Japan

A Japan holiday with Umika

A holiday in Japan usually lasts 10 to 14 days: it links two or three big cities by train, one or two nights in a ryokan (a traditional inn with tatami rooms and a dinner of many small courses) and, on a second trip, the mountains or the Inland Sea. Japan is a few hours' flight from Europe's main cities, direct or with one stop. Umika designs these trips to order for couples, families and honeymooners: choosing hotels from its selection, booking trains, timed-entry visits and dinners, and fitting the route to the season.

You land in Tokyo, either at Haneda airport, 15 to 20 minutes by train from Shinagawa, or at Narita, 41 minutes from Ueno on the Skyliner. Many trips fly home from the Kansai region: the Haruka express runs from Kansai airport to Kyoto in about 80 minutes.

Nine regions, from Tokyo to the Inland Sea

Umika presents Japan in nine regions. Five lie on the Tokyo-Kansai axis followed by the Tokaido shinkansen (bullet train); four take a detour, north to the Sea of Japan or west to Hiroshima and the Seto Inland Sea. They fall within six of the ten regions used by the Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO), from Kanto to Shikoku.

Tokyo and Hakone

Tokyo is best seen district by district: Sensō-ji temple in Asakusa, Meiji Jingū shrine in its 70-hectare forest, the Tokyo National Museum in Ueno, and the East Gardens of the Imperial Palace, laid out on the old enclosures of Edo Castle. Three or four nights suit a first trip. The selection runs from the Otemachi business district, where Hoshinoya Tokyo is a 17-storey ryokan, to floors 39 to 52 of Shinjuku Park Tower, home of the Park Hyatt Tokyo, which reopened on 9 December 2025.

Hakone is about 80 minutes from Shinjuku on the Romancecar, in the mountains of Kanagawa Prefecture. You stay in a hot-spring ryokan, ride the ropeway to the steaming crater of Ōwakudani and the boat across Lake Ashi, and visit the Hakone Open-Air Museum. The ropeway closes in sections this winter, with replacement buses: Ōwakudani-Sōunzan from 7 to 24 December 2026, Tōgendai-Ōwakudani from 12 January to 26 February 2027.

Kyoto, Nara and Osaka

Kyoto, about 2 hours 10 minutes from Tokyo on the Nozomi shinkansen, needs four nights: Kiyomizu-dera, Fushimi Inari shrine and its roughly 10,000 torii (the gateways of Shinto shrines), the Golden and Silver Pavilions, the Gion district, home to geiko and maiko (Kyoto's traditional entertainers and their apprentices), and gardens that must be booked, such as Katsura Imperial Villa. Two hotels in the selection opened there in March 2026: the Imperial Hotel Kyoto on the 5th, in a 1936 building in Gion, and Capella Kyoto, designed by Kengo Kuma, on the 22nd.

Nara is 34 minutes from Kyoto or Osaka on the Kintetsu express. The Great Buddha Hall of Tōdai-ji, Kasuga Taisha shrine and Kōfuku-ji fit into a day, in a 660-hectare park where deer roam freely.

Osaka, 30 minutes from Kyoto, is the city of food and lively streets: Toyotomi Hideyoshi's castle and its underground walls, the Dōtonbori canal and its giant signs, and the covered Kuromon market with some 150 shops.

Kanazawa and Hida, by the Sea of Japan

Kanazawa is about 2 hours 30 minutes from Tokyo on the Hokuriku shinkansen, and 2 hours from Kyoto or Osaka with a change at Tsuruga. It has Kenrokuen garden, the teahouses of Higashi Chaya and the samurai quarter of Nagamachi; further south, the spa villages of Yamashiro and Yamanaka are home to the Kaga ryokans. The 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art closes from 6 May 2027 to March 2028.

Hida, in the mountains of Gifu Prefecture, brings together the old merchant town of Takayama, 2 hours 15 minutes by bus from Kanazawa, the village of Shirakawa-gō and its thatched gasshō-zukuri farmhouses, listed by UNESCO in 1995, and the hot springs of Okuhida in the Northern Alps. Takayama's float festivals are held on 14 and 15 April and on 9 and 10 October.

Hiroshima, Miyajima and the Inland Sea

Hiroshima and Miyajima are about 4 hours from Tokyo and 1 hour 30 minutes from Osaka by shinkansen. The Peace Memorial Museum and the Atomic Bomb Dome are in the city; Miyajima island is 25 minutes away by train and then 10 minutes by ferry, with Itsukushima shrine, built over the sea in 1168. Staying on the island lets you take the evening cruise past the illuminated shrine and great torii; KAI Miyajima, facing the island, opened on 23 July 2026.

The Seto Inland Sea is the region of contemporary art and architecture: Tadao Ando's museums on Naoshima and the Teshima Art Museum, 20 minutes by boat from Uno port, the island of Setoda, 35 minutes by boat from Onomichi, and Guntû, a floating hotel of 17 suites that cruises from Onomichi. The Chichu Art Museum closes from 12 January to 19 March 2027, Benesse House from 12 to 18 January 2027 and its Beach building from 4 January to 4 March 2027.

Combining the regions

Journey times on the most direct trains:

Four trip ideas show how the regions fit together:

• The first trip, Tokyo, Hakone, Kyoto and Osaka in 12 days: three nights in Tokyo, two ryokan nights in Hakone, four in Kyoto with a day in Nara, two in Osaka.
• The second trip, Kanazawa, Shirakawa-gō and Takayama in 10 days: from Tokyo to Kyoto by the Sea of Japan, with two nights in a ryokan of traditional Hida houses near Takayama.
• Art and the sea, Kyoto, Miyajima and the art islands in 10 days: Arashiyama, an 1854 ryokan on Miyajima, Setoda and Naoshima.
• The honeymoon, 11 days in Japan for two: Tokyo, Hakone, Kyoto, then two nights cruising the Inland Sea aboard Guntû.

For families, some properties set a minimum age: 12 at Hoshinoya Kyoto, 15 aboard Guntû, 7 at Beniya Mukayu, primary-school age at Wanosato, and 6 in the Museum and Oval buildings of Benesse House.

When to go

Spring and autumn are the mildest seasons. According to the 1991-2020 averages of the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA), the cherry trees start to blossom on 24 March in Tokyo, 26 March in Kyoto and 3 April in Kanazawa, with full bloom about a week later. In the cities, the maples turn red from late November to early December: around 22 November in Hiroshima, 28 November in Tokyo and 5 December in Kyoto, earlier in the mountains.

Average maximum temperatures, JMA 1991-2020 normals.

The rainy season runs on average from 7 June to 19 July around Tokyo and from 6 June to 19 July in Kansai. August is hot and humid; together with September, it is the month when typhoons most often approach Japan, 3.3 times on average. Winter is cold in the mountains, with an average January maximum of 3.2 °C in Takayama, and it is the season for open-air baths; Shirakawa-gō lights up its farmhouses on certain January evenings. Golden Week, a holiday period in Japan, fills hotels and trains: its public holidays in 2027 fall on 29 April and from 3 to 5 May. The guide When to go to Japan gives the dates city by city.

The train, the thread of the journey

The shinkansen links the big cities, with ordinary cars and Green cars, the first class of JR trains (Japan Railways, the group of railway companies that grew out of the national railways). Seats can be booked from one month before travel. On the Tokaido line, a suitcase whose three sides add up to more than 160 cm needs a reserved seat with an oversized-luggage area. The carrier Yamato can also deliver large cases to your hotel from its counters at stations and airports.

The Japan Rail Pass, sold only to foreign visitors, covers JR trains for 7, 14 or 21 days. On the official website, the 7-day pass costs 50,000 ¥ (about 282 €) in ordinary class and 70,000 ¥ (about 395 €) in the Green car; from authorised agents outside Japan it has cost 53,000 ¥ (about 299 €) and 74,000 ¥ (about 418 €) since 1 October 2026. Nozomi trains, the fastest on the Tokaido line, also need a special ticket: 4,960 ¥ (about 28 €) from Tokyo to Kyoto. The pass pays off mainly on routes that go far west; for a single journey from Tokyo to Kyoto followed by short trips around Kansai, individual tickets are often enough. The guide Trains in Japan covers prices, reservations and contactless travel cards.

Ryokan and onsen

A night in a ryokan has its own rhythm. You arrive before 6 pm if you are dining in; dinner is usually kaiseki, a seasonal meal of many courses, and the staff lay out the futons on the tatami while you eat. Guests move around the inn in a yukata, the cotton kimono provided by the house, following the rules on display. Umika's selection includes historic houses, such as Iwasō on Miyajima, founded in 1854, or Kinjohro in Kanazawa, a ryokan and kaiseki restaurant founded in 1890 with 6 rooms, and contemporary ryokans, such as the KAI properties in Hakone, Kaga, Okuhida and Miyajima.

Onsen are hot-spring baths. In the shared bath, separated by sex, you wash thoroughly at the shower stations before getting in, naked, and the small towel stays out of the water; photos are forbidden. Some places refuse guests with tattoos: JNTO advises checking the rule in advance or booking a private bath. Several ryokans in the selection have a rotemburo, an open-air bath, in every room, such as Hakone Ginyu and Beniya Mukayu. A hot-spring tax, usually 150 ¥ (about 1 €) per person per day, is added to the bill. The guide Onsen, ryokan and etiquette explains how to behave in the bath, at the temple and at the table.

Budget and taxes

Accommodation is the largest part of the budget. For two adults in mid-April 2027, prices found in October 2026 on the hotels' own websites give these benchmarks, taxes included:

Guntû is sold by the cruise: from 675,000 ¥ (about 3,807 €) per person for 3 days and 2 nights in April 2027, with meals, drinks and excursions included.

Local taxes are added and paid at the hotel. Since 1 March 2026, Kyoto has charged an accommodation tax based on the price per person per night: 4,000 ¥ (about 23 €) per person per night from ¥50,000 to ¥99,999, and 10,000 ¥ (about 57 €) from ¥100,000; the city's luxury hotels fall into these two bands. Tokyo, Osaka, Kanazawa and Miyajima have their own, smaller taxes; Tokyo's will become 3% of the room price on 1 April 2027. The departure tax of 3,000 ¥ (about 17 €) per person is nearly always included in the air fare. For purchases made from 1 November 2026, tax-free shopping works as a refund on departure. The guide Money in Japan covers cash machines, cards, tax-free shopping and tax bands.

Entry, time difference and safety

You need a valid passport, and the immigration and customs declarations can be completed online before arrival on Visit Japan Web, the Japanese Digital Agency's service. Japan tightly restricts some medicines, including common cold remedies. The entry rules for your country:

The guide Japan entry requirements covers medicines, customs and JESTA, the electronic travel authorisation due to start by March 2029 at the latest.

Japan is on UTC+9 all year, with no daylight saving time: 9 hours ahead of London in winter and 8 hours ahead in summer. Times given on this site are Japanese local time.

The country has frequent earthquakes, many active volcanoes and a typhoon season; the JMA issues tsunami and volcano warnings, and the authorities may order evacuations, which must be followed on the spot. In Hakone, the volcano has been at alert level 1, "active volcano, stay alert", since 7 October 2019. Crime is low. Around the Fukushima Daiichi power plant, far from Umika's regions, some zones remain closed or restricted. Before you travel, check France Diplomatiediplomatie.belgium.beDFAE (eda.admin.ch)mae.gouvernement.luGOV.UK (FCDO)ireland.ie (DFA)Auswärtiges AmtRegeringen (UD)Udenrigsministeriet (um.dk)RegjeringenOdyseusz (MSZ)MZV ČRBMEIANederland WereldwijdViaggiare Sicuriexteriores.gob.esPortal das ComunidadesUlkoministeriö (um.fi). Foreign ministries do not all give the same advice. The advice for your country: