Curated routes
Days we put in order
20 days, one area each — first light to last train, in a sequence that actually connects by train and on foot. We walked the order, not just the places.
- 01
Kyoto
Kyoto Before the Crowds
Four of the most photographed places in Kyoto, taken in the order that keeps you ahead of the day — starting at a mountain of torii gates that never closes, finishing in a bamboo corridor before eight.
- 02
South Kyoto
The Tea Valley Line
South of the city, where the tea actually grows: terraced hillsides, the only village in the prefecture, the documented birthplace of sencha, and a temple with a heart-shaped window.
- 03
North Kyoto
North of Kyoto, Into the Hills
Up into the hills north of the city — a moss garden you walk onto, a thousand-year nunnery, a forest onsen, and the original shrine of the water god at the top of the valley.
- 04
Kamakura
Kamakura on Foot
Kamakura on foot, from the Zen temple beside the north station down to the sea — ending at the level crossing where the little Enoden train meets the bay.
- 05
Okutama, Tokyo
Tokyo's Wild West
Still Tokyo, at its far western end: an emerald gorge with a footbridge, a fish ladder you can walk inside, and the oldest sake brewery in the city, on the riverbank.
- 06
Hakone
The Hakone Round
The Hakone circuit in one day — the torii standing in the lake, a steaming volcanic valley, a sculpture park in the open air, and a hot spring at the end of it.
- 07
Osaka
Osaka, Morning to Neon
Osaka from its oldest shrine at first light to the most famous sign on the canal — with a lantern-lit stone lane and a retro tower in between.
- 08
Kobe
Kobe Between Mountain and Sea
Kobe reads as one slope: Western merchant houses on the hill, a Chinatown you cross in minutes, a herb garden reached by ropeway, and the harbour tower at the bottom of it.
- 09
East Tokyo
The Low City, Dawn to Sunset
A west-running line across the old low city, timed to the hour each street opens — from a temple hall unlocked before seven, shutters still down along its approach, to a flight of steps named for the sunset.
- 10
Shibuya, Tokyo
Tokyo, Forest to Rooftop
Four places, south through the west of Tokyo, the quiet end first: a planted forest soon after it opens, the lawns beside it, an avenue of trees walked downhill, and an open rooftop above it all.
- 11
Kanazawa, Ishikawa
One Circle Around Kanazawa Castle
One circle around Kanazawa Castle, each stop taken at the hour that suits it — starting inside a garden while the ticket booths are still shut, ending on the lawn of a museum that stays lit long after its galleries close.
- 12
Nara
Down Into the Old Capital
Nara from above, then Nara at street level — a hillside veranda that never closes and never charges, the widest view of the basin you can reach without a ticket at first light, and a half-day walking down into it, ending in the lattice-fronted lanes before noon.
- 13
Naha, Okinawa
Down the Royal Road
The Ryukyu court sat on a ridge and its road ran down to the harbour; the day goes the same way — castle gates at eight, soba above the market, kilns in the afternoon, a slope facing the sunset.
- 14
Nagasaki
Nagasaki, Hill to Mountain
Nagasaki taken as one slope, ending above it: a hillside of period houses open at eight, the church just below it, the hypocentre walked uphill after lunch, and the harbour from a summit deck, reached in daylight and held past dark.
- 15
Izumo, Shimane
The Road West of Izumo
West out of Izumo and back on the same bus line — a shrine where you clap four times instead of two, dark buckwheat noodles, a stone lighthouse you can climb, and a west-facing beach at sundown.
- 16
Fuji Five Lakes, Yamanashi
The Clear Half of a Fuji Day
Mount Fuji is clearest in the morning and usually behind cloud by midday — a hillside of stone steps before nine, a village of spring water in the late morning, a coaster park once the cloud closes in, and a lakeside promenade to finish.
- 17
Uji, Kyoto
Two Banks and a Canal
The quiet bank first, the famous one after — starting at a riverside flower garden that costs nothing, finishing among white storehouses on a canal, where three glasses come with the entry.
- 18
Yokohama
Yokohama, Garden to Harbour
Yokohama taken from the garden end — historic buildings carried here from Kyoto and Gifu at nine, dim sum in the Chinatown at midday, a 1930 liner in the afternoon, the bayfront after dark.
- 19
Sapporo, Hokkaido
Sapporo's Grid, Then Its Lights
One day down the Sapporo grid, then above it — a wooden hall from the settlement years the minute its doors open at 8:45, a lane given over to ramen kitchens, a firebreak that became a park twelve blocks long, and a mountain at the end of it, where what matters is being at the foot of the ropeway an hour or so before the sun goes.
- 20
Asuka, Nara
Before Nara, Before Kyoto
Five stops on the plain of Japan's first capitals — opening on a gravel court at sunrise, turning at a valley of some three hundred stone-walled paddies, and closing in an Edo merchant town of five hundred houses, still lived in. Asuka itself, by rented bicycle.