Culture · Nature · Museums

Things to do

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Culture, temples & neighbourhoods

Tokyo

Temple · Tokyo ·1-2h

Senso-ji 浅草寺

Tokyo's oldest temple (founded 645) and the single most unavoidable first-timer sight. By 10:00 the Nakamise approach is a slow-moving crowd; before 08:00 it is close to empty, the shutters are still down showing their painted Edo scenes, and the Kaminarimon lantern, Hozomon gate and five-storey pagoda are a quiet 20-minute loop. Grounds are open around the clock, so an early start costs nothing.

Tip: Go before 08:00. Main hall opens 06:00 (06:30 Oct-Mar) and closes 17:00; grounds always open. Sunday 14 Mar will be worst - do this on a weekday. Combine with Kappabashi in the same morning.

free morning source ↗

Shrine · Tokyo ·1-2h

Meiji Jingu 明治神宮

The Shinto counterweight to Senso-ji's Buddhism, and the better of the two for atmosphere: a 70-hectare planted forest of 100,000 donated trees in the middle of Shibuya, entered through Japan's largest wooden torii. The walk from Harajuku station to the main hall takes 10 minutes and drops the city noise almost completely. Weekend mornings often produce a Shinto wedding procession crossing the courtyard.

Tip: Opening tracks sunrise/sunset - roughly 05:40-17:20 in mid-March. Free. Pair with Harajuku/Omotesando or with Shinjuku Gyoen (25 min walk apart). The Inner Garden's irises are a June thing, skip it in March.

free (Inner Garden ¥500, Treasure Museum ¥1,000) morning source ↗

Shrine · Tokyo ·45min

Nezu Shrine 根津神社

A complete 1705 Edo shrine complex that survived both the 1923 earthquake and the firebombing - the gate, hall and corridor are all original and nationally designated. Behind the main hall a tunnel of small vermilion torii climbs the slope, an Inari sub-shrine in miniature. It sits in the middle of the Yanaka-Nezu-Sendagi walk, so it costs nothing to add.

Tip: The famous azalea festival is early-to-mid April - we miss it, and the slope will be bare. Grounds 06:00-17:00. 7 min from Nezu station (Chiyoda line) or 15 min walk from Yanaka Ginza.

free morning source ↗

Shrine · Tokyo ·45min

Yushima Tenmangu 湯島天満宮

The scholars' shrine, hung with tens of thousands of exam-wish ema, and Tokyo's best-known plum garden - around 300 trees, 80% of them white. It is a 10-minute walk from Ueno Park, so it slots into a museum day without a detour.

Tip: IMPORTANT: the Bunkyo Ume Matsuri runs roughly 8 Feb - 8 Mar, so we arrive just after it ends - stalls and lighting will be gone and early varieties past. Late-flowering plum often holds into the second week of March but is not guaranteed. Hanegi Park's Setagaya Ume Matsuri (approx 7 Feb - 1 Mar) is over even earlier. Treat plum as a bonus, not a plan.

free morning source ↗

Neighbourhood · Tokyo ·half day

Kichijoji & Inokashira Park 吉祥寺・井の頭恩賜公園

Consistently voted the neighbourhood Tokyoites most want to live in, and the returners' antidote to Shibuya: Harmonica Yokocho's warren of postwar market stalls turned into standing bars and tiny kitchens, Nakamichi-dori's independent shops, and Inokashira Park's boat pond five minutes south. The Ghibli Museum sits on the park's western edge, so the two are one trip.

Tip: Inokashira has early-blooming cherries and is one of Tokyo's best Somei-yoshino spots later in March - for our dates expect bare branches on the main trees. Harmonica Yokocho stalls seat 4-8; a group of 5 should arrive at 17:00 or split. 20 min from Shinjuku on the JR Chuo rapid.

free (swan boat approx ¥800/30min) afternoon source ↗

Day trip · Tokyo ·full day

Kamakura & Enoshima day trip 鎌倉・江の島

The temple-and-coast alternative to Takao, and the better pick if the group's centre of gravity is culture rather than hiking. Kotoku-in's 13.35 m bronze Great Buddha has sat open to the sky since a 1498 tsunami took its hall; Hasedera stacks a Kannon hall, a sea view and a hydrangea path up a hillside; Hokokuji is a small Rinzai temple whose bamboo grove has a tea house inside it. The Enoden then runs along the coast to Enoshima with Fuji across the bay on a clear day.

Tip: Odakyu Enoshima-Kamakura Freepass ¥1,640 from Shinjuku covers the return to Fujisawa plus unlimited Enoden - buy in the Odakyu app. Hokokuji closes around 16:00 and matcha in the grove is approx ¥600 extra. Do Hokokuji first (east side), then Daibutsu/Hasedera, then Enoshima at sunset. Pick this OR Takao - doing both burns two of seven days.

¥1,640 Freepass from Shinjuku + approx ¥1,500 temple entries (approx EUR 19 pp) weekday source ↗

Experience · Tokyo ·2h

teamLab Planets TOKYO チームラボプラネッツ TOKYO DMM

The barefoot, wet version of teamLab in Toyosu: you walk knee-deep through a dark pool where projected koi burst into flowers when you touch them, through a mirrored infinity room, and across a moss garden of reflective ovoids. More physical and far more photogenic than Borderless, and better for a group of five because you experience the rooms together rather than dispersing.

Tip: OPEN THROUGH 2027 - the run has been extended twice and is currently scheduled to end 31 Dec 2027, so our dates are safe. Timed entry, online booking mandatory; popular slots go 2-4 weeks ahead. You WADE - wear shorts or trousers that roll above the knee, skip skirts, lockers provided, phone gets wet. Pick this OR Borderless, not both.

from ¥3,200 (approx EUR 19) morning source ↗

Experience · Tokyo ·2-3h

teamLab Borderless チームラボボーダレス

The Odaiba original, relocated to the basement of Azabudai Hills in February 2024. No map and no route - artworks physically move between rooms and react to each other, so the point is to get lost. Drier and darker than Planets, and the better option if someone in the group refuses the barefoot-in-water idea or has mobility limits.

Tip: Timed entry, bookable up to two months ahead on the official site. No re-entry once you leave. Date changes are usually allowed, cancellations are not. Choose ONE of Planets/Borderless: at roughly EUR 20-30 per head each, doing both costs the group EUR 200+ for a repeated idea.

¥3,600-5,600 depending on date (approx EUR 21-33) afternoon source ↗

Neighbourhood · Tokyo ·half day

Yanaka Ginza & Yanaka-Nezu-Sendagi 谷中銀座

The pocket of Tokyo that both the firebombing and the bubble missed. A 170-metre shopping street of croquette stands, senbei shops and a famous concentration of cats, reached down the Yuyake Dandan steps; above it the Yanaka cemetery's cherry-lined central avenue and dozens of small temples; south of it Nezu and Sendagi with old bathhouses converted into galleries and cafes. This is the walk that makes returners feel they found something.

Tip: Shops open around 10:00 and many close by 17:00-18:00; a good number close Mondays. Do it 10:00-15:00. Route: Nippori station > Yanaka cemetery > Yuyake Dandan > Yanaka Ginza > Kayaba Coffee > SCAI the Bathhouse > Nezu Shrine > Sendagi. Nearly flat, about 3 km.

free morning source ↗

Neighbourhood · Tokyo ·2-3h

Kagurazaka 神楽坂

A former geisha quarter that became Tokyo's French neighbourhood, because the Institut francais and the Lycee both landed here. The main slope is unremarkable; the reason to come is the stone-paved alleys running off it - Hyogo-yokocho, Kakurenbo-yokocho - where black wooden fences hide ryotei, and the density of good bakeries, bistros and small kaiseki is unusually high for Tokyo. Bishamonten Zenkoku-ji anchors the middle.

Tip: Walk the alleys WEST of the main slope, not the slope itself. The main street is pedestrianised on Saturday and Sunday afternoons. Almost everything worth eating needs a reservation - have the apartment host or a Japanese-speaking friend call. Iidabashi or Kagurazaka station.

free to walk; dinner ¥4,000-10,000 pp evening source ↗

Neighbourhood · Tokyo ·half day

Shimokitazawa 下北沢

Nine minutes from Shibuya and a completely different city: low-rise, car-free in the centre, dense with vintage clothing, second-hand records, curry counters and live houses. Since the Odakyu line was buried underground, the old track bed has become Bonus Track and Shimokita Senrogai - a strip of small independent shops, a brewery and a bookshop-bar that is the most interesting new development in Tokyo retail in a decade.

Tip: Shops open late (12:00-13:00) and run to 20:00, so this is an afternoon/evening neighbourhood - the opposite of Yanaka. The famous Curry Festival is in October, not March. Good dinner base: Shirubee is a 5-minute walk from the station.

free to walk afternoon source ↗

Neighbourhood · Tokyo ·half day

Nakameguro 中目黒

Four kilometres of canal lined with around 800 cherry trees, and the reason almost everyone visits - which will not be available to us. What holds up regardless is the low-rise riverside itself: Onibus Coffee in a tiny house by the Toyoko tracks, the Starbucks Reserve Roastery (a Kengo Kuma building, worth it as architecture even if you dislike the brand), and the walk uphill to Daikanyama's Tsutaya bookstore complex.

Tip: SAKURA REALITY CHECK: Tokyo's Somei-yoshino opened 19 Mar 2026, 24 Mar 2025 and 29 Mar 2024 - our 10-17 March window is before bloom in every recent year. Come here for the shops and coffee, and if the group passes back through Tokyo on 29-30 March, the river will be at or near peak then.

free afternoon source ↗

Shop · Tokyo ·2h

Kappabashi Kitchen Town かっぱ橋道具街

Eight hundred metres of restaurant-supply street between Asakusa and Ueno, selling to the trade: hand-forged knives at Kamata and Tsubaya, donabe and iron kettles, lacquerware, noren, bamboo steamers, and the plastic food samples that fill Japanese restaurant windows. It is the most useful souvenir shopping in Tokyo and it is a ten-minute walk from Senso-ji, so it costs nothing to add to that morning.

Tip: Most shops 10:00-17:00; MANY CLOSE SUNDAYS, so avoid 14 Mar. Knife shops will sharpen and engrave a name in Japanese while you wait - allow the time. Blades must go in CHECKED baggage on the flight home. Ganso Sample-ya runs plastic-food workshops (book ahead).

knives from ¥6,000; sample-making workshop approx ¥2,500 morning source ↗

Shop · Tokyo ·2-3h

Jimbocho Book Town 神保町

The largest concentration of second-hand bookshops on earth - roughly 130 of them, plus ukiyo-e print dealers, art-book specialists, curry counters and unreconstructed 1950s kissaten. Most shopfronts face north, deliberately, to keep direct sun off the stock. Ohya Shobo and Hara Shobo sell genuine Edo and Meiji woodblock prints from a few thousand yen, which is the best thing you can carry home from Tokyo.

Tip: MANY SHOPS CLOSE SUNDAYS - avoid 14 Mar. Weekday afternoons are quiet. Jimbocho is on the Hanzomon/Toei Shinjuku/Mita lines. The curry here is a genuine local speciality, not a tourist thing - Bondy and Kyoeido are the classics and both take walk-ins with a queue.

free to browse; original prints from approx ¥3,000 weekday source ↗

Matsumoto & Kiso

Neighbourhood · Matsumoto ·1–2h

Nakamachi Street 中町通り

A short merchant street of white-walled kura storehouses, rebuilt fireproof after the 1888 fire with the black-and-white namako-kabe lattice that gives the street its look. Today the kura hold craft shops, a woodblock gallery, coffee roasters, izakaya and the town's brewery taproom, so it doubles as the evening base for a group. Nakamachi Kurassic-kan is free to walk into for the beams, tatami rooms and small garden.

Tip: Most shops close around 17:00–18:00 while the restaurants run late, so do the browsing before dinner. It is a five-minute walk from Nawate Street across the Metoba river and ten minutes from the castle, so the whole old-town loop is walkable in an afternoon.

free to walk; shops ¥500–5,000 afternoon source ↗

Neighbourhood · Matsumoto ·45min

Nawate Street (Frog Street) 縄手通り

A pedestrian-only lane along the Metoba river with about fifty tiny stalls, antique dealers, dagashi sweet shops and taiyaki windows, watched over by a large stone frog at the entrance. The frog theme comes from the river's frogs and a pun on kaeru (return); there is a small frog shrine, Kaeru Daimyojin, halfway along. Yohashira Shrine sits at the eastern end and makes the natural link over to Nakamachi.

Tip: Stalls are shuttered by late afternoon and many close on Wednesdays, so treat it as a morning or lunchtime stop rather than an evening one. Good rainy-day filler because it strings straight into Nakamachi's covered shops.

free; street snacks ¥200–600 morning source ↗

Day trip · Matsumoto ·half day

Zenko-ji, Nagano 善光寺

A 1,400-year-old pilgrimage temple in Nagano city, non-sectarian and predating the split of Japanese Buddhism, whose hidden Amida triad has not been shown publicly since the 7th century. Two rituals run every day and are free: the o-juzu-choudai blessing at dawn and the oasaji morning service, plus the pitch-black underground passage beneath the altar where you feel for the key to paradise. Nagano is under an hour from Matsumoto on the Shinano limited express, which makes it a real half-day option in bad mountain weather.

Tip: The morning service starts at sunrise, which in mid-March is around 06:00 — that means the first Matsumoto train will not get you there in time; only worth it if you sleep in Nagano, otherwise arrive mid-morning and skip the service. From Nagano Station take a bus from stop 1 to Zenkoji Daimon (15 min, ¥190) or the Nagaden to Zenkojishita (4 min, ¥170). Honest assessment: with only four nights and Kiso to cover, this competes badly against the Nakasendo.

grounds free; combined ticket for inner sanctuary, passage and museum ¥1,200 (~€7) morning source ↗

Neighbourhood · Kiso Valley ·1–2h

Magome-juku 馬籠宿

The 43rd post town on the Nakasendo, unusual in running steeply uphill rather than along a valley floor, with a stone-paved street, water wheels and an open view south over the Gifu hills. It burned twice and was rebuilt, so it is less architecturally pure than Tsumago but more lively — shops, gohei-mochi grills, and the Toson Memorial Museum for the novelist Shimazaki Toson who was born here. It is the standard start of the Magome–Tsumago walk because from here the trail is mostly downhill.

Tip: Reached by Kitaena bus from Nakatsugawa Station, 25 minutes, ¥800, roughly every 45–60 minutes; the bus is not covered by the Japan Rail Pass. Walk up the street to the viewpoint at the top before starting the trail. Day-trippers from Nagoya flood it 11:00–15:00, so start early.

free to walk; museums ¥300–500; gohei-mochi ¥200 morning source ↗

Neighbourhood · Kiso Valley ·2h

Tsumago-juku 妻籠宿

The 42nd post town and the one that started Japan's preservation movement — residents signed a charter in 1968 not to sell, rent or destroy anything, and power lines and TV aerials are hidden, so between 09:00 and 17:00 with the vending machines shuttered the street reads as pure Edo. It is smaller and quieter than Magome and much better after dark, when the day-trippers have gone and the lanterns are the only light. Sleeping here is the single best move available in the Kiso Valley.

Tip: Bus from Nagiso Station takes 7–8 minutes and costs ¥300; buses run roughly every hour or two, so check the return time before you commit. An hour's walk on the old road links Tsumago down to Nagiso Station past the Momosuke suspension bridge if you would rather walk than wait for a bus. Most shops shut by 17:00 and there is essentially nothing open at night, so book a dinner-inclusive inn.

free to walk; Honjin ¥300, Wakihonjin Okuya ¥600, combined ¥700 evening source ↗

Neighbourhood · Kiso Valley ·2–3h

Narai-juku 奈良井宿

A full kilometre of unbroken Edo townscape — the longest post town on the Nakasendo — which grew rich because travellers had to stop before tackling the Torii Pass; it was nicknamed Narai of a Thousand Houses. Deep eaves, latticed second storeys that overhang the street, lacquer workshops and comb makers still working. Narai gets a fraction of Tsumago's crowds, has its own station on the Chuo line, and in March you can have the street almost to yourself.

Tip: 45–70 minutes from Matsumoto by JR Chuo local train, usually changing at Shiojiri, and Narai Station is at the north end of the street — no bus needed, which is why it is by far the easiest Kiso day trip from a Matsumoto base. Many shops close on Tuesdays and several shut entirely in winter; expect the street quiet and some shutters down in mid-March. Byaku Narai, a converted sake brewery, is the one high-end place to stay or eat.

free to walk; Kamidonya and Nakamura House museums ¥300–500 each morning source ↗

Shop · Kiso Valley ·1–2h

Kiso-Hirasawa lacquerware village 木曽平沢

A quiet working village of about 100 lacquer workshops thirty minutes' walk north of Narai, a nationally designated preservation district and historically the source of much of Japan's everyday lacquerware. There are no crowds and no tourist infrastructure — you walk in off the street into workshops and buy bowls, chopsticks and trays directly from the people who made them. The Kiso Lacquerware Museum sits between here and Narai.

Tip: Its own station, Kiso-Hirasawa, is one stop from Narai on the Chuo line, so you can walk one way and train back. Many workshops are one-person operations that close unpredictably — do not travel here specifically without checking, and treat it as a bolt-on to the Narai day. The best souvenir purchase available on this leg of the trip.

chopsticks from ¥1,500, bowls ¥3,000–15,000 (~€9–88) weekday source ↗

Neighbourhood · Kiso Valley ·half day

Kiso-Fukushima 木曽福島

The administrative centre of the valley and the only Kiso town that is a functioning town rather than a preserved one — every Shinano limited express stops here. The old Ue-no-dan quarter, houses built out over the Kiso river on stilts, the reconstructed checkpoint, Kozenji temple and a small working sake brewery are all within a walk of the station. It is the practical base if you want the Kiso Valley without the museum-village feeling.

Tip: Forty minutes from Matsumoto by Shinano limited express and the transfer point for local trains down to Nagiso. Nakanorisan brewery does a three-variety tasting for ¥1,000 and is the one place in the valley to buy Kiso sake. Komanoyu is the local onsen ryokan, 15 minutes from the station with a free shuttle, if you want a Kiso onsen night instead of a post-town night.

free to walk; sights ¥300–500 each; Nakanorisan sake tasting ¥1,000 weekday source ↗

Temple · Kiso Valley ·45min

Kozenji Temple 興禅寺

The family temple of the Kiso lords, holding what is billed as the largest dry landscape garden in Asia — raked gravel meant to read as the sea of cloud that fills the valley on cold mornings. The grounds and main hall are free; only the stone garden charges. Ten minutes' walk from the Fukushima checkpoint, so the two make one loop.

Tip: The garden reads best under low winter light with frost on the gravel, which mid-March can still deliver. Combine with the checkpoint and the Ue-no-dan lanes for a half day in Kiso-Fukushima.

grounds free; stone garden ¥500 (~€3) morning source ↗

Kyoto

Temple · Kyoto ·1–2h

Kiyomizu-dera 清水寺

The cantilevered wooden stage over the hillside is the single most photographed thing in Kyoto and, by 10:00, the single most crowded. Opening at 06:00 is unusually early for a Japanese temple and is the group's best lever: arrive at opening, have the stage almost to yourselves, then walk down through Sannenzaka before the coach parties arrive. About 1,000 cherry trees on the slope below.

Tip: Opens 06:00 daily. The spring night illumination ran 27 Mar–5 Apr in 2026 (18:00–21:30, ¥500 separate entry) — for a 21–26 Mar 2027 stay it will most likely start after you leave Kyoto; check kiyomizudera.or.jp in Jan 2027 before counting on it.

¥500 (~EUR 3) morning source ↗

Neighbourhood · Kyoto ·1–2h

Ninenzaka & Sannenzaka slopes 二年坂・三年坂

Stone-paved lanes of preserved wooden merchant houses running from Kiyomizu-dera down to Kodai-ji and Yasaka Shrine. It is the classic Kyoto postcard walk and the natural continuation of an early Kiyomizu-dera visit. Shops open around 10:00, so the earlier you walk it the more it feels like a street and the less like a queue.

Tip: Walk it downhill (Kiyomizu → Kodai-ji → Maruyama Park → Yasaka Shrine) so the climb is done by bus. Photography is banned on some private Gion lanes further west — signs are posted and fines are real.

free morning source ↗

Temple · Kyoto ·1–1.5h

Kodai-ji (with spring night illumination) 高台寺

Nene's temple: a bamboo grove, two tea houses by Sen no Rikyu, and a dry garden that gets a projection-mapping treatment after dark. The spring night viewing is the one Kyoto illumination that reliably runs across the whole of late March, which makes it the safest evening plan of the trip if the sakura light-ups have not started.

Tip: 2026 spring night viewing ran 13 Mar–6 May, 17:00–21:30 (last entry 21:30, gates 22:00) — a 21–26 Mar 2027 stay falls comfortably inside the usual window, but confirm on kodaiji.com in early 2027. Arrive just before sunset for the golden-hour-to-projection transition.

¥600 day / ¥800 night (~EUR 3.5–5); Entoku-in +¥500 sunset source ↗

Neighbourhood · Kyoto ·1–2h

Gion & Hanamikoji-dori 祇園・花見小路通

The teahouse district: machiya facades, wooden lattice, and — around 17:30–18:30 — geiko and maiko walking to appointments. Best done as an evening loop from Yasaka Shrine down Hanamikoji, across Shijo and along the Shirakawa canal, which is prettier and far less mobbed than Hanamikoji itself.

Tip: Private alleys off Hanamikoji are closed to photography and patrolled; stick to the main streets. Shirakawa canal has cherry trees that light up at night in season. Higashiyama Hanatoro, the March lantern festival, ENDED PERMANENTLY in 2022 — do not plan around it.

free sunset source ↗

Temple · Kyoto ·45min

Kinkaku-ji (Golden Pavilion) 金閣寺

A gold-leaf pavilion reflected in a mirror pond. The visit is a strictly one-way 30-minute circuit — there is no lingering and no alternative angle — so treat it as a fifteen-minute photograph rather than an afternoon. It is unmissable for the three first-timers and quickly re-seen by the returners.

Tip: Opens 09:00; be in the queue at 08:50 or come after 16:00. Pair with Ryoan-ji (¥600, 20 min walk or one stop on bus 59) and Ninna-ji on the same loop — the three sit on one line.

¥500 (~EUR 3) morning source ↗

Temple · Kyoto ·1h

Ginkaku-ji (Silver Pavilion) 銀閣寺

Never actually silvered. The draw is the sand garden — a raked cone called the Moon Viewing Platform and a sea of ridged silver sand — plus a moss garden and a short hillside loop with a view back over Kyoto. Quieter and more contemplative than Kinkaku-ji, and the trailhead for Daimonji-yama is three minutes away.

Tip: Opens 08:30 (Mar–Nov). Doing Daimonji-yama first at dawn and Ginkaku-ji at opening puts you ahead of every tour group in the Higashiyama foothills.

¥500 (~EUR 3) morning source ↗

Temple · Kyoto ·1.5h

Nanzen-ji & the Suirokaku aqueduct 南禅寺

Head temple of the Rinzai school with a huge Sanmon gate you can climb for a treetop view, and a Meiji-era red-brick aqueduct running incongruously through the grounds. The sub-temple Nanzen-in and the Hojo dry garden are separately ticketed and worth it. Grounds are free and open, so it works as an end-of-day stop.

Tip: Grounds open at all hours; paid areas 08:40–17:00. Konchi-in, two minutes south, has a Kobori Enshu garden and almost no visitors (¥500). Yudofu lunch at Okutan or Junsei is immediately outside.

grounds free; Hojo ¥600, Sanmon ¥600, Nanzen-in ¥400 optional source ↗

Temple · Kyoto ·1h

Sanjusangen-do 三十三間堂

1,001 life-size gilded Kannon statues in a 120 m wooden hall, flanked by 28 guardian deities carved in the 12th–13th centuries. It is a single overwhelming room and takes 45 minutes, and because it is entirely indoors it is the best rainy-day card in the city. Photography is forbidden inside, which is part of why it works.

Tip: Open 08:30–17:00 (Apr–Nov 15) / 09:00–16:00 in winter — March is the shoulder, confirm on the day. Directly across the road from Kyoto National Museum; 5 min from Keihan Shichijo.

¥600 (~EUR 3.5) optional source ↗

Temple · Kyoto ·2h

Daitoku-ji — Zuiho-in & Daisen-in 大徳寺瑞峯院・大仙院

A walled village of two dozen Zen sub-temples, most permanently closed, four open. Zuiho-in has a 1961 Shigemori Mirei garden with a cross of stones hidden in the gravel — the temple's founder was a Christian daimyo. Daisen-in has the most famous 16th-century dry landscape in Japan. Walking the free lanes between the closed gates is half the pleasure and costs nothing.

Tip: KOTO-IN IS CLOSED INDEFINITELY (confirmed by japan-guide, still closed as of 2026) — do not plan the maple approach. Zuiho-in 09:00–17:00, Daisen-in 09:00–16:30, Ryogen-in 09:00–16:30 with irregular closures. No photography inside Daisen-in.

Zuiho-in ¥400, Daisen-in ¥500, Ryogen-in ¥350 weekday source ↗

Temple · Kyoto ·1.5h

Tofuku-ji & Hojo gardens 東福寺

Enormous Zen complex famous for autumn maples and therefore nearly deserted in March — which is when its real asset is best seen: Shigemori Mirei's 1939 Hojo gardens, four modernist dry landscapes on the four sides of the abbot's hall, including a checkerboard of moss and stone that looks a century ahead of itself. The Tsutenkyo bridge over the maple valley is free to cross.

Tip: 09:00–16:00 in winter/spring (to 16:30 Apr–Oct). 10 min walk from JR/Keihan Tofukuji, two stops from Kyoto Station — pairs naturally with Fushimi Inari on the same line. Skip Tsutenkyo in March and pay only for the Hojo.

Hojo gardens ¥500, Tsutenkyo ¥600 (~EUR 3–3.5) weekday source ↗

Day trip · Kyoto ·half day

Ohara — Sanzen-in & Jakko-in 大原三千院・寂光院

A farming valley an hour north of the city that feels like a different prefecture. Sanzen-in's moss garden with its small hidden jizo figures is the draw; Jakko-in, a twenty-minute walk across the valley, is a tiny nunnery tied to the Heike story and almost always empty. Between them are pickle shops, a shiso-juice stand and terraced fields — the walk is the day.

Tip: Kyoto Bus 17 from Kyoto Station (~60 min, ¥630) or bus 16/17 from Demachiyanagi (~40 min) — board the TAN Kyoto Bus, not the green city bus; the Subway & Bus 1-Day Pass does NOT cover the Ohara stretch. Sanzen-in 09:00–17:00 in March.

Sanzen-in ¥700, Jakko-in ¥600, bus ¥630 each way weekday source ↗

Day trip · Kyoto ·half day

Takao — Jingo-ji & Kosan-ji 高雄神護寺・高山寺

Mountain temples in the Kiyotaki river gorge northwest of the city, reached by 400 stone steps up from the bridge. Jingo-ji holds 9th-century esoteric Buddhist sculpture and a terrace where you throw clay discs into the ravine for luck. Kosan-ji, 3 km further, is UNESCO-listed and keeps the Choju-Giga animal scrolls (copies on site). Realistically half a day, and you will meet almost no other foreign visitors.

Tip: JR Bus (Takao/Keihoku line) from Kyoto Station bus stop JR3, every 20–30 min, ~50 min, ¥230 — a bargain. Also boardable at Nijo Station and Ninna-ji. Jingo-ji 09:00–16:00. 400 steep steps each way — fine for this group, not for luggage.

Jingo-ji ¥1,000, Kosan-ji ¥1,000 (autumn ¥800 grounds fee); JR bus ¥230 one way weekday source ↗

Temple · Kyoto ·2h incl. travel

Saiho-ji (Kokedera, the Moss Temple) 西芳寺

120 species of moss under a maple canopy around a pond garden attributed to Muso Soseki. Access is deliberately restricted: you copy a sutra with brush and ink in the hall before you are let into the garden, which takes about 90 minutes in total and filters out anyone not serious. The most atmospheric temple visit in Kyoto and the one most worth the admin.

Tip: RESERVE at intosaihoji.com — opens TWO months ahead and closes 23:59 the day before. Sources report a small per-booking party cap (as low as 2 people), so for a group of five make separate bookings for the same slot and verify the cap when the window opens for late March 2027. Age 13+. Fixed start times, latecomers refused.

¥4,000 offering + ¥110 booking fee pp (~EUR 24) morning source ↗

Experience · Kyoto ·half day incl. wandering

Nishijin textile district & Textile Center 西陣・西陣織会館

The weaving quarter that supplied court and temple silk for a thousand years, still full of narrow machiya streets and the sound of looms. The Textile Center runs free kimono shows several times daily, has hand-loom demonstrations, and sells obi and small goods; the surrounding blocks are the best place in central Kyoto to see lived-in machiya rather than restored ones. Good half-day for the returners and a good stay district.

Tip: Textile Center 10:00–16:00, closed Mondays and 29 Dec–3 Jan. Combine with Kitano Tenmangu (plum blossom still going in late March) and Hirano Shrine 15 min west, and the Orinasukan hand-weaving museum nearby.

Center free entry; weaving workshops ¥2,200–4,000 weekday source ↗

Shop · Kyoto ·1h

Kyoto Ceramic Center & Gojozaka pottery slope 京都陶磁器会館・五条坂

The Gojozaka slope below Kiyomizu-dera has been the Kiyomizu-yaki kiln district for centuries; the Kyoto Ceramic Center at its foot shows and sells work by around 100 local potters at fixed, unhaggled prices, from ¥1,000 cups to serious pieces. It is the honest place to buy pottery in Kyoto, as opposed to the souvenir stalls further up the hill.

Tip: Typically 10:00–18:00 with a weekly closing day (often Thursday) — confirm. Walk on to Kawai Kanjiro's House, 5 min away.

free entry; cups from ¥1,000, bowls ¥3,000–15,000 optional source ↗

Shrine · Kyoto ·1h

Hirano Shrine 平野神社

About 400 cherry trees of some 60 varieties, many of them cultivars that originated here, spread over a shrine precinct that has been a hanami site since the Heian court. The Sakigake-zakura — literally the herald cherry — is famously the first to open in Kyoto and traditionally marks the start of the season, which makes this the second-best early-bloom hedge after Kyoto Gyoen. Food stalls and evening lanterns during the season.

Tip: 10 min walk from Kinkaku-ji, so it slots into the same morning. Night cherry viewing (Hirano no Yozakura) runs through the season with lanterns; in an early year the herald varieties will be out during 21–26 March even if the main trees are not.

free (some sakura-garden areas ~¥500 in peak season) sunset source ↗

Experience · Kyoto ·1h

To-ji — pagoda & night cherry illumination 東寺

Japan's tallest wooden pagoda (55 m) lit from below with a huge red weeping cherry, the Fuji-zakura, in front of it and both reflected in the pond. The 2026 illumination ran 14 March – 12 April, so unlike Kiyomizu-dera's this one reliably covers a 21–26 March stay. Fifteen minutes' walk from Kyoto Station, which makes it an easy last evening.

Tip: 2026 dates 14 Mar–12 Apr, 18:00–21:30 (last entry 21:00) — 2027 dates published around Feb; check toji.or.jp. Daytime grounds are free; Kondo/Kodo halls and the pagoda interior are ticketed separately. The 21st of each month is the Kobo-san flea market — 21 March 2027 is your arrival day and the market is worth an hour.

¥1,000 night entry (~EUR 6) evening source ↗

Neighbourhood · Kyoto ·evening

Pontocho alley 先斗町

A single lantern-lit lane, barely two metres wide, running five blocks along the Kamo river between Shijo and Sanjo, packed with restaurants from ¥1,500 izakaya to ¥30,000 kaiseki. It is the obvious evening walk and the obvious place to eat, with the caveat that most rooms are tiny — a party of five needs to book, and many places still refuse walk-in groups.

Tip: For five people, book ahead or use the wider Kiyamachi street one block west, where rooms are bigger. Many Pontocho places have a ¥500–800 otoshi cover charge and some post 'no foreign customers without reservation' — book through your accommodation or a Japanese-language service.

dinner ¥3,000–8,000 pp (~EUR 18–47) evening source ↗

Temple · Uji ·1.5h

Byodo-in Phoenix Hall 平等院

The building on the ¥10 coin: an 1053 Amida hall with bronze phoenixes on the roof, floating on its own pond, and one of very few Heian-period structures anywhere that survived intact. Inside sits Jocho's gilded Amida with 52 attendant bodhisattvas on the walls. The adjoining Hoshokan museum is a fine modern underground gallery holding the original phoenixes and temple bell.

Tip: Grounds 08:30–17:30, museum 09:00–17:00. Phoenix Hall interior is a timed 20-minute tour, tickets sold on the day from 09:10 in 50-person slots — buy yours the moment you enter or it sells out by midday in cherry season. 10 min walk from JR Uji or Keihan Uji.

¥700 grounds + museum; ¥300 extra for Phoenix Hall interior morning source ↗

Experience · Uji ·30–45min

Taiho-an municipal tea house 対鳳庵

Uji city runs this tea house specifically so visitors can sit a proper tea ceremony without the price or the intimidation of a private school. A host in kimono prepares usucha with a wagashi sweet, explains each step, and the whole thing takes about 30 minutes. Two minutes from Byodo-in and the cheapest genuine ceremony in the Kyoto area.

Tip: 10:00–16:00 (last entry ~15:30), closed 21 Dec–9 Jan and irregular days. Walk-ins usually accepted but a party of five should use the reservation form on kyoto-uji-kankou.or.jp. Sitting seiza is optional — stools are available if you ask.

¥1,500 pp for usucha with sweet (~EUR 9) optional source ↗

Shrine · Uji ·30min

Ujigami Shrine 宇治上神社

The oldest original shrine building in Japan — the honden dates to around 1060, older than any other surviving shrine structure — UNESCO-listed, free, and almost always empty because everyone is at Byodo-in across the river. Small, plain, cypress-bark roofed, five minutes uphill from the Uji river footbridge past the Tale of Genji museum.

Tip: 09:00–16:30, free. Cross the river at Ujibashi or the Asagiri bridge and walk the east bank — that side of the river is the quiet half of Uji and has the Sawarabi-no-michi path and the Genji museum (¥600).

free optional source ↗

Day trip · Nara ·full day

Nara — how to do it, and from where 奈良

DO NARA FROM OSAKA, not Kyoto. Kintetsu Osaka-Namba to Kintetsu-Nara is 35–40 minutes and ¥680; from Kyoto it is 35 min by ¥1,280 limited express or 45 min by ¥760 express. The times are similar but the itinerary is not: Kyoto has five packed days and Osaka has four looser ones from 26 March, and Nara Park is a 5-minute walk from Kintetsu-Nara on the Namba line. Give it a full day, not a half.

Tip: Deer are wild animals, not props — they headbutt for shika-senbei (¥200) and will take a paper map out of your bag. Nara is walkable end to end: Kofuku-ji → Isuien → Todai-ji → Nigatsu-do → Kasuga Taisha → Naramachi is about 5 km with everything on it.

¥680 each way from Osaka-Namba (~EUR 4) morning source ↗

Temple · Nara ·2h

Todai-ji & Nigatsu-do 東大寺

The Daibutsuden houses a 15 m bronze Buddha cast in 752 and is, even after being rebuilt at two-thirds of its original width, the largest wooden building most people will ever stand in. Walk on up to Nigatsu-do behind it: a stilted hall on the hillside with a veranda looking back over the whole Nara basin, free, open at all hours, and where almost nobody goes.

Tip: Daibutsuden 07:30–17:30 in spring — the 07:30 opening is a genuine chance to have it near-empty. The Omizutori fire ritual at Nigatsu-do runs 1–14 March, so it will have just finished. Sunset from the Nigatsu-do veranda is the best free view in Nara.

Daibutsuden ¥800 (~EUR 5); Nigatsu-do free morning source ↗

Shrine · Nara ·1.5h

Kasuga Taisha 春日大社

Three thousand stone and bronze lanterns lining an approach through primeval forest that has been protected since 841 and never logged. The vermilion inner precinct is paid; the lantern-lined approach and the Kasugayama forest paths behind it are free and better. The Man'yo botanical garden next door holds a famous wisteria collection, too early in March but pleasant.

Tip: 06:30–17:30 in March. Walk up through the forest from Nigatsu-do rather than along the road. The lanterns are lit only in early February and mid-August; the Fujinami-no-ya hall shows a darkened lantern room year-round for the ¥500 entry.

grounds free; inner precinct ¥500 (~EUR 3) morning source ↗

Temple · Nara ·1.5h

Kofuku-ji & Nara Park 興福寺・奈良公園

A five-storey pagoda, a rebuilt Central Golden Hall, and — the actual reason to pay — the National Treasure Museum, which holds the three-faced six-armed Ashura statue from 734, one of the great objects of Japanese sculpture. The temple sits at the western edge of Nara Park where the deer, the Sarusawa pond and the walk down into Naramachi all meet.

Tip: 09:00–17:00. Five minutes' walk from Kintetsu-Nara, so it is the natural first stop off the train from Osaka. The five-storey pagoda has been under a multi-year restoration wrap — check kohfukuji.com before expecting the classic view.

grounds free; National Treasure Museum ¥700; Central Golden Hall ¥500 morning source ↗

Neighbourhood · Nara ·2h

Naramachi old merchant quarter ならまち

The former temple town south of Sarusawa pond: narrow lanes of Edo and Meiji machiya now holding coffee roasters, craft shops, small galleries and sake bars, with red 'migawari-zaru' monkey charms hanging from the eaves. It is where Nara stops being a day-trip and starts being a town, and it is where you should eat rather than in the park.

Tip: Naramachi Koshi-no-Ie (a restored merchant house, free, closed Mondays) shows how the lattice and courtyard system works. Most shops close by 17:00–18:00 and many close Wednesdays. 10 min walk south from Kofuku-ji.

free to wander; Koshi-no-Ie townhouse free optional source ↗

Temple · Nara ·half day incl. travel

Horyu-ji 法隆寺

The oldest surviving wooden buildings on earth — the pagoda and Kondo date to around 700 — and Japan's first UNESCO listing, holding an extraordinary trove of 7th-century Buddhist sculpture including the Kudara Kannon. It is 12 km southwest of Nara and takes half a day round trip, so it is an add-on for the two returners rather than something to force on the whole group.

Tip: 08:00–17:00 (Feb 22–Nov 3). JR Yamatoji line from JR Nara to Horyuji station (11 min, ¥230) then bus or 20 min walk. Easily reached from Osaka too (JR Yamatoji from Tennoji, ~30 min), so it can be its own morning rather than an appendix to the Nara day.

¥1,500 combined ticket (~EUR 9) weekday source ↗

Osaka

Neighbourhood · Osaka ·2-3h

Shinsekai & Tsutenkaku Tower 新世界・通天閣

Osaka's 1912 pleasure quarter, frozen somewhere in the 1960s: neon pufferfish, Janjan Yokocho's shogi parlours, and a dense block of kushikatsu counters. Come for the street rather than the tower — but the tower's Tembo Paradise deck and the slide down the outside are a genuinely silly 30 minutes for a group. Pairs naturally with Shitennoji and Abeno Harukas in one southern day.

Tip: Tower open 10:00–20:00, last entry 19:30. The neon is the point, so arrive around dusk. Janjan Yokocho's kushikatsu shops are cash-friendly and small — a party of five will usually be split across two counters.

Tower ¥900–1,200 (~€5–7); Tower Slider ¥1,000 extra evening source ↗

Neighbourhood · Osaka ·1h

Dotonbori & Ebisubashi 道頓堀

The canal-side neon strip with the Glico running man, the moving crab, and a permanent scrum on Ebisubashi. It is loud, touristy and completely worth doing once at night with the three first-timers. Eat elsewhere and treat this as a 45-minute walk plus photos; the good food is one street back or across the river in Hozenji Yokocho.

Tip: Densest 19:00–22:00. The Tombori River Cruise (20 min, included in the Osaka Amazing Pass) is a decent way to see the signs without the pavement crowd.

free to walk evening source ↗

Neighbourhood · Osaka ·45min-1h

Hozenji Yokocho & the moss-covered Fudo 法善寺横丁

Two stone-paved lanes, 80 m long and 3 m wide, one minute off Dotonbori and a century away from it: about 60 small bars, kappo counters and eateries under swinging lanterns. The Mizukake Fudo statue is completely furred in moss from decades of visitors ladling water over it. This is the antidote to Dotonbori and the right place to end a night with five people.

Tip: Ladle water over the Fudo statue — that is the whole ritual. Most counters here seat 8–12, so a party of five needs to call ahead or split.

free to walk; counters ¥3,000–15,000 pp evening source ↗

Experience · Osaka ·2-2.5h

Osaka Aquarium Kaiyukan 海遊館

One of the largest aquariums in the world, built as a single spiral descent around a nine-metre-deep Pacific tank holding whale sharks. It is a strong two hours even for people who do not care about aquariums, and it is the obvious pairing with the Tempozan Ferris wheel and the bay. Costs a bay-side detour of about 25 minutes from Namba.

Tip: Dynamic pricing: weekdays are the bottom of the range, weekends and holidays the top. Buy a date-and-time ticket online in advance — walk-up queues in spring holidays are long. Late afternoon entry is the quietest.

¥2,400–2,700 adult, dynamic by date (~€14–16) weekday source ↗

Temple · Osaka ·1-1.5h

Shitennoji Temple (+ 21st/22nd flea market) 四天王寺

Founded 593, Japan's first state-sponsored Buddhist temple, laid out on the oldest Japanese temple plan — gate, pagoda, hall, lecture hall on a single axis. The buildings are 20th-century concrete reconstructions, so it reads as archaeology more than atmosphere, but the inner precinct and the Gokuraku-jodo garden are quiet. On the 21st and 22nd of each month around 300 flea-market stalls fill the grounds.

Tip: The flea market runs 08:00–16:00 on the 21st and 22nd of every month — for a 26–30 March stay that falls outside the window, so do not plan around it. Combine with Shinsekai and Abeno Harukas.

Grounds free; inner precinct ¥300, garden ¥300 morning source ↗

Shrine · Osaka ·1-1.5h

Sumiyoshi Taisha 住吉大社

The head shrine of some 2,300 Sumiyoshi shrines and one of the oldest architectural styles in Japan — sumiyoshi-zukuri, straight-gabled, predating any Chinese influence, with the four halls arranged like ships in formation. The Sorihashi drum bridge climbs at a startling 48 degrees. Free, uncrowded, and the most genuinely old-feeling thing in Osaka.

Tip: Open 06:30–17:00 (Oct–Mar). Reach it on the Hankai tram to Sumiyoshi-Toriimae for the atmospheric approach, or Nankai Main Line from Namba (10 min, ¥240). Pairs well with a Tennoji afternoon.

free morning source ↗

Experience · Osaka ·half day

Expo '70 Commemorative Park & Tower of the Sun interior 万博記念公園・太陽の塔

Taro Okamoto's 70 m totem is the only major structure left from Expo '70, and since 2018 you can go inside: a psychedelic 41 m 'Tree of Life' spine hung with 180-odd glowing model organisms, climbed on a one-way staircase. The surrounding park has over 5,000 cherry trees and a first-rate Japanese garden. This is the single most distinctive thing in Osaka for returners.

Tip: Tower interior is reservation-only and must be booked by the day before, paid by card at booking. 10:00–17:00, closed Wednesdays. Osaka Monorail to Banpaku-kinen-koen. Park cherry illumination in 2026 ran 1–8 April, i.e. just after this trip.

Park ¥260 / ¥450; tower interior ¥720 or ¥1,080 set (~€4–6.50) morning source ↗

Neighbourhood · Osaka ·2h

Nakazakicho café district 中崎町

A pocket of pre-war wooden row houses that survived the firebombing, fifteen minutes' walk from Umeda, now packed with independent cafés, vintage clothing and tiny galleries in converted machiya. No sights, just a two-hour wander with coffee stops — the right thing to do on a slow morning or between museums. Salon de AManTo occupies a 120-year-old house; Taiyo no Tou does breakfast until 11:00.

Tip: One stop from Umeda on the Tanimachi subway line (Nakazakicho Station), or walk. Most cafés are 8–15 seats — a group of five should expect to split or wait. Many close Tuesdays or Wednesdays.

coffee ¥500–800; breakfast sets ¥800–1,200 morning source ↗

Neighbourhood · Osaka ·3-4h

Tenma & Tenjinbashisuji arcade 天満・天神橋筋商店街

Japan's longest covered shopping street runs 2.6 km north from Minamimorimachi, and the lanes behind its northern end hold something like 500 izakaya, tachinomi and yakitori counters where locals start drinking at 15:00. This is where Osaka eats when it is not performing for tourists, and it is the best-value evening of the trip for five people.

Tip: Base yourself at JR Tenma or Ogimachi station and work outward. Standing bars turn over fast, so a five-person group is easier here than in a seated izakaya — expect to stand. Cash is still king in the older places.

¥2,000–3,500 pp for a three-bar crawl (~€12–20) evening source ↗

Neighbourhood · Kobe ·2h

Kitano Ijinkan-gai (foreign merchants' houses) 北野異人館街

The hillside above Sannomiya where Western merchants built after Kobe opened to foreign trade in 1868 — a couple of dozen surviving Victorian, colonial and art-nouveau houses on steep lanes with the harbour below. Kazamidori no Yakata (the Weathercock House) and the Moegi House are the two worth paying for; the rest is a pleasant 90-minute walk. Steep, so wear the right shoes.

Tip: Buy the 2-house or 5-house combination ticket rather than paying individually. 15-minute uphill walk from Sannomiya or 5 minutes downhill from Shin-Kobe. Combine with Nunobiki, which is on the same hillside.

¥500–750 per house; combo tickets ¥1,400 / ¥2,800 morning source ↗

Neighbourhood · Kobe ·30-45min

Nankinmachi (Kobe Chinatown) 南京町

Two short streets and a small square packed with steamed-bun stalls, and the standard cheap lunch stop on a Kobe day. Roshoki's butaman is the famous one and the queue is genuinely fast. Small — 30 minutes is enough — but it is directly between Motomachi station and the harbour, so it costs nothing to include.

Tip: Busiest 12:00–14:00. Stalls are cash. Two minutes from JR Motomachi; use it as the cheap half of a day whose other half is a Kobe beef lunch.

¥500–1,200 pp grazing (~€3–7) afternoon source ↗

Temple · Himeji ·half day

Engyoji Temple, Mount Shosha 書寫山圓教寺

A 10th-century Tendai mountain temple 30 minutes north of Himeji Castle, reached by ropeway and a forest path — the Maniden clings to the hillside on stilts, and the Mitsu-no-do, three vast unpainted wooden halls around a courtyard, is where The Last Samurai was filmed. Almost nobody who does Himeji Castle continues here, so it is quiet, atmospheric, and the better half of the day for the two returners.

Tip: Bus #8 from Himeji Station stop 10, 25–30 min, ¥280; ropeway 08:30–17:00, last up 16:30. The ¥1,700 combination ticket (bus round trip + ropeway round trip) is sold at the Shinki Bus terminal in front of Himeji Station. A minibus runs from the upper station to the Maniden every 20 min (¥500 round trip) — or walk it in 20 min. COORDINATE points at the temple complex; the ropeway base station is 34.8784, 134.6677.

Temple ¥500; ropeway ¥1,000 round trip; bus+ropeway combo ¥1,700 afternoon source ↗

Nature, hikes & onsen

Tokyo

Garden · Tokyo ·2h

Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden 新宿御苑

58 hectares of former imperial garden holding about 65 cherry varieties, which is exactly why it matters for our dates: the early trees (kawazu-zakura, kanzakura, Yokohama-hizakura, shidare) flower from mid-February into mid-March, weeks before the Somei-yoshino that everyone else is waiting for. Three garden styles - English landscape, French formal, Japanese traditional - plus a Taiwan-style pavilion and a greenhouse.

Tip: Closed Mondays (open when Monday is a holiday, closed the following day) - so closed Mon 15 Mar 2027. Hours change mid-trip: approx 09:00-16:00 until 14 Mar, 09:00-17:30 from 15 Mar - verify on the official site. No alcohol allowed. Advance online tickets recommended once sakura season starts.

¥500 (approx EUR 3) morning source ↗

Garden · Tokyo ·1.5h

Hamarikyu Gardens 浜離宮恩賜庭園

A shogunal duck-hunting garden with a tidal seawater pond that rises and falls with Tokyo Bay, a 300-year-old black pine, and skyscrapers stacked directly behind the treeline - the best single image of old-vs-new Tokyo. Nakajima teahouse sits on stilts over the pond and serves matcha with a wagashi. Early March brings a small plum grove and a field of rapeseed flowers.

Tip: Open daily 09:00-17:00 (last entry 16:30). Best approach is the Tokyo Cruise water bus from Asakusa down the Sumida (approx 35-40 min) which includes garden admission - check the timetable, sailings are limited. Pair with Tsukiji, 15 min walk.

¥300 (approx EUR 1.80); matcha set approx ¥1,000 afternoon source ↗

Nature · Tokyo ·1-1.5h

Todoroki Valley 等々力渓谷

The only ravine inside Tokyo's 23 wards: a one-kilometre wooden walkway following the Yazawa river 10 metres below street level, with bamboo, a small waterfall used for cold-water ascetic practice, Kofun-period tomb remains and Todoroki Fudo temple with a tea house at the far end. Three minutes from the station and it feels an hour outside the city.

Tip: Sections were closed for tree-fall and safety work into March 2026 - check the Setagaya ward page before committing. Muddy after rain; the path is narrow and one-way in practice. Todoroki station is 20 min from Shibuya on the Tokyu Oimachi line (approx ¥230). Easy to combine with Jiyugaoka.

free weekday source ↗

Hike · Tokyo ·full day

Mount Takao 高尾山

599 m of forested mountain inside Tokyo prefecture, 50 minutes from Shinjuku on a single train. Trail 1 is paved and passes Yakuo-in, a working Shingon temple with tengu statues; Trail 6 follows a stream past the Biwa waterfall where monks still train and is the one worth doing. In clear, dry early-spring air Mt Fuji is visible from the summit, which it very often is not in summer.

Tip: Keio limited express from Shinjuku to Takaosanguchi, approx 50 min, ¥430 each way. Cable car ¥490 one-way / ¥950 return, 6 min, every 15 min, roughly 08:00-17:00. Do this on a WEEKDAY - Takao is the busiest mountain in the world at weekends. Summit runs approx 5-6C colder than the city; bring a shell.

approx ¥1,800 pp return incl. cable car (approx EUR 11) weekday source ↗

Viewpoint · Tokyo ·1-1.5h

Shibuya Sky 渋谷スカイ

An open-air rooftop 230 m directly above the Scramble crossing, on top of Shibuya Scramble Square. Better than Skytree for this group because you are standing inside the city looking across it rather than outside looking in, and Fuji sits on the western horizon on a clear March evening. It handles the whole Shibuya obligation - crossing, Hachiko, Center-gai - in one stop.

Tip: Book online: slots open about four weeks ahead and the sunset slot (sunset is roughly 17:45 in mid-March) sells out within minutes of release. Closes the rooftop in high wind or rain - keep a rain date. Nothing loose in your pockets up top; phones must be on a strap.

¥2,500 online / ¥2,800 at the door (approx EUR 15-16.50) sunset source ↗

Matsumoto & Kiso

Garden · Matsumoto ·45min

Agata-no-mori Park and old high school あがたの森公園

A wooded park at the eastern end of Agata-no-mori-dori built around the 1919 wooden Former Matsumoto Higher School, an Important Cultural Property you can walk into for free — dark corridors, lecture rooms, a library. The park itself is a stand of himalayan cedar and old cherry trees with a pond and a bicycle rental point. Fifteen minutes on foot from the art museum, so it is the natural continuation of that walk.

Tip: In mid-March the trees are bare and the pond is grey — this is a filler on a clear afternoon, not a destination. The school building has its own opening hours and closes Mondays.

free afternoon source ↗

Onsen · Matsumoto ·half day

Asama Onsen 浅間温泉

Matsumoto's own hot spring quarter, 1,300 years old and used by the Matsudaira lords as their bath, sitting on a hillside about 20 minutes by bus north-east of the station. Around a dozen ryokan of very different budgets line a few narrow lanes, several with free kashikiri (private) baths you book by the hour — the practical answer for a mixed group of five who do not all want a public bath. The water is clear, alkaline simple spring, and the town is small and quiet rather than a resort strip.

Tip: This is the recommended two-night onsen base for this trip: it is in Matsumoto, so you keep the castle, the museums and the restaurants without a mountain bus. Fujinoyu advertises free private baths and in-room meals from ¥12,000 pp; Kikyotei Yumotoya from ¥10,000 with six bath types; Onsen Hotel OMOTO from ¥7,000. Book direct or via Rakuten Travel / Jalan — most of these are not on Booking.com. Bus from Matsumoto Bus Terminal, roughly ¥350; several ryokan run a free station shuttle if you tell them your arrival time.

¥7,000–15,000 pp per night with dinner and breakfast (~€41–88); day bathing ¥500–800 evening source ↗

Onsen · Matsumoto ·half day

Utsukushigahara Onsen 美ヶ原温泉

The second Matsumoto hot spring, east of the city at the foot of the Utsukushigahara plateau and even closer to town than Asama — about 20–25 minutes by bus. Fewer inns and a slightly more upmarket feel, headed by Hotel Shoho with Alps-facing open-air baths and a free station shuttle. The public bath Shiraito-no-Yu is the cheap way to try the water without staying.

Tip: Only worth choosing over Asama if you want one specific inn — Asama has more properties in the ¥8,000–13,000 range and more private baths, which matters for five people. Hotel Shoho's free shuttle leaves Matsumoto Station at 16:00 and 17:00 and returns at 09:00 and 10:00; the public bus from Matsumoto Bus Terminal is about ¥340.

day bath around ¥600; ryokan ¥12,000–30,000 pp with two meals (~€70–176) evening source ↗

Onsen · Matsumoto ·overnight

Shirahone Onsen 白骨温泉

A remote hot spring at about 1,400 m in a gorge on the road toward Kamikochi, famous for water so loaded with magnesium and calcium that it turns opaque milky white and smells of sulphur. A dozen inns are strung along the ravine, several with riverside rotenburo; Awanoyu's mixed outdoor bath is the well-known one. It is dramatic and genuinely remote — and in mid-March it is deep in its winter season.

Tip: March reality check: the Alpico bus from Matsumoto runs daily year-round on the winter timetable (16 Nov – 16 Apr), ¥3,210 one way including the Matsumoto Dentetsu train leg, but there are only about four connections a day and the schedule leaves you stranded if you miss one. The bus company states journey time includes fitting tyre chains. Critically, the public riverside Notemburo is closed late November to late April, so the signature cheap outdoor bath will not be open on 17–21 Mar 2027 — you would be relying on your own inn's baths. Combined with a 100–120 minute one-way transfer, this is a poor fit for a 4-night base that also wants Matsumoto and Kiso.

ryokan ¥14,000–25,000 pp with two meals (~€82–147); Awanoyu day bathing ¥1,000 optional source ↗

Nature · Matsumoto ·half day

Daio Wasabi Farm and Azumino cycling 大王わさび農場

Japan's largest wasabi farm, 15 hectares of gravel beds fed by snowmelt springs from the Northern Alps, with the water-wheel huts Kurosawa used in Dreams sitting on the clear Tateyama river. Entry is free and the draw is the produce — wasabi soft-serve, wasabi soba, fresh grated root — plus flat, empty roads with the Alps as a wall on the horizon. The standard way to do it is to rent a bike at Hotaka Station and ride an 11 km loop taking in Hotaka Shrine and the Rokuzan Art Museum.

Tip: Hotaka is about 30 minutes north of Matsumoto by JR Oito line local train. Rental shops at the station keep shorter hours in winter and cycling in mid-March means 3–8°C with a headwind off the Alps — bring gloves, and have a taxi or the bus as a fallback (Daio is roughly 15 minutes by taxi from Hotaka). Best on a clear day; in cloud there is no Alps view and the farm is just cold gravel.

farm free; bike rental ¥200–500/hour (~€1–3); soft-serve ¥400 morning source ↗

Hike · Kiso Valley ·half day

Magome to Tsumago Nakasendo walk 馬籠峠越え中山道

The best-preserved walkable section of the old Edo highway: 8 km from Magome over the 801 m Magome Pass and down to Tsumago, about 2.5–3 hours at a normal pace, on a mix of stone-paved forest path, farm track and short stretches of asphalt. Signage is bilingual and impossible to get wrong. On the way are the twin Odaki and Medaki waterfalls, a free teahouse where a volunteer keeps a hearth going, and bear bells mounted on posts that you ring as you pass.

Tip: Walk Magome to Tsumago, not the reverse — that direction is markedly less climbing. March conditions: the trail stays walkable through winter but carries snow and ice patches, especially on the shaded north side of the pass and in the early morning; hikers report snow on it in March. Bring microspikes or chain spikes for five people (cheap, packable) and expect mud where it has thawed. Ask at the Magome information centre for the day's trail condition before setting out — this is the standard local advice and worth following.

free morning source ↗

Viewpoint · Kiso Valley ·15min

Kiso-no-Ohashi Bridge 木曽の大橋

A 33 m arched wooden footbridge over the Narai river, built without a single central pier from Kiso hinoki more than 300 years old — a modern build in the old technique rather than an antique, and the postcard shot of Narai. It is five minutes from Narai Station at the roadside station, lit at night, and takes about two minutes to see.

Tip: Right beside the Michi-no-Eki car park, so it is the first thing you hit walking in from the station side. In March the riverbank is bare — take the shot from the bank downstream with the town behind rather than head-on.

free morning source ↗

Hike · Kiso Valley ·3h

Torii Pass: Yabuhara to Narai 鳥居峠

The hardest and highest surviving section of the Nakasendo in the Kiso Valley: about 6–8.5 km between Yabuhara and Narai over a 1,197 m pass, climbing roughly 300 m in 3 km before descending. Old stone paving, a shrine at the top, Ontake views on clear days, and a far wilder feel than the Magome–Tsumago stroll. Walk it Yabuhara to Narai so the descent lands you in the post town.

Tip: March is the problem. The Kiso tourism office's own guidance is that the pass is closed by snow roughly December to April; individual hikers have crossed it in mid-March, but that is a snow hike, not a walk. At 1,197 m with a north-facing descent, assume packed snow and ice on 17–21 Mar 2027 unless the local information centre in Narai or Yabuhara says otherwise on the day. Do not plan this for a group of five with no winter kit — treat the Magome–Tsumago section as the hike and this as an upgrade only if conditions and gear allow. Bears are present; carry a bell.

free morning source ↗

Nature · Kiso Valley ·1h

Nezame-no-toko Gorge 寝覚の床

A stretch of the Kiso river where the water has cut the granite bed into pale rectangular blocks, giving a strange geometric riverscape — the legend has Urashima Taro waking here after his centuries under the sea. You can scramble down onto the rock slabs themselves, which is the whole point; from the road it looks like nothing. Twenty minutes by bus from Kiso-Fukushima, or a 30-minute walk from Agematsu Station.

Tip: You can avoid the ¥200 fee entirely by taking the stairway down past the Kisoji Art Museum from the Nezametei car park. The rocks are slippery when wet or frosted and there are no railings — in March with meltwater running, keep the group off the wet granite. Skippable if time is tight.

free from the Nezametei car park stairway; ¥200 via Rinsenji temple morning source ↗

Kyoto

Hike · Kyoto ·half day

Fushimi Inari Taisha — full Mt Inari loop 伏見稲荷大社

Thousands of vermilion torii spiralling up a 233 m mountain. The full loop is about 4 km with roughly 230 m of climb and takes 2–3 hours at a photo-stopping pace; Yotsutsuji, ~45 minutes up, is where the city panorama opens. Above Yotsutsuji the crowds collapse to near zero, which is the whole argument for doing the loop rather than the first 500 gates.

Tip: Open 24h, unstaffed — be at the romon by 06:30–07:00 for empty gates. The summit itself is wooded with no view; Yotsutsiji is the viewpoint, so go higher for quiet, not for the panorama. 5 min walk from JR Inari (Nara line) or Keihan Fushimi-Inari.

free morning source ↗

Nature · Kyoto ·30min

Arashiyama Bamboo Grove 嵐山竹林の小径

A 500 m path through towering moso bamboo. It is genuinely striking and genuinely ruined by 09:00 — by mid-morning in late March it is a slow-moving queue. Before 08:00 you can have it nearly empty, and the same early start puts you at Tenryu-ji for its 08:30 opening.

Tip: Be there before 08:00. First JR Sagano-line train from Kyoto Station to Saga-Arashiyama takes ~15 min; the walk from the station is ~10 min. Combine with the Otagi Nenbutsu-ji walk uphill afterwards.

free morning source ↗

Garden · Kyoto ·1h

Tenryu-ji & Sogenchi Garden 天龍寺

UNESCO-listed head temple of the Tenryu-ji Rinzai school, whose Sogenchi pond garden by Muso Soseki is one of the oldest surviving designed landscapes in Japan and has never been rebuilt. The north gate opens straight onto the bamboo grove, which makes it the efficient first stop of an Arashiyama morning.

Tip: Opens 08:30, earlier than most Kyoto temples. Buy the garden-only ticket unless it is raining. Exit via the north gate directly into the bamboo path.

¥500 garden / +¥300 buildings (~EUR 3–5) morning source ↗

Hike · Kyoto ·half day incl. walk

Otagi Nenbutsu-ji & the Saga-Toriimoto walk 愛宕念仏寺・嵯峨鳥居本

1,200 moss-covered rakan statues, each carved by a different amateur sculptor in the 1980s and each with its own expression — tennis rackets, cassette players, grins. It sits at the top of the preserved Saga-Toriimoto street, 35–40 minutes uphill from the bamboo grove past Adashino Nenbutsu-ji (8,000 memorial stones, ¥500). Almost nobody walks up this far, which is exactly the point.

Tip: Walk uphill from the bamboo grove and take the bus back down (Kyoto Bus 62/72 from Otagidera-mae to Arashiyama), or reverse it and coast downhill. Otagi Nenbutsu-ji opens 09:00–16:45.

¥500 (~EUR 3) morning source ↗

Garden · Kyoto ·1h

Ryoan-ji rock garden 龍安寺

Fifteen rocks in raked gravel, arranged so that one is always hidden from any viewing position. It rewards sitting still for twenty minutes, which means it rewards arriving before the tour buses. The mossy pond garden below the rock garden is nearly always empty and worth as much time.

Tip: Opens 08:00 in March (Mar–Nov 08:00–17:00) — earlier than Kinkaku-ji, so do Ryoan-ji first and Kinkaku-ji second if you want both quiet. 20 min walk between them.

¥600 (~EUR 3.5) morning source ↗

Nature · Kyoto ·2h with stops

Philosopher's Path & Honen-in 哲学の道・法然院

Two kilometres of canal-side path from Ginkaku-ji down to Nanzen-ji, lined with several hundred cherry trees that turn it into a tunnel in bloom. Honen-in, five minutes off the path, is the returner's stop: a thatched gate, two raked sand mounds redesigned each fortnight, and usually nobody there — grounds free, main hall open only in early April and November.

Tip: The cherry tunnel peaks a few days after Kyoto's official bloom date — in a 25–30 Mar early-bloom year expect first colour rather than full canopy. Honen-in 06:00–16:00. Walk it north to south and end at Nanzen-ji for yudofu.

free (Honen-in grounds free) morning source ↗

Garden · Kyoto ·2h for both

Shisen-do & Enko-ji 詩仙堂・圓光寺

Two small hillside temples above Ichijoji, ten minutes apart. Shisen-do is a 17th-century scholar's retreat with a white sand garden, a shishi-odoshi that clacks every minute, and a tatami veranda you sit on. Enko-ji adds a moss-and-maple garden, a bamboo grove, and a viewpoint over the city. Both are a twenty-minute bus ride from downtown and both are usually near-empty in March.

Tip: Shisen-do 09:00–17:00, closed 23 May. Enko-ji 09:00–17:00 (autumn requires advance tickets; March does not). Bus 5 to Ichijoji-Sagarimatsucho, or Eizan line to Ichijoji + 15 min uphill walk. Combine with Ichijoji ramen street for lunch and Manshu-in nearby.

Shisen-do ¥700, Enko-ji ¥600 (~EUR 4 each) weekday source ↗

Garden · Kyoto ·1.5h incl. travel

Katsura Imperial Villa 桂離宮

The building that Bruno Taut called the beginning of modern architecture: a 17th-century imperial retreat of shoin pavilions and tea houses arranged around a stroll pond so that every turn of the path composes a new view. Guided access only, ~60 minutes, and the most rewarding single hour in Kyoto for anyone who cares about design. Perfect returner pick.

Tip: RESERVE: Imperial Household Agency online at kyoto-gosho.kunaicho.go.jp — bookings open THREE MONTHS ahead, so for a 21–26 Mar 2027 visit book from late Dec 2026. Also same-day tickets at the gate and next-day in-person at the IHA Kyoto office. Bring passports — ID is checked. Under-12s not admitted. 20 min walk from Hankyu Katsura.

¥1,000 adults 18+ (~EUR 6); under 18 free weekday source ↗

Garden · Kyoto ·2h incl. travel

Shugakuin Imperial Villa 修学院離宮

Three garden complexes stepped up the Higashiyama foothills, connected by paths through working rice paddies that the Imperial Household still farms. The upper garden's Rinun-tei terrace gives the best borrowed-landscape view in Kyoto — the whole northern basin framed by a clipped hedge. A 3 km, 80-minute guided walk with real slopes.

Tip: Free but reservation-only via the same IHA system (sankan.kunaicho.go.jp), open three months ahead; popular slots go to a lottery. Tours in Japanese with free multilingual audio guides. Bring passports. 20 min walk or short bus from Shugakuin (Eizan line) — pairs with Shisen-do/Enko-ji on the same side of town.

free weekday source ↗

Garden · Kyoto ·2h

Kyoto Botanical Garden 京都府立植物園

Japan's oldest public botanical garden, 24 hectares on the Kamo river with the country's largest conservatory (4,500 species) and — the reason it belongs on a late-March list — about 450 cherry trees of 130 varieties, including many early bloomers that are open while the Somei-yoshino elsewhere are still buds. At ¥200 it is the cheapest good sakura in Kyoto and the least crowded.

Tip: 09:00–17:00, entry to 16:00; extended to ~20:00 during the cherry light-up period (usually late Mar–mid Apr). Kitayama station (Karasuma subway line) opens directly into the north gate. Bring a picnic from Nishiki.

¥200 garden, +¥200 conservatory (~EUR 1.2 each) morning source ↗

Garden · Kyoto ·1–2h

Kyoto Gyoen — Konoe weeping cherries 京都御苑近衛邸跡の糸桜

The best early-sakura bet in Kyoto. About 60 itozakura (weeping cherries) at the Konoe residence site in the northwest corner of the imperial park bloom roughly a week ahead of the Somei-yoshino everyone else is waiting for, which puts them squarely in a 21–26 March window in an average or early year. The park is free, open all hours, and vast enough that it never feels crowded.

Tip: Coordinate is the park centre; the Konoe-tei ruins with the weeping cherries are in the NORTHWEST corner, closest to Imadegawa subway station (Karasuma line). Also here: the Demizu-no-Ozakura and a stand of early Kawazu-zakura. Free, no gates, no reservation.

free morning source ↗

Hike · Kyoto ·half day

Kurama → Kibune mountain hike 鞍馬〜貴船

The best half-day hike from central Kyoto: up through Kurama-dera's cedar forest — vast exposed tree roots, small shrines, the spot where Ushiwakamaru supposedly trained with the tengu — over the ridge and down to Kibune Shrine's lantern-lined stone staircase. About 6 km, 2.5–3 hours walking, and the Kurama→Kibune direction is mostly downhill on the second half.

Tip: Eizan Kurama line from Demachiyanagi, ~30 min to Kurama; walk 2 km down the road from Kibune to Kibuneguchi station for the return. Trail is open and in use as of 2026. Late March is cold and can be muddy at altitude — proper shoes. Onsen at Kurama Onsen (¥1,000 outdoor bath) at the end if you reverse the direction.

Kurama-dera ¥500; Eizan train ~¥500 each way morning source ↗

Hike · Kyoto ·1.5–2h round trip

Daimonji-yama sunrise hike 大文字山

The short, steep climb to the fire bed of the giant 大 character burned into the hillside every August. Roughly 220 m of ascent and 30–45 minutes up from the trailhead beside Ginkaku-ji, with the best free panorama of the Kyoto basin at the top — the whole grid laid out west to the hills. Do it at first light and be back down for Ginkaku-ji's 08:30 opening.

Tip: Pin is the fire bed itself (the viewpoint). Trailhead is immediately north of Ginkaku-ji: follow the canal past the temple gate and turn right at the signposted path; ~1 km and 200 m up. Small shelter at the top. Sunrise in Kyoto on 23 March is around 06:05.

free morning source ↗

Garden · Nara ·1.5h for both

Isuien & Yoshikien gardens 依水園・吉城園

Two adjacent gardens between Kofuku-ji and Todai-ji. Isuien is the finer: a two-part stroll garden that borrows Todai-ji's great roof and the Wakakusa hills into its composition, with the Neiraku Museum of Chinese and Korean bronzes included. Yoshikien next door is three small gardens — pond, moss, tea — and is free to foreign visitors on production of a passport.

Tip: Isuien 09:30–16:30, CLOSED TUESDAYS. Yoshikien 09:00–17:00, closed 29 Dec–3 Jan — bring passports for the free entry. Isuien's tea house does a decent lunch of warabimochi and udon and is a good quiet break mid-Nara-day.

Isuien ¥1,200 incl. museum (~EUR 7); Yoshikien free for foreign passport holders morning source ↗

Hike · Nara ·1.5h round trip

Mount Wakakusa 若草山

A 342 m grass dome directly behind Todai-ji, burned off every January so it stays treeless. Thirty to forty minutes up an open slope with deer grazing around you and the whole Nara basin — pagodas, Todai-ji's roof, the Ikoma hills — spreading out behind. The shortest big payoff on this whole list.

Tip: SEASONAL: open only from the third Saturday of March to the second Sunday of December, 09:00–17:00 — in 2027 the third Saturday is 20 March, so a 26–30 March Nara day should be inside the window, but confirm the opening date. As of early 2026 the Kasugayama trail segment from Gekkatei to Wakakusa was closed indefinitely; use the main gate approach from Nigatsu-do.

¥150 adults (~EUR 1) sunset source ↗

Osaka

Garden · Osaka ·1-1.5h

Nishinomaru Garden (Osaka Castle sakura + evening illumination) 大阪城西の丸庭園

A 6.5-hectare walled lawn garden inside the castle grounds with about 300 cherry trees and the keep rising behind them — the single best hanami composition in Osaka. During the Spring Festival the garden stays open into the evening with the trees and the keep lit. This is the one paid sakura spot in Osaka that is genuinely worth paying for with a group.

Tip: 2026 illumination ran 20 Mar–12 Apr, 18:00–21:00, last entry 20:30, and required advance online reservation in the peak weeks — assume the same shape for 2027 and book as soon as dates are published (usually February). Normal daytime hours 09:00–17:00.

¥350 in sakura season (~€2) sunset source ↗

Nature · Osaka ·1.5-2h

Kema Sakuranomiya Park 毛馬桜之宮公園

Roughly 4,800 cherry trees lining several kilometres of the Okawa river between Sakuranomiya and Temmabashi — free, unticketed, and the place locals actually picnic. With five people it is the cheapest good evening of the trip: convenience-store food, a tarp, and a walk along the water. Also the easiest hanami spot to reach from a Tenma or Umeda-north apartment.

Tip: Walk it from Sakuranomiya Station (JR Loop Line) south toward Temmabashi. In an early-bloom year the trees nearest the water and on the Temmabashi end tend to open first.

free afternoon source ↗

Hike · Osaka ·half day

Minoo Park & Minoo Falls 箕面公園・箕面大滝

A forested river gorge starting at the end of a Hankyu branch line, 25 minutes from Umeda. The trail to the 33 m waterfall is 3 km, paved the whole way, gently uphill with a couple of steeper stretches — about 45 minutes each way, so it works for a group with mixed fitness. Late March gives bare-to-budding trees and few people; this is the easiest real nature half-day from an Osaka base.

Tip: Hankyu Takarazuka Line from Osaka-umeda to Ishibashi-handai-mae, change to the Minoo branch (~25 min total). Momiji tempura (deep-fried maple leaves) is an autumn thing but several shops sell it year-round. Bring a layer — the gorge is colder than the city.

free morning source ↗

Viewpoint · Osaka ·1h

Abeno Harukas 300 Observatory あべのハルカス

Japan's second-tallest building at 300 m, with a three-storey glass atrium at the top and a rooftop-edge deck. The view south and west over the low sprawl toward Osaka Bay is genuinely better than Umeda's on a clear day, and you can see Awaji Island. Pair it with Shitennoji and Shinsekai on a southern day; it is the pricier of the two Osaka viewpoints.

Tip: Directly above Tennoji Station. Sunset is the slot to book; buy online for a timed entry in spring holidays. Cheaper alternative: the free 16th-floor lobby has a decent view for nothing.

¥2,000 adult (~€12) sunset source ↗

Viewpoint · Osaka ·1-1.5h

Umeda Sky Building — Kuchu Teien Observatory 梅田スカイビル・空中庭園

Hiroshi Hara's 1993 twin towers bridged by a doughnut-shaped open-air roof deck at 173 m, reached by an escalator that crosses the void between them. The deck is open to the sky, which makes it a far better experience than a glass box, and the ring walk at dusk is the best photograph in Osaka. Takimi-koji, the fake-Showa alley in the basement, holds a branch of Kiji okonomiyaki.

Tip: Open 10:00–22:30, last entry 22:00 — the latest-opening major viewpoint in the city. Windy and cold in March, bring a jacket. Included in the Osaka Amazing Pass. 10-minute walk from Osaka Station through an underpass.

¥1,500 adult (~€9) sunset source ↗

Garden · Kobe ·half day

Nunobiki Herb Garden, ropeway & Nunobiki Falls 神戸布引ハーブ園・布引の滝

A ropeway from beside Shin-Kobe station climbs over the falls to one of Japan's largest herb gardens — twelve themed areas, about 75,000 plants, and a terrace looking straight down the city to the harbour. The good version for this group: ride up, walk down, taking the footpath past Nunobiki Falls and the 1900 masonry dam, which is a proper 45-minute forest descent five minutes from a Shinkansen station.

Tip: Ropeway 09:30, last up 16:45, last down 17:15. Buy one-way up and walk down to save ¥ and get the falls. The falls path is stepped and can be slippery after rain. Late March: herbs are mostly bare, so come for the view and the walk, not the planting.

Ropeway round trip incl. garden ¥2,000 (~€12); walking down is free morning source ↗

Onsen · Kobe ·half day incl. travel

Arima Onsen — Kin no Yu (day-use bath) 有馬温泉金の湯

One of Japan's oldest hot springs, 30 minutes behind Kobe in the hills. Kin no Yu is the public bath for the kinsen — iron- and salt-heavy water that oxidises to a deep rust-brown and stains a towel permanently. Gin no Yu, ten minutes' walk away, is the clear carbonated-radium spring. Day-use, no accommodation needed, and the old town between the two is a good hour of wandering.

Tip: Kin no Yu 08:00–22:00 (last entry 21:30); Gin no Yu 09:00–21:00 (last entry 20:30). Tattoos are generally not permitted in public baths — check if that affects anyone in the group. From Sannomiya: subway to Tanigami then Kobe Dentetsu Arima line (~30 min), or the direct highway bus. Kin no Yu is 5 min from Arima-Onsen station.

Kin no Yu ¥800 (¥600 weekdays); Gin no Yu ¥700; both ¥1,200 afternoon source ↗

Garden · Himeji ·1h

Koko-en Garden 好古園

Nine walled Edo-style gardens built in 1992 on the excavated foundations of the castle's former samurai residences — a pond garden with a waterfall, a bamboo garden, a tea garden, each in its own compound. It is modern but exceptionally well made, and after the crowd inside the keep it is the quiet half of the Himeji day. The tea house does matcha with a view of the pond.

Tip: Five minutes' walk west of the castle's west gate. Buy the combined ticket at the castle rather than paying separately. Matcha and sweets in the Souju-an tea house, around ¥600.

¥310 alone; included in the ¥2,600 castle combined ticket afternoon source ↗

Museums

Tokyo

Museum · Tokyo ·half day

Tokyo National Museum 東京国立博物館

Japan's oldest and largest museum, and the one museum on this list that is genuinely non-optional. The Honkan (Japanese Gallery) runs chronologically from Jomon pottery through Buddhist sculpture, swords, armour, lacquer, ukiyo-e and kimono - it is the fastest way to give three first-timers the vocabulary for everything they will see in Kyoto two weeks later. National Treasures rotate, so the contents differ every visit.

Tip: CLOSED MONDAYS (open when Monday is a holiday, closed the next day) - so closed Mon 15 Mar 2027. 09:30-17:00, until 20:00 Fri and Sat. Do the Honkan properly and skip the Toyokan unless someone wants Asian antiquities. Free for under-18s.

¥1,000 (approx EUR 6) morning source ↗

Museum · Tokyo ·1.5-2h

Nezu Museum 根津美術館

Kengo Kuma's low bamboo-lined entrance corridor sets up a collection of Japanese and East Asian art including Ogata Korin's Irises screens, but the real reason to come is the 17,000 sqm hillside garden behind it - stone lanterns, a pond, four tea houses and moss, in the middle of Aoyama. It is the best garden-to-effort ratio in central Tokyo.

Tip: CLOSED MONDAYS (open on holiday Mondays, closed the Tuesday after). 10:00-17:00, last entry 16:30. Book online - weekend walk-ups are frequently refused. Also closes between exhibitions, so check the calendar for March 2027. The garden is only reachable with a museum ticket. NEZUCAFE overlooks it.

¥1,100 collection / ¥1,300 special (approx EUR 6.50-7.65) afternoon source ↗

Museum · Tokyo ·2h

Mori Art Museum 森美術館

Contemporary art on the 53rd floor of Roppongi Hills, with the Tokyo City View observation deck included in the same ticket. It is the only serious museum in Tokyo that works as an evening activity - open until 22:00 - which makes it the natural fallback on a day that has gone sideways or when it rains.

Tip: Open daily including Mondays - the useful exception on Mon 15 Mar. 10:00-22:00, but TUESDAYS close at 17:00. Last entry 30 min before close. The programme is uneven - check what is actually on before buying; if the show looks weak, this becomes a ¥1,800 viewpoint.

¥1,800 incl. observatory (approx EUR 10.60) evening source ↗

Museum · Tokyo ·half day

Edo-Tokyo Open Air Architectural Museum 江戸東京たてもの園

Thirty historic buildings dismantled and rebuilt across a corner of Koganei Park: Meiji farmhouses, a 1925 photo studio, a prime minister's house, and a shitamachi shopping street you walk into rather than look at. The Kodakara-yu bathhouse interior is the acknowledged model for the bathhouse in Spirited Away. At ¥400 it is the best value cultural day in Tokyo and almost no first-time itinerary includes it.

Tip: CLOSED MONDAYS. October-March hours 09:30-16:30 - get there by 13:00 or you will rush it. Bus from JR Musashi-Koganei station to Koganei-koen Nishiguchi, then 5 min walk. Same JR Chuo line as Kichijoji/Mitaka, so it pairs with the Ghibli Museum in one westward day.

¥400 (approx EUR 2.35) weekday source ↗

Museum · Tokyo ·2-3h

National Museum of Nature and Science 国立科学博物館

Ueno's other big museum, and a much better rainy-day option than it sounds. The Japan Gallery covers the archipelago's geology, the Jomon and the Ainu; the Global Gallery is a full dinosaur and whale hall. Hachiko's taxidermied body is in the collection. Vast, indoors, and cheap.

Tip: CLOSED MONDAYS. 09:00-17:00. Directly across from Tokyo National Museum in Ueno Park - do not try both properly in one day. Best used as the wet-weather substitute for an outdoor plan.

¥630 (approx EUR 3.70) optional source ↗

Museum · Tokyo ·1.5h

Sumida Hokusai Museum すみだ北斎美術館

Kazuyo Sejima's mirrored aluminium block dropped into a Ryogoku housing estate, on the block where Hokusai was born and spent most of his life. Small and sharply edited - the permanent gallery uses high-resolution touchscreen replicas so you can actually inspect the prints, which the fragile originals never allow. A recreated diorama of Hokusai's chaotic studio is the highlight.

Tip: CLOSED MONDAYS (closed the following weekday when Monday is a holiday). 09:30-17:30, last entry 17:00. A 20-minute walk or one stop from Asakusa, so it slots straight onto a Senso-ji morning. Ryogoku's sumo stables and the Edo-Tokyo Museum are next door (the latter is under long-term renovation - verify status).

¥400 permanent, approx ¥1,000 with special exhibition (approx EUR 2.35-6) afternoon source ↗

Museum · Tokyo ·1.5h

Yayoi Kusama Museum 草間彌生美術館

A narrow five-storey white building in quiet residential Bentencho, run by Kusama's own foundation. One exhibition at a time across four floors plus a rooftop and an infinity-mirror room, seen in a 90-minute timed slot with a capped number of people - the opposite experience to a Kusama blockbuster. Small enough that a group of five can do it in an hour and a half without queueing.

Tip: RESERVATION-ONLY, no door sales. Open THURSDAY-SUNDAY only, 11:00-17:30 - for us that means 11, 12, 13 or 14 March. Tickets go on sale at 10:00 JST on the 1st of the month for the month after next, so MARCH 2027 TICKETS OPEN 1 JANUARY 2027 on the museum's own site. Put a calendar alarm on it.

approx ¥1,100 (approx EUR 6.50) optional source ↗

Museum · Tokyo ·1.5h

Japan Folk Crafts Museum (Mingeikan) 日本民藝館

Soetsu Yanagi's 1936 house-museum in Komaba, the physical home of the mingei philosophy - that anonymous, everyday, handmade objects hold a beauty that signed art does not. Ceramics, textiles, Korean furniture, Mokujiki's carved Buddhas, displayed in a building that is itself the argument. The single best stop in Tokyo for anyone who will be buying craft in Kyoto later in the trip.

Tip: CLOSED MONDAYS (open holiday Mondays, closed the day after). 10:00-17:00, last entry 16:30. Also closes between exhibitions - check the calendar for March 2027 before going. Komaba-Todaimae station, 7 min from Shibuya on the Keio Inokashira line. Small shop with good books.

¥1,100 (approx EUR 6.50) afternoon source ↗

Museum · Tokyo ·1h

Intermediatheque インターメディアテク

The University of Tokyo's academic collection staged as a Victorian cabinet of curiosities across two floors of the KITTE building opposite Tokyo Station: whale skeletons, Meiji survey instruments, taxidermy, mineral cases, all in original university vitrines under museum-grade lighting. Free, strange, and almost never crowded.

Tip: CLOSED MONDAYS (closed the following Tuesday when Monday is a holiday). 11:00-18:00, until 20:00 Fri and Sat. No photography anywhere. Five minutes from Tokyo Station - the perfect filler before a shinkansen, which makes it a candidate for the morning of 17 March before leaving for Matsumoto.

free optional source ↗

Museum · Tokyo ·2-3h

Ghibli Museum, Mitaka 三鷹の森ジブリ美術館

Miyazaki designed the building himself and it behaves accordingly - spiral staircases, a rooftop robot from Laputa, a room recreating an animator's desk mid-work, and the Saturn Theater which screens a 15-minute original Ghibli short you cannot see anywhere else in the world. Photography is banned inside, deliberately. It sits at the western edge of Inokashira Park, so Kichijoji is the same trip.

Tip: THE HARD BOOKING. Advance reservation only, no door sales, fixed date AND entry time. Tickets go on sale at 10:00 JST on the 10th of the preceding month - so ALL MARCH 2027 DATES OPEN 10 FEBRUARY 2027. Overseas buyers use the Lawson Ticket international portal (regional release times are staggered); weekend slots have gone in under 15 minutes. CLOSED TUESDAYS, so avoid 16 Mar. Assign one person to sit on the site at release.

¥1,000 adult (approx EUR 6) optional source ↗

Matsumoto & Kiso

Museum · Matsumoto ·1–2h

Matsumoto Castle 松本城

Japan's oldest surviving five-tier wooden keep (1594) and a National Treasure, black-lacquered and doubled in its own moat with the Japan Alps behind. The interior is the real reason to go: six raw-timber floors linked by ladder-steep staircases, arrow and gun slits, and a moon-viewing room bolted on once the wars ended. For the three first-timers this is the one unmissable sight in the region; returners get the payoff at dusk, walking the moat when the keep is floodlit.

Tip: Open 09:00–17:00, last entry 16:30. E-tickets are locked to a date and time slot and cannot be cancelled; the paper ticket at the gate is only ¥100 more and stays flexible — for 5 people in low season just buy on the day and go at opening. Shoes come off at the entrance and the keep stairs are near-vertical, so wear socks you are happy to be seen in. The winter projection mapping runs mid-December to mid-February only, so it will be finished by 17 Mar; the free exterior floodlighting of the keep runs year-round. Castle sakura normally peaks early-to-mid April, so 17–21 Mar 2027 is almost certainly too early even in an early-bloom year.

¥1,200 e-ticket / ¥1,300 at the gate (~€7–8 pp); ¥1,080 pp group rate needs 20+ people morning source ↗

Museum · Matsumoto ·1–2h

Matsumoto City Museum of Art (Yayoi Kusama) 松本市美術館

Kusama was born in Matsumoto and the museum is built around her: the giant polka-dot Phantom Flower sculpture outside, dotted vending machines in the forecourt, and a permanent room of paintings and an infinity installation inside. The rest of the collection is calligrapher Shinzan Kamijo and landscape painter Kazuo Tanaka, which reads as a genuine local museum rather than a Kusama franchise. Fifteen minutes on foot from the station and the best wet-weather hour in town.

Tip: Closed Mondays (or the following day when Monday is a holiday) — that matters for a 17–21 Mar 2027 stay, since Monday 22 Mar falls after departure but check the exact date if the plan shifts. A set ticket bundling the castle, the Former Kaichi School and this museum saves ¥200.

¥700 e-ticket / ¥800 at the counter for the permanent collection (~€4–5); special exhibitions extra weekday source ↗

Museum · Matsumoto ·1h

Japan Ukiyo-e Museum 日本浮世絵博物館

The Sakai family, Matsumoto merchants, spent five generations assembling roughly 100,000 woodblock prints — reportedly the largest ukiyo-e collection in private hands anywhere — and show a rotating slice of it in a concrete building on the western edge of town. Hokusai, Hiroshige and Utamaro all appear, but the interest is the depth: prints, printing blocks and the paraphernalia of the trade. Small, quiet, and completely uncrowded on a weekday.

Tip: 10:00–17:00, last entry 16:30, closed Mondays. Awkward to reach: 25 minutes on the Town Sneaker west-course bus from Matsumoto Station, or the Matsumoto Dentetsu train to Oniwa Station plus a 12-minute walk. Pair with the wasabi farm or skip it if the group is short on time.

¥1,000 adults (~€6) weekday source ↗

Museum · Matsumoto ·45min

Former Kaichi School 旧開智学校

An 1876 elementary school built by a local carpenter who had only seen photographs of Western buildings, so it comes out as a pale blue-and-white pseudo-Western facade with cherubs and dragons and octagonal turrets glued onto Japanese joinery. It is a designated National Treasure — the first Western-style school building to get that status — and reopened in November 2024 after a three-and-a-half-year seismic retrofit. Five minutes' walk north of the castle, so it slots straight after it.

Tip: Reopened 9 Nov 2024 after earthquake-proofing, so older guidebooks calling it closed are wrong. Closed Mondays. The Former Missionary House (旧司祭館) sits in the same grounds and is free.

around ¥400 adults (~€2.50); included in the castle set ticket morning source ↗

Museum · Matsumoto ·n/a

Utsukushigahara Open-Air Museum 美ヶ原高原美術館

Around 350 modern sculptures spread over a 2,000 m plateau at the far end of the Venus Line, sister museum to Hakone's open-air museum and one of the highest art spaces in Japan. Worth listing only so the group can strike it off with confidence: it is shut for the whole trip window.

Tip: Closed from mid/late November to late April because the Venus Line access road is shut by snow; it reopens late April and runs to early November, 09:00–17:00. It will be closed on 17–21 Mar 2027. Do not build a day around it and do not confuse it with the Matsumoto City Museum of Art in town, which is open.

n/a — closed in March optional source ↗

Museum · Kiso Valley ·1h

Wakihonjin Okuya and Nagiso Town Museum 脇本陣奥谷

The secondary lodging where lesser lords stayed, rebuilt in 1877 entirely from Kiso hinoki cypress the moment the shogunate's ban on felling it was lifted — so it is a showcase of the timber the valley was logged for. The attached history museum explains the post-town system, the checkpoints and why these villages exist at all, and there is a famously photogenic shaft of light through the smoke of the irori hearth. Best single indoor stop in Tsumago.

Tip: Buy the ¥700 combined ticket — the standalone Honjin at ¥300 is a reconstruction and much thinner on its own. A 20 percent group discount exists but needs 20 people, so it does not apply to five.

¥600 alone, ¥700 combined with the Honjin and history museum (~€4) morning source ↗

Museum · Kiso Valley ·45min

Fukushima Checkpoint (Sekisho) 福島関所

One of the four great barrier stations of Edo Japan, where the shogunate searched every traveller on the Nakasendo for smuggled guns going east and hostage women escaping west. The reconstructed gatehouse sits on a bluff twenty minutes' walk north of Kiso-Fukushima station and holds weapons, travel passes and documents from the barrier's records. The neighbouring Yamamura Daikan magistrate's residence is the same ticket-adjacent stop and explains who ran the valley.

Tip: Twenty minutes uphill on foot from Kiso-Fukushima Station. Combine with Kozenji temple, five minutes away, and the Ue-no-dan lanes on the way back down. Signage is mostly Japanese — worth a translation app.

around ¥300–500 (~€2–3) morning source ↗

Kyoto

Museum · Kyoto ·2h

Nijo Castle & Ninomaru Palace 二条城

The Tokugawa shoguns' Kyoto residence, and the one place in the city where you walk through original 17th-century interiors rather than reconstructions: 33 rooms of Kano-school screen paintings and the nightingale floors that squeak deliberately underfoot. The surrounding grounds hold roughly 400 cherry trees across many varieties, some early-blooming.

Tip: Open 08:45–17:00 (palace 09:00–16:00); closed Tuesdays in Jan/Jul/Aug/Dec only, so open all through March. The spring cherry-blossom light-up typically runs late March to early April with separate paid evening entry — check nijo-jocastle.city.kyoto.lg.jp in Feb 2027.

¥1,300 incl. Ninomaru Palace (~EUR 8) morning source ↗

Museum · Kyoto ·half day

Kyoto Railway Museum 京都鉄道博物館

53 trains from Meiji steam locomotives to the first 0-series Shinkansen, in a hangar next to a working roundhouse where they still fire up a steam engine for short rides. Genuinely excellent even for people who do not care about trains, entirely indoors, and a twenty-minute walk from Kyoto Station — the obvious plan for a rainy afternoon or the day you arrive from Matsumoto with luggage already dropped.

Tip: CLOSED WEDNESDAYS (and 30 Dec–1 Jan). 10:00–17:00, last entry 16:30. Buy tickets at the door or at Lawson kiosks. Rooftop terrace overlooks the JR and Shinkansen main lines.

¥1,500 adults (~EUR 9); SL Steam ride +¥300 optional source ↗

Museum · Kyoto ·full day

Miho Museum MIHO MUSEUM

I. M. Pei's mountain museum in Shiga, approached through a curving tunnel and across a suspension bridge that frames the entrance like a scroll painting — the building is the exhibit, with a strong Near Eastern and Asian antiquities collection inside. Closed for most of the winter, so late March is the first window of the year. Genuinely a full day from Kyoto.

Tip: SEASONAL OPENING: the 2026 spring season ran 15 Mar–8 Jun; 2027 dates are not published yet — check miho.jp from Dec 2026 before committing, and note it closes MONDAYS. Access: JR to Ishiyama (Biwako line, ~15 min) then Teisan bus ~50 min. Some spring exhibitions use advance reservation.

¥1,300 adults (~EUR 8) + ~¥2,000 return transport weekday source ↗

Museum · Kyoto ·2h

Kyoto National Museum 京都国立博物館

The city's serious collection — Heian sculpture, medieval painting, ceramics, calligraphy — housed in Taniguchi Yoshio's 2014 Heisei Chishinkan next to the 1895 red-brick Meiji Kotokan. Directly opposite Sanjusangen-do, so the two make one strong indoor afternoon.

Tip: CRITICAL FOR THIS TRIP: the galleries are CLOSED 24 MARCH – 18 APRIL 2027 for exhibition changeover; only the gardens and outdoor exhibits are open. Visit on 22 or 23 March or not at all. 09:30–17:00, to 20:00 Fridays, closed Mondays.

¥700 collection exhibition (~EUR 4); special exhibitions higher weekday source ↗

Museum · Kyoto ·1h

Kawai Kanjiro's House 河井寛次郎記念館

The mingei potter's own house, workshop and climbing kiln, left as they were when he died in 1966 — furniture he designed, tools still on the bench, wood-fired noborigama stepping up the hillside out the back. Small, quiet, and the best hour in Kyoto for anyone interested in craft or interiors. Ten minutes' walk below Kiyomizu-dera on the Gojozaka pottery slope.

Tip: 10:00–17:00, last entry 16:30, CLOSED MONDAYS (and the following day if Monday is a holiday), plus mid-Aug and 24 Dec–7 Jan. No photography of some rooms. Combine with the Gojozaka ceramic shops and Kiyomizu-dera in one Higashiyama afternoon.

¥900 (~EUR 5) optional source ↗

Osaka

Museum · Osaka ·2-3h

Osaka Castle & Castle Museum 大阪城 / 天守閣

The reconstructed keep is concrete and the museum inside is a competent but conventional walk-up through Hideyoshi and the 1615 siege; the reason to come is the park, the cyclopean stone walls and the moat. For a group of five it works as a slow two-hour loop from Otemon through Nishinomaru to the keep. Returners can skip the keep interior and do the Yagura turret openings and the Gozabune boat instead.

Tip: Keep opens 09:00, last entry 16:30. Buy the keep ticket online to skip the line, or use the Osaka Amazing Pass which includes it. In sakura season the park is full from 10:00 onward.

Keep ¥600 (~€3.50); park free morning source ↗

Museum · Osaka ·1.5-2h

Nakanoshima Museum of Art, Osaka 大阪中之島美術館

A matte-black cube on the river island, opened 2022, holding Osaka's modern collection — Modigliani, Sadamasa Motonaga, and a serious Gutai holding — plus big touring shows. The building itself, with its diagonal atrium, is half the visit. It is the strongest single museum in the city and the anchor of a rainy-day Nakanoshima loop.

Tip: 10:00–17:00, last entry 16:30, closed Mondays (open if Monday is a holiday, then closed Tuesday). Check the current exhibition before committing — pricing and appeal swing a lot.

¥1,000–2,000 depending on exhibition (~€6–12) weekday source ↗

Museum · Osaka ·1-1.5h

The National Museum of Art, Osaka 国立国際美術館

Entirely underground, with a Pelli-designed bamboo-inspired steel canopy as its only above-ground presence. Strong post-war Japanese and international contemporary collection, and it sits 100 m from the Nakanoshima Museum of Art, so both fit in one afternoon. Friday late opening makes it a good pre-dinner stop.

Tip: 10:00–17:00 (last entry 16:30), Fridays until 20:00 (last entry 19:30), closed Mondays. Combine with Nakanoshima Museum of Art next door.

Collection ~¥430; special exhibitions ¥1,200–2,000 weekday source ↗

Museum · Osaka ·30-45min

Nakanoshima Children's Book Forest こども本の森中之島

Tadao Ando designed and donated this free library on the riverbank: a triple-height concrete well lined floor-to-ceiling with books arranged by theme rather than by Dewey. Adults without children are welcome and it takes 30–40 minutes. Best understood as a small, free piece of Ando architecture in the middle of a museum day.

Tip: Free entry but online advance reservation is required for a timed slot. 09:30–17:00, closed Mondays. Book a week or so out.

free weekday source ↗

Museum · Osaka ·1-1.5h

Osaka Museum of Housing and Living 大阪くらしの今昔館

The ninth floor is a full-scale reconstructed 1830s Osaka street — merchant shops, a bathhouse, a fire tower — under a ceiling that cycles through dawn, noon, dusk and a thunderstorm. You can rent a yukata and walk it. For a group of five this is a cheap, genuinely fun hour and the best rainy-day card in the city.

Tip: 10:00–17:00, last admission 16:30, closed Tuesdays. Yukata rental is capped at ~100 slots a day and the counter closes 16:15, so arrive before 15:00 if you want it. Included in the Osaka Amazing Pass.

¥600 (~€3.50); yukata rental ¥500–1,000 weekday source ↗

Museum · Osaka ·1.5-2h

Cupnoodles Museum Osaka Ikeda カップヌードルミュージアム大阪池田

On the site where Momofuku Ando invented instant ramen in a garden shed in 1958. Entry is free; the point is the My Cupnoodles Factory, where you design your own cup, pick a soup and four toppings, and walk out with it sealed and shrink-wrapped. For five adults it is 90 silly minutes and a souvenir that costs ¥500.

Tip: 09:30–16:30, last admission 15:30, closed Tuesdays. My Cupnoodles Factory is walk-in only with same-day numbered tickets that run out — arrive before 11:00. The Chicken Ramen Factory (70 min, hand-making noodles) needs a reservation up to three months ahead. Hankyu Takarazuka Line to Ikeda, 30 min from Umeda; combines well with Minoo in one northern day.

Free entry; My Cupnoodles ¥500; Chicken Ramen workshop ¥1,200 weekday source ↗

Museum · Himeji ·half day

Himeji Castle 姫路城

The only large Japanese castle that survived both the Meiji demolitions and the war intact — an original 1609 wooden keep on a maze of defensive baileys, UNESCO-listed and unarguably the best castle in Japan. Allow real time: the approach spiral alone is 30 minutes, and the keep interior is six floors of steep ladders. Around 1,000 cherry trees fill Sannomaru square in front of it.

Tip: Admission was revised on 1 March 2026: ¥2,500 for non-residents (¥1,000 for Himeji residents), free under 18. Buy the ¥2,600 Himeji Castle + Koko-en combined ticket — it saves ¥300 and Koko-en is 5 minutes away. Open 09:00, last entry 16:00. First blossoms usually 22–25 March, full bloom typically 30 Mar–5 Apr, so a 28–30 March visit is plausible but not guaranteed.

¥2,500 non-resident adult; under-18s free; ¥2,600 combined with Koko-en morning source ↗

Culture, temples & neighbourhoods

Tokyo

Senso-ji 浅草寺

Meiji Jingu 明治神宮

Nezu Shrine 根津神社

Yushima Tenmangu 湯島天満宮

Kichijoji & Inokashira Park 吉祥寺・井の頭恩賜公園

Kamakura & Enoshima day trip 鎌倉・江の島

teamLab Planets TOKYO チームラボプラネッツ TOKYO DMM

teamLab Borderless チームラボボーダレス

Yanaka Ginza & Yanaka-Nezu-Sendagi 谷中銀座

Kagurazaka 神楽坂

Shimokitazawa 下北沢

Nakameguro 中目黒

Kappabashi Kitchen Town かっぱ橋道具街

Jimbocho Book Town 神保町

Matsumoto & Kiso

Nakamachi Street 中町通り

Nawate Street (Frog Street) 縄手通り

Zenko-ji, Nagano 善光寺

Magome-juku 馬籠宿

Tsumago-juku 妻籠宿

Narai-juku 奈良井宿

Kiso-Hirasawa lacquerware village 木曽平沢

Kiso-Fukushima 木曽福島

Kozenji Temple 興禅寺

Kyoto

Kiyomizu-dera 清水寺

Ninenzaka & Sannenzaka slopes 二年坂・三年坂

Kodai-ji (with spring night illumination) 高台寺

Gion & Hanamikoji-dori 祇園・花見小路通

Kinkaku-ji (Golden Pavilion) 金閣寺

Ginkaku-ji (Silver Pavilion) 銀閣寺

Nanzen-ji & the Suirokaku aqueduct 南禅寺

Sanjusangen-do 三十三間堂

Daitoku-ji — Zuiho-in & Daisen-in 大徳寺 瑞峯院・大仙院

Tofuku-ji & Hojo gardens 東福寺

Ohara — Sanzen-in & Jakko-in 大原 三千院・寂光院

Takao — Jingo-ji & Kosan-ji 高雄 神護寺・高山寺

Saiho-ji (Kokedera, the Moss Temple) 西芳寺

Nishijin textile district & Textile Center 西陣・西陣織会館

Kyoto Ceramic Center & Gojozaka pottery slope 京都陶磁器会館・五条坂

Hirano Shrine 平野神社

To-ji — pagoda & night cherry illumination 東寺

Pontocho alley 先斗町

Byodo-in Phoenix Hall 平等院

Taiho-an municipal tea house 対鳳庵

Ujigami Shrine 宇治上神社

Nara — how to do it, and from where 奈良

Todai-ji & Nigatsu-do 東大寺

Kasuga Taisha 春日大社

Kofuku-ji & Nara Park 興福寺・奈良公園

Naramachi old merchant quarter ならまち

Horyu-ji 法隆寺

Osaka

Shinsekai & Tsutenkaku Tower 新世界・通天閣

Dotonbori & Ebisubashi 道頓堀

Hozenji Yokocho & the moss-covered Fudo 法善寺横丁

Osaka Aquarium Kaiyukan 海遊館

Shitennoji Temple (+ 21st/22nd flea market) 四天王寺

Sumiyoshi Taisha 住吉大社

Expo '70 Commemorative Park & Tower of the Sun interior 万博記念公園・太陽の塔

Nakazakicho café district 中崎町

Tenma & Tenjinbashisuji arcade 天満・天神橋筋商店街

Kitano Ijinkan-gai (foreign merchants' houses) 北野異人館街

Nankinmachi (Kobe Chinatown) 南京町

Engyoji Temple, Mount Shosha 書寫山圓教寺

Nature, hikes & onsen

Tokyo

Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden 新宿御苑

Hamarikyu Gardens 浜離宮恩賜庭園

Todoroki Valley 等々力渓谷

Mount Takao 高尾山

Shibuya Sky 渋谷スカイ

Matsumoto & Kiso

Agata-no-mori Park and old high school あがたの森公園

Asama Onsen 浅間温泉

Utsukushigahara Onsen 美ヶ原温泉

Shirahone Onsen 白骨温泉

Daio Wasabi Farm and Azumino cycling 大王わさび農場

Daitoku-ji — Zuiho-in & Daisen-in 大徳寺瑞峯院・大仙院

Ohara — Sanzen-in & Jakko-in 大原三千院・寂光院

Takao — Jingo-ji & Kosan-ji 高雄神護寺・高山寺

Magome to Tsumago Nakasendo walk 馬籠峠越え中山道

Arashiyama Bamboo Grove 嵐山竹林の小径

Kyoto Gyoen — Konoe weeping cherries 京都御苑近衛邸跡の糸桜

Arima Onsen — Kin no Yu (day-use bath) 有馬温泉金の湯

Nakanoshima Children's Book Forest こども本の森中之島

Cupnoodles Museum Osaka Ikeda カップヌードルミュージアム大阪池田