- Discover iconic cities of Tokyo, Kyoto, Hiroshima and Osaka!
- Eight day trip covering Japan's cultural highlights
- Enjoy Nikko's natural beauty and UNESCO sites
- Experience cherry blossom season or beautiful autumn colours
- Take the high speed Shinkansen- 'bullet train'
- Taste a variety of Japanese cuisine

Highlights of Japan
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- Cultural Wonders
- Highlights of Japan
Discover the iconic and cultural highlights of Japan
Commencing in electrifying Tokyo, this cultural highlights adventure is the ideal way to experience some of Japan's most iconic cities and sites in just 8 days! Visit atmospheric Kyoto to delve into the heart of Japan's cultural heritage, taste the amazing and diverse cuisine, uncover the beautiful Japanese nature and UNESCO world heritage sites of magical Nikko before discovering historic Hiroshima's Peace Memorial Park and Museum and captivating Miyajima. This rich journey through the land of the rising sun ends in vibrant and lively Osaka before heading home with memories that will last a lifetime!
Highlights
Key Information
- Six nights hotels and one night traditional guesthouse
- Sightseeing on foot and public transport
- Group normally six to 16, plus leader
- Travel by train, local bus, metro and ferry
- Cherry blossom and Autumn colour departures
- Countries visited: Japan
What's Included
- All breakfasts and one dinner
- All accommodation
- All transport (including 7 day Japan Rail Pass) and listed activities
- Free shared shuttle arrival transfer (available 2023 only/ must be booked in advance before trip commences if you wish to utilise this service)
- Group departure transfer (available 2023 only)
What's Not Included
- Travel insurance
- Single accommodation (limited availability & on request/ Only available for six nights, not available one night in Nikko)
- Visas or vaccinations
People, Places & Planet
We work hard to create trips which improve life for the people and places we visit, and look after the planet we explore. Find out more about our sustainable travel ethos and practice here, and find out about the work of the Exodus Travels Foundation here.
Some sustainable travel highlights of this trip include:
People
How this trip helps improve life for local communities.
- The use of a local guide means our customers will be well informed about local traditions, and cultural and social sensitivities.
- This trip brings income and opportunity to the destination community through the inclusion of locally-owned hotels and restaurants, the emphasis on eating locally produced food and support of other local enterprise.
- Guests will have the opportunity to stay in traditional Japanese guesthouse (ryokans/minshukus) for a night in Nikko, where they will eat delicious home cooked, traditional Japanese meals prepared by locals.
- With a strong emphasis on culture and history, this trip provides plenty of opportunities to visit various museums and cultural sites. Our visits to the museums and sites will benefit the locals and contributes to the preservation of their cultural assets through the money spent on entrance fees and other purchases made within the area.
Places
How this trip helps protect and conserve local landscapes and nature.
- By travelling in a small group, led by a local guide, we ‘tread lightly’ to minimise our impact on local resources and the environment.
- Our trips adhere to ABTA’s industry-leading animal welfare guidelines to ensure the best possible practices with regard to working animals and wildlife viewing. Our animal welfare policy can be found here.
- We work with our partners on the ground to proactively eliminate or reduce waste. For example, we encourage eliminating all single-use plastic water bottles and instead encourage clients to drink the tap water, which is safe to drink in Japan. We encourage all clients to take a refillable water bottle with them on the tour.
- During the tour, our guides educate guests on how to appropriately separate and dispose of any waste, as well as encouraging clients to use reusable chopsticks and canvas tote bags for shopping.
Planet
How we seek to keep the carbon footprint of this trip low.
- Read about Exodus Travels’ Planet Promise here, including our rewilding and carbon compensation commitments for every customer who travels.
- We choose to travel by train and public transport through-out this trip as opposed to private transport or taking domestic flights.
- Accommodation and restaurants in the itinerary mostly use locally-sourced food which has not been transported long distances.
- Vegetarian and vegan options are available at majority of accommodation and restaurants.
- Most accommodations used on this trip adhere to strict environmental policies in order to save water and energy and lower their carbon footprint.
Tips for sustainable travel on this trip
- Leave no trace: We do all we can to ensure we leave no rubbish behind in the wild and beautiful places we visit; we ask that you do the same. If there are no recycling facilities in-country, we’d ask you to consider bringing recyclable materials home with you.
- Plastic waste reduction: Please bring your own re-usable water bottle on this trip; filtered water will be provided where tap water is not drinkable.
- Cultural respect:
- Shoes are never worn in someone's home or on Japanese tatami flooring (mats). There will always be a place to put your shoes. In addition, you will be given slippers to wear. There are often different slippers for the bathroom.
- It is highly inappropriate to stick chopsticks into food, especially into a bowl of rice. This practice of placing chopsticks upright in a bowl of rice is a funerary practice known as ‘tsukitate-bashi’.
- When eating soup or rice, it is acceptable to lift the bowl closer to your mouth to avoid spilling food. Generally, miso soup (which accompanies many meals) is drunk directly from the bowl, while larger soups are usually consumed by using a soup spoon.
Itinerary
Upon arrival in Tokyo, you will be met on arrival at the airport and transferred to the hotel. (2023 departures only)
Later in the afternoon there will be a group welcome meeting, followed by an optional group dinner and casual tour around Shinjuku, the famous nightlife district of Tokyo.
The trip starts this afternoon in the futuristic capital of Tokyo.
Later this afternoon, there will be a group welcome meeting with your tour leader followed by an optional group dinner in the evening and casual tour around Shinjuku, the famous nightlife district of Tokyo!
Today we utilise Tokyo's efficient metro system and enjoy a full day tour of the city.
We start the day with an early morning visit to Meiji Shrine. Tokyo’s most famous shrine is dedicated to the spirit of the late Emperor Meiji while the park that surrounds the shrine is a forest of some 120,000 trees of 365 different species, making you forget that you are in the world’s largest city.
Outside of Meiji Shrine is Harajuku, the shopping haven for all fashionistas and the popular meeting place for teenagers who are usually in eccentric clothing. The landmark of Harajuku is Takeshita Street, a 400-meter long alley filled with boutiques, shops, and cafes.
Neighbouring Harajuku is Omotesando, commonly referred to as Tokyo’s Champs-Elysee. This broad, tree-lined avenue features a number of fashion flagship stores designed by internationally renowned architects like TOD’s Omotesando, designed by Toyo Ito.
From Omotesando, we can take the metro to Ginza, one of Tokyo’s most famous upscale shopping, dining, and entertainment districts. It is said that 1sqm of land in Ginza is worth over 10 million yen (€ 90,000)!
Our last stop Asakusa, is Tokyo’s oldest Geisha district and home to Senso-ji Temple which is the city’s oldest Buddhist temple. The streets around Senso-ji feature many traditional shops that sell Japanese crafts and souvenirs and are a delight to wander through.
Please note that the order of activities and areas visited today in Tokyo may change depending on the weather conditions and other factors. Your tour leader will provide full details of the schedule during the initial trip briefing.
Meals Included: Breakfast
After breakfast we bid farewell to Tokyo and travel by train (approx. 2 hours) to beautiful Nikko, famous for its towering cedar trees and the UNESCO World Heritage sites such as the Toshogu Shrine.
Upon arrival we set out to visit a few of Nikko's most popular sites.
The Shinkyo Bridge is one of the most iconic sights and landmarks of Nikko. This bright, vermillion bridge spans a river on the outskirts of the main shrine complex, and is, aside from Toshogu Shrine, the most photographed attraction in Nikko. Often featured in traditional Japanese art prints known as ukiyoe, it is considered to be one of Japan’s top three most beautiful bridges, and is photogenic in all seasons.
No visit to Nikko would be complete without a visit the Toshogu Shrine, which was built as a mausoleum for Tokugawa Ieyasu, founder of the Tokugawa Shogunate who ruled Japan for over 250 years. This lavishly decorated shrine complex consists of more than a dozen Shinto and Buddhist buildings located in a beautiful forest setting.
We spend the night in Nikko in a traditional style guesthouse.
Meals Included: Breakfast, Dinner
Today we set out on a longer journey (approx. 4.5 hours) west to the historical former capital of Japan, Kyoto by local train and shinkansen. As we will arrive in Kyoto after 14:00, we can enjoy a bento lunch on the train.
After checking into our hotel, we visit the Nishiki Market, where we embark on a tour that will delight your senses. Here we walk the narrow, mile-long Nishiki covered food markets, where you’ll find many interesting food shops to explore. This is a great opportunity to learn about local Japanese produce and snap some photos of goods you won’t find back home. Some of the shops give out or sell samples, so make sure to keep some space in your stomach!
The late afternoon is the best time to visit the Gion District – also known as the “Geisha District” for being one of the city’s hanamachi (flower towns) where Geisha live and work. The highlight of the area is Hanami-koji, the most popular street in Gion where lavish teahouses and machiya (old houses) are lined up. Usually in the early evening you may have a chance to catch a glimpse of a Geiko or Maiko in the streets on the way to her engagement, if you are lucky!
Meals Included: Breakfast
Today, along with your tour leader, enjoy an exploration of the highlights of Kyoto whilst using the comprehensive bus and metro systems to visit some of Kyoto’s World Heritage Sites.
The tour starts with an early morning visit to one of the most unusual Shinto shrines in Japan. Fushimi Inari is composed of thousands of vermilion torii gates following trails inside the forests of Mt Inari. The Shrine, also featured in “Memoirs of a Geisha”, is very famous for the impressive contrast and mystical atmosphere created by the colours of the Torii and those of the surrounding nature.
Next on our schedule is Arashiyama, one of Kyoto’s richest areas for sightseeing, Arashiyama contains some of the area’s most stunning scenery. Starting at Togetsukyo Bridge, one of Arashiyama’s most recognizable landmarks, we make our way to the bamboo forest path on the west side of the river before stopping at Nonomiya Shrine.
After a lunch break we continue to the serene Ryoan-ji Temple, which is famous for its well-maintained rock garden and known to be the Myoshinji School of the Rinzai Buddhist sect.
Just a short distance from Ryoan-ji is the stunning golden pavilion collectively known as Kinkaku-ji Temple. The temple grounds are relatively smaller than that of most temples and shrines found in Kyoto but what is undoubtedly impressive is the pavilion that is completely covered in handmade gold leaves.
Meals Included: Breakfast
Following breakfast, we move further west by shinkansen (bullet train) to the city of Hiroshima (approx. 3 hours). Along the way we will break our journey for a visit to one of the most beautiful and most famous castles of Japan, Himeji Castle. Also called “Shirasagi-jo” (the White Heron Castle) or “Hakuro-jo” (the White Egret Castle) by some of the locals, Himeji Castle resembles a white bird in flight due to its white exterior and distinctive roof design.
After visiting the castle, we pick up lunch to enjoy on the train and continue our way to Hiroshima.
Perhaps more than any city in the world, Hiroshima is famous for one moment in history; on 6 August 1945, it became the first target of an atomic bomb. However, Hiroshima has risen phoenix-like from its ashes, and rebuilt itself as one of Japan's most laid back and vibrant cities, full of wide boulevards and museums and famous for its great food and friendly, welcoming people.
This afternoon we visit the Peace Memorial Museum for a sobering reminder of the events of 1945 before experiencing the surrounding Peace Park, where the atmosphere is one of hope and peace.
Tonight we spend the night in Hiroshima.
Meals Included: Breakfast
This morning, we take a short trip by ferry to Miyajima, a famous wooded island located in the Inland Sea near Hiroshima. Here you will find perhaps the most photographed site in Japan - The Floating Torii Gate. Please note, whilst the ‘floating’ tori of Itsukushima-jinja Shrine is currently undergoing renovation works, we still recommend a visit to this enchanting island. Deer are roaming freely on this lovely island where we spend some time at leisure before we make our way by shinkansen (approx. 2.5 hours) to our final destination on our tour of Japan, Osaka.
The 2nd largest metropolitan area in Japan, Osaka has a very distinct and vibrant character, the locals are colourful and lively and are known to work hard and play hard. Osaka is also known as the shopping, dining and nightlife capital of Japan. A good place to buy some last souvenirs and enjoy a last dinner together with your fellow travellers or sing a song in a karaoke box before heading home!
Meals Included: Breakfast
2023 departures only: Those on the group flight will be transferred (on the group flight departure transfer) to Kansai (KIX) airport by taxi and limousine bus for your flight back to London. Group flights usually depart in the late morning arriving back to London later that same day.
Meals Included: Breakfast
The tour ends this morning after breakfast.
If you have a late flight or are staying longer, you tour leader will be happy to give suggestions for your sightseeing plans.
Meals Included: Breakfast
Essential Info
Visa
Japan
Travellers from the UK, US and EU normally do not need a visa to enter Japan. Please note, visa requirements often change and it is your responsibility to obtain any required visas for this trip. Therefore, we recommend that you check with the nearest embassy or consulate of your chosen destination(s), including any countries you may be transiting or transferring through.
Some local governments provide guidance on what visas their citizens need. To help, we’ve gathered a selection of useful links below.
Vaccination
Japan
There are no required vaccinations. However, recommended vaccinations include hepatitis B, tetanus, Japanese encephalitis, rabies (bat lyssavirus) and tick-borne encephalitis. Please confirm with your doctor or travel clinic.
Eating and Drinking
All breakfasts and 1 dinner included.
Japanese cuisine is usually one of the main highlights of any trip to Japan. It is based on rice with miso soup and other dishes which are usually prepared with seasonal ingredients. Seafood is very is common, and it usually comes grilled or deep fried. Sushi and sashimi aside, other staple dishes include Soba, Ramen or Udon noodles, Sukiyaki (meat, fish and vegetables cooked in broth) and Yakiniku (grilled meat).
When food is not included, your leader will always be on hand to recommend the best local eateries and arrange some group meals for a full immersion in Japan's varied and excellent cuisine.
Please note that in Japan the availability of certain specialised products for restricted diets, e.g. gluten-free, strict vegetarian (no fish/seafood) or vegan is minimal or non-existent. The group meals arranged by the tour leader will be in traditional eateries where the choices of vegan dishes may be limited to simple salads or boiled rice. However in Kyoto and Tokyo a number of vegan restaurants are available. It may also be a good idea to bring with you some foodstuffs that you normally consume, or to supplement meals with snacks purchased in the local convenience stores.
Weather
Japan has four very distinct seasons. Our aim has been to avoid the extremely cold winters and humid summers and settle for the more pleasant climes of spring and autumn. In Tokyo, September and October are warm, maximum temperatures are 26ºC and minimum 12ºC. September is likely to be the warmer of the two and there is a likelihood of rain. April is cooler with temperatures possibly going as low as 7ºC with a high of 17ºC. Kyoto is very similar climatically to Tokyo but the higher up into the mountains we venture, the colder it will become with nights being especially cold, particularly in March and November.
Is this trip for you?
Activity Level 3- Moderate
This is an 8 day cultural trip, which attempts to encompass the main cultural and iconic highlights of Japan.
You will walk mostly in cities and towns and although not strenuous, the amount of walking each day is considerable and fast-paced (good comfortable walking shoes are required). Some temples and shrines will be visited during the trip, most of which are built on hillsides. This will mean ascending and descending lots of steps so a good level of fitness in essential.
All transport will be by public transport and mainly trains which are extremely efficient. Therefore, it is essential that all group members are punctual to ensure we do not miss any of the scheduled services.
Some of the distances covered are long but trains are very comfortable making the journey pleasant. Please be aware that we will be carrying our luggage with us on the trains when moving locations, so please be prepared for this. There may be a possibility to organise a luggage courier service (additional cost) to have your main luggage transferred between locations which your leader can advise locally at the start of the tour.
Please note that the order of activities in Tokyo and Kyoto may change depending on the weather conditions and other factors. Your tour leader will provide full details of the schedule during the initial trip briefing.
Following a review of all our trips we have categorised this trip as generally not suitable for persons of reduced mobility. However if you are a regular traveller on such trips, please contact customer services to discuss the trip and your personal condition.
Hotels and traditional style guesthouse
In Tokyo, Kyoto, Hiroshima and Osaka, our hotels are centrally located with excellent modern facilities and English speaking staff. Please note, in Japan, western hotel room sizes in standard hotels are normally smaller in size and if requesting a double bed, please be advised that these can be smaller in size than western double bed sizes so couples may prefer twin beds.
For one night during the trip in Nikko, we stay in a traditional inn/guesthouse where we are able to get a close feel for the timeless rhythms and customs of the Japanese countryside. Ryokans and minshukus, whilst comfortable and full of local character, do not run along the same lines as western hotels and do all have their own unique style; some are more like Japanese B&B’s (minshukus) with a homestay/guesthouse feel and guests make their own Japanese style beds up, whilst others are managed more like a standard hotel (typical ryokans) with bedding made up for guests. Rooms do not generally have private facilities and bedding is usually in the Japanese style with thick futon mattresses placed on tatami mats on the floor. Rooms are always doubles or twin-share but bathrooms and showers are generally communal. Please be advised, whilst females and males will have access to separate gender specific bathrooms, inside showering and bathing facilities can lack the level of privacy you would be used to in a western style shared bathroom.
Please note that free Wi-Fi is available at every hotel.
2023 departures
Please be advised that the below accommodations are just a list of the standard hotels used for 2023 departures. However, there may be some departures where groups stay at different hotels of a similar standard and quality.
Tokyo (2 nights): Dormy Inn Kodenmacho
Nikko (1 night): Turtle Inn Nikko or Annex Turtle Hotorian
Kyoto (2 nights): Resol Kyoto Shijo Muromachi
Hiroshima (1 night): Daiwa Roynet Hotel Hiroshima Ekimae or Dormy Inn Annex
Osaka (1 night): Karaksa Hotel Osaka Namba
Onsen (Japanese public bath)
For many visitors to Japan the onsen is a somewhat unfamiliar territory. An onsen is a Japanese hot spring and the bathing facilities and inns frequently situated around them. The combination of a strict bathing etiquette, that nudity is involved and compulsory, and that the water temperature is often hotter than most Jacuzzis can cause some reluctance for first timers. However, once the courage is mustered, you may discover that a dip in an onsen is likely to become one of the highlights of your visit to Japan. You may have the opportunity to try a public onsen throughout the trip. Please be aware you may be refused entry if you have large and visible tattoos.
Single supplements
Single supplements can be pre-booked for 6 nights only (not available 1 night in Nikko).
In Nikko single supplements are not available and rooming is based on twin share (sharing with another group member of the same gender).
Please be advised single supplements are limited and is payable at the time of booking and subject to availability. In Japan, often single supplements can be accommodated in either an actual single and/or double for sole use room in hotels.
Covid-19 refund commitment
You will get a refund if you have to cancel your trip due to COVID-19.
Start
Finish
Availability
Adult Price From
Optional Single Supplement
Saturday Friday
23 Sep 2023 22 Sep 2023
Saturday Saturday
30 Sep 2023 30 Sep 2023
Availability Guaranteed (Available)
Adult Price From USD 5,149
Optional Single Supplement +USD 704
Availability
This departure is available for new bookings and has reached the minimum number of passengers required to go ahead. Please click Continue to proceed with booking or contact our Sales team for assistance.
View Trip NotesSaturday Friday
21 Oct 2023 20 Oct 2023
Saturday Saturday
28 Oct 2023 28 Oct 2023
Availability Guaranteed (Available)
Adult Price From USD 5,149
Optional Single Supplement Single Rooms sold out
Autumn colours
Autumn colours
Availability
This departure is available for new bookings and has reached the minimum number of passengers required to go ahead. Please click Continue to proceed with booking or contact our Sales team for assistance.
View Trip NotesNo departures found.
Would you like to include flights with your booking?
- ATOL protected
- Competitive flight prices
- Full refunds in the event of FCDO cancellations or major disruption at your UK departure airport
- Specialist support to rearrange flights and transfers
- Regional flights available from many UK airports
*Please note any date & price adjustments will be displayed on the next step of booking. You will be able to revert back to booking without flights if the options aren't suitable for you.
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