Japan
The famous places now take a booking. Ten kilometres past them, nothing does.
How many days do you need in Japan?
Ten to fourteen days covers Tokyo, Kyoto and the Kansai cities around them, with Nara, Osaka and Himeji reachable from a single base and no change of hotel. A week works and spends a disproportionate share of itself on the Tokaido corridor between the two big cities. A third region is where the arithmetic changes: Hokkaido, Kyushu, Okinawa and the Japan Alps each cost a domestic flight or a rail leg near four hours, and each is better given four nights than two. Hiroshima is the exception, since it extends the existing Shinkansen spine westward and sits under four hours from Tokyo.
Do you need a car in Japan?
No car is needed for the Tokyo to Kyoto to Hiroshima spine or inside any large city, where one is a liability. The nationwide rail pass is the question most published advice still gets wrong: after the 2023 increase it no longer pays for itself on a plain Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka loop, and it rises again by roughly five to six percent on 1 October 2026. It starts to earn its place once a long western or northern leg is added and the itinerary keeps moving. A car earns its place in rural Hokkaido, inland Kyushu, the Noto peninsula, the interior of Shikoku and Okinawa.
When is the best time to visit Japan?
Late March into early April and late October into early December are the two windows the country is organised around, and both are busy for good reason. The cherry bloom runs south to north up an archipelago aligned southwest to northeast, so the same fortnight means Kyushu in one week and Hokkaido a month later; the window shifts by year and no date should be booked against. Arguments against summer are concrete: the rainy season in June, the humidity of August and the typhoon months. Three domestic holiday weeks fill trains and rooms nationwide, at New Year, in Golden Week and at Obon. On 9 and 10 October every year Takayama brings out its carved festival floats, lit by lanterns on the first night: the Takayama Autumn Festival. Every 22 October about 2,000 marchers in the dress of eight eras walk from the Kyoto Imperial Palace to Heian Jingu in Kyoto's Jidai Matsuri. Tokyo's Sanja Matsuri falls on a weekend in mid-May, when portable shrines are carried through the streets of Asakusa around Senso-ji temple.
What language is spoken in Japan?
Japanese, and the honest measure is unflattering. The 2025 EF English Proficiency Index places Japan 96th of 123 countries, in the lowest of five bands, with written sub-scores running well above spoken ones. That combination produces a specific experience: signage on the rail network is bilingual and carries a visitor through the country without difficulty, while conversation past a transaction is rare outside international hotels and the staff of major sights. It thins fast on a rural bus or at a small inn.
Is Japan still a cash country?
Half of the old advice has stopped being true. Cashless payment reached 58.0 percent of consumer spending in 2025 by the government’s own measure, against a government target of 65 percent by 2030, and cards work across the cities. Cash has not gone away, it has retreated to specific places: small shrines and temples, rural buses, older inns and many market stalls. Foreign cards work at 7-Eleven and Japan Post machines, which are the two reliable networks. Tax-free shopping changes on 1 November 2026 to a pay first and claim at departure system, with no transition period.
Where do you fly into Japan?
Tokyo has two and the difference is real: Haneda sits inside the city and reaches the centre in about half an hour, while Narita is well outside it, about forty minutes to Ueno on the fastest train and an hour to Tokyo Station on the slower one. A trip that begins in Kyoto, Osaka or Nara should fly into Kansai instead and skip the Tokaido leg entirely. Chubu Centrair serves Nagoya and the Japan Alps, New Chitose is the gateway to Hokkaido and Sapporo, Fukuoka opens Kyushu, and Naha serves Okinawa.
