car, ropeway, boat and bus on the loop; the Romancecar needs a seat supplement, about ¥1,200, booked online.
A volcanic valley of sulphur vents formed 3,000 years ago, where eggs boiled in the hot springs turn black and are said to add seven years to your life.
on the Freepass
The Hakone Tozan train switchbacks up to Gora, then the cable car to Sounzan and the ropeway over the steaming valley; Fuji appears ahead on a clear day. Eat a black egg at the top and have lunch there. The ropeway closes when the gas level rises.
A crater lake in the Hakone hills, crossed by mock pirate ships, with Mount Fuji rising behind it on clear days.
on the Freepassday's highlight
From Togendai, at the ropeway's end, to Moto-Hakone, 40 minutes. Stand on the open top deck at the back for Fuji.
Fuji hides in cloud most days by midday; mornings are best. Your chances are about one in three.
A shrine in the cedar forest on Lake Ashi's shore, whose red Peace Torii stands in the water.
freephoto queue
Ten minutes from the pier. People queue for a photo under the torii; the shrine up the stone steps is quieter. Then the bus back to Gora, about an hour.
A ryokan is a Japanese inn: tatami rooms, futons laid out at night, a hot-spring bath, and a multi-course kaiseki dinner served in the room or a dining room.
with dinner and breakfast
Change into the yukata robe, then the onsen: wash fully at the seated showers first, then soak; no swimwear, men and women separate. Tattoos may be refused in shared baths; ask for a private one. Dinner at 18:00 or 19:00.
The ryokan breakfast, then down to Odawara and the Shinkansen to Kyoto, two hours. Fushimi Inari's gates in the afternoon, Gion's lit cherry trees at night.
🗺 The whole day in Google Maps →about ¥12,000 eachreserve seats
The Tozan train or bus down to Odawara, 40 minutes, on the Freepass. Then a Hikari Shinkansen to Kyoto, about two hours; reserve seats E (the window on the right going west) for Fuji, which appears about 15 minutes out of Odawara.
¥1,500–2,500 each
Taxi or bus 205 from the station. The suitcases sent from Tokyo wait at the reception. Lunch along Nishiki Market, five minutes away; eat at the stall where you buy.
The head shrine of Inari, god of rice and business, with about 10,000 vermilion torii gates over the paths up Mount Inari.
freeday's highlightsteps
Keihan line from Gion-Shijo to Fushimi-Inari, 10 minutes. The double row of gates, Senbon Torii, is busiest at the bottom; keep climbing.
By the Yotsutsuji crossing, 45 minutes up, the crowds thin and the city lies below; the full loop over the summit adds an hour. Allow two and a half hours.
The Shirakawa canal in Gion, lined with willows and cherry trees lit at night in blossom season, and Hanamikoji, the lane of wooden teahouses.
freeno photos in private lanes
Five minutes from the hotel. Walk the canal under the lit trees, then Hanamikoji south. The side lanes are private, with fines for photos; never photograph a geiko or maiko up close.
¥4,000–7,000 eachbook ahead
Pontocho is one lane of restaurants a shoulder wide; book a few days ahead in blossom week. Yakitori and tempura counters, or obanzai, Kyoto home cooking.
Out at 7:00 for the bamboo grove before the tour groups, Tenryu-ji's garden at 8:30. The Golden Pavilion and Ryoan-ji's stone garden after lunch.
🗺 The whole day in Google Maps →30 min
From Kyoto-kawaramachi, change at Katsura. From the station cross the Togetsukyo bridge, 15 minutes to the grove.
A path through groves of bamboo 20 metres tall on Kyoto's western edge.
freeday's highlight
Before 8:30 you share it with a few photographers; by ten it is a slow queue. Walk to the top, past the Nonomiya shrine's black torii.
Okochi Sanso, the villa at the top of the path, opens at 9:00: its garden and a bowl of matcha are included in the ¥1,000 ticket.
Arashiyama's head Zen temple, a World Heritage site, with a 14th-century pond garden and a weeping cherry tree in its grounds.
garden ¥500 each
The north gate opens from the grove. Sit on the veranda facing the pond; the weeping cherries by the hall flower early April. Forty-five minutes.
¥1,500–2,500 each
Breakfast by the river first, then bus 11 and 59 or a taxi, about ¥3,000. Yudofu, tofu simmered at the table, is the Kyoto Zen dish.
A Zen temple's three-storey pavilion covered in gold leaf, reflected in its pond, rebuilt in 1955 after a monk burned it down.
¥500 eachcrowds
The best view across the pond is the first one on the one-way path; stop there. Forty minutes.
The Zen temple with Japan's best-known dry garden: fifteen stones on raked gravel, of which never more than fourteen can be seen at once.
¥600 each
Twenty minutes' walk along Kinukake-no-michi. Sit on the veranda and count the stones; the cherry tree over the wall flowers in early April. Then a taxi back, about ¥3,000.
¥3,000–5,000 each
The canal street by the hotel, its cherry trees over the water. Izakaya with counters; order a few plates at a time.
Kiyomizu-dera at 8:00, before the crowds, down the stepped lanes. The Philosopher's Path under its arch of cherry trees, from the Silver Pavilion to Nanzen-ji.
🗺 The whole day in Google Maps →The 8th-century temple on the hillside whose main hall stands on a wooden stage built without nails, over a valley of cherry trees.
¥500 each
A taxi up, ¥1,200, or 25 minutes on foot. In blossom week the stage looks over a sea of pink; at 8:00 it is nearly empty. Below, the Otowa waterfall's three streams. An hour.
Two stone-stepped lanes below Kiyomizu-dera, lined with wooden shops and tea houses kept as they were in the Edo period.
free
Downhill towards Yasaka Shrine and Maruyama Park, whose giant weeping cherry is lit at night. Matcha and a sweet at a tea house.
¥1,200–2,000 each
Bus 100 to Ginkakuji-michi. Udon and soba shops on the approach street.
A stone path along a canal in north-east Kyoto, named after the philosopher Nishida Kitaro, lined with about 400 cherry trees.
freeday's highlightcrowds
First Ginkaku-ji, the Silver Pavilion, ¥500, with its raked-sand garden. Then the path south, two kilometres, 40 minutes, under branches meeting over the water; petals float down the canal when they fall.
Small cafés and Honen-in, a quiet moss temple, sit just off it.
One of Japan's most important Zen temples, with a 22-metre wooden gate and an 1890 brick aqueduct running through its grounds.
grounds free; gate ¥600
Ten minutes from the end of the path. Climb the Sanmon gate for the view; walk under the aqueduct's arches. Then the Keage incline, an old boat railway lined with cherry trees, five minutes away.
Kyoto's oldest public park, whose giant weeping cherry is lit at night in blossom season, with food stalls round it.
¥2,000–4,000 each
Street-food stalls set up round the tree: takoyaki, yakisoba, grilled corn. Families sit under the trees on tarps late into the evening.
Suitcases sent to Osaka, the train to Nara: the deer park, the giant Buddha of Todai-ji, Kasuga Taisha's lanterns. On to Osaka for Dotonbori's neon at night.
🗺 The whole day in Google Maps →about ¥760 each45 min
Takkyubin from the Kyoto hotel to the Osaka hotel, arriving tomorrow; carry an overnight bag. The Kintetsu limited express from Kyoto Station to Kintetsu Nara, IC card plus a small seat fee.
A great park in the old capital where about 1,200 wild sika deer roam, held sacred as messengers of the gods; many bow for crackers.
crackers ¥200deer nip
Five minutes from the station. Buy shika senbei, deer crackers, from the stands; bow to a deer and it bows back. Hold the crackers high and do not tease: they butt and nip.
A temple of 752 whose Great Buddha Hall, among the largest wooden buildings in the world, holds a 15-metre bronze Buddha.
about ¥800 eachday's highlight
Through the Nandaimon gate with its two giant guardian figures. Inside, walk round the Buddha; behind it, a pillar has a hole the size of the Buddha's nostril, and children squeeze through it for luck.
An hour.
Nara's great Shinto shrine of 768, its paths lined with about 2,000 stone lanterns and its corridors hung with 1,000 bronze ones.
inner area about ¥700
Twenty minutes through the forest past rows of mossy stone lanterns. Inside the inner area, a dark room shows the bronze lanterns lit as they are at the twice-yearly festivals. Lunch on the way back to the station: kakinoha-zushi, sushi wrapped in persimmon leaves.
The canal street of Osaka's nightlife, under giant moving signs of crabs, pufferfish and the Glico running man.
¥2,000–4,000 each
Five minutes from the hotel. Eat as you go: takoyaki, octopus balls, from the stands with queues; kushikatsu, fried skewers, where the rule is no double-dipping in the shared sauce. Photograph the Glico sign from the Ebisu bridge.
Osaka Castle among the cherry trees, lunch at Kuromon Market, the old Shinsekai quarter. Sunset from the Umeda Sky Building's floating garden, okonomiyaki after.
🗺 The whole day in Google Maps →Toyotomi Hideyoshi's castle of 1583, which unified Japan's warlords; the keep was rebuilt in concrete in 1931 and holds a museum.
keep about ¥1,200; garden ¥350day's highlight
Subway to Tanimachi 4-chome. The Nishinomaru Garden's 600 cherry trees frame the keep; it is the best photograph. The keep's museum and the 8th-floor gallery are crowded by ten.
The giant stones of the walls, some over 100 tonnes, are the oldest part. Allow two hours.
A covered market street of 150 stalls, Osaka's kitchen for 200 years, selling fish, wagyu and fruit to eat on the spot.
¥3,000–5,000 each
Graze: grilled wagyu skewers, sea urchin, fatty tuna, giant strawberries. Prices are for visitors; still worth it.
A quarter built in 1912 as Osaka's 'new world', now a cheerful, shabby district of kushikatsu bars and pinball parlours round the Tsutenkaku tower.
free
Two subway stops. The streets of giant shop signs, the Billiken statue whose feet you rub for luck, and kushikatsu at a counter. Then the hotel for a rest.
Two 40-storey towers joined at the top by a ring-shaped open deck called the Floating Garden Observatory, built in 1993.
about ¥2,000 each
Midosuji line to Umeda, then ten minutes on foot through the underpass. Glass escalators cross the gap between the towers. Sunset is about 18:30; stay for the lights.
¥1,500–2,500 each
The restaurant floors under Umeda station have okonomiyaki shops: a cabbage-and-batter pancake cooked on a hotplate at your table, topped with sauce and bonito flakes. A last drink back in Namba.
Check out, bags at the reception. The lion-head stage of Namba Yasaka Shrine and the mossy statue at Hozenji, then the rapi:t express to Kansai at 11:00 for the 14:00 flight.
🗺 The whole day in Google Maps →The suitcases sent from Kyoto arrived yesterday. Leave them at the reception until 10:45.
A small shrine whose stage is a 12-metre lion's head with an open mouth, said to swallow bad luck.
freeday's highlight
Ten minutes west of the hotel. The lion's head stands in the courtyard; people pray for success in exams and business. Quiet in the morning.
Twenty minutes.
A stone-paved alley of old restaurants behind Dotonbori, and the temple of Hozenji, whose Fudo Myoo statue is covered in thick moss from people splashing it with water.
free
Splash the statue with a ladle of water and make a wish, as Osakans have for decades. Then a last coffee and a melon pan from a konbini.
about ¥1,500 eachat KIX by 12:00
The Nankai rapi:t limited express from Namba, 40 minutes, seats reserved at the station or online. Japan's tax-free shopping is refunded at the airport: keep the receipts.
Suica in the phone's wallet pays for almost every local train, subway and bus; long journeys are separate tickets.
Add Suica to an iPhone's Wallet with a foreign card, or buy a Welcome Suica at the airport; each traveller needs their own. Tap in and out at the gates. It also pays in konbini and vending machines.
Takkyubin delivery, through the hotel reception or a konbini, moves suitcases hotel to hotel overnight for about ¥2,500 each. It saves hauling them through Hakone and onto crowded trains.
Queue in lines marked on the platform; stand on the left on Tokyo escalators, the right in Osaka. Keep phone calls off trains. Do not eat while walking. Shoes off where there is a step up and slippers. There is no tipping, ever.
Undress fully in the changing room. Wash and rinse thoroughly at the seated showers before entering the bath; the small towel stays out of the water. Baths are separate for men and women. Tattoos may be refused in shared baths; ask for a private one, kashikiri.
Cards work in hotels, department stores and chains; small restaurants, shrines and market stalls often want cash. Seven-Eleven and post-office cash machines take foreign cards. Shops marked tax-free remove the 10% tax on purchases over ¥5,000 with your passport.
For two, 10 days and 9 nights in Japan: Tokyo, Hakone, Kyoto and Osaka. Covers the hotels and the ryokan, the Shinkansen and local trains, the Hakone pass, luggage forwarding, tickets, every meal and a buffer. Flights are not included.
| Item | Economy | Comfort | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hotel in Shinjuku, 3 nights | ¥75,000 | ¥135,000 | Blossom-week prices |
| Ryokan in Hakone, 1 night with dinner and breakfast | ¥50,000 | ¥90,000 | For two |
| Hotel in Kyoto, 3 nights | ¥75,000 | ¥135,000 | |
| Hotel in Osaka, 2 nights | ¥40,000 | ¥70,000 | |
| Lodging taxes | ¥3,000 | ¥5,000 | |
| Shinkansen Odawara–Kyoto | ¥24,000 | ¥32,000 | Comfort in the Green Car |
| Hakone Freepass and Romancecar seats | ¥15,500 | ¥15,500 | |
| Airport trains and local transport | ¥20,000 | ¥30,000 | Comfort takes taxis |
| Luggage forwarding, twice | ¥10,000 | ¥10,000 | Two cases twice |
| Shibuya Sky, teamLab, temples, castle, Umeda | ¥34,000 | ¥36,000 | About ¥17,000 each |
| Breakfasts and lunches | ¥50,000 | ¥70,000 | 10 days for two |
| Dinners and drinks | ¥80,000 | ¥130,000 | 8 dinners for two, the ryokan's included above |
| Buffer | ¥30,000 | ¥60,000 | Arcades, souvenirs, an extra taxi |
| Total | ¥506,500 | ¥818,500 |
Realistic figure: About ¥600,000–680,000 for two (€3,700–4,200), without flights
Carry ¥20,000 each in cash for small restaurants, shrines, markets and Golden Gai; Seven-Eleven machines take foreign cards.
All of them: the WayFriend guide library.
