The Golden Route, Properly.

The programme.

1. Days 1–3Tokyo

   Arrive Haneda. A neighbourhood day and a craft day rather than a landmark checklist; sushi at a counter that takes eight people, booked three months out.

2. Days 4–5Hakone

   Romancecar down. A ryokan with a private open-air bath, the Hakone open-air museum, and Fuji visible more often than the season suggests if the timing is right.

3. Days 6–8Kyoto

   Shinkansen across. Temples at opening before the coaches, an afternoon in Arashiyama from the north end, and one evening in Gion that is not a walking tour.

4. Day 9Kyoto or Osaka

   Out from Kansai, or extend to Koyasan or Ise within two hours, or Naoshima in half a day — all covered elsewhere on this site.

When to ask.

Six months normally; twelve for cherry blossom or the last three weeks of November, when Kyoto is at capacity and the good ryokan are gone.

Other programmes.

Formula 1 · 4 nights

Suzuka Race Weekend

The Japanese Grand Prix done without the two things that ruin it — a two-hour transfer on race morning and a hotel ninety minutes from the circuit.

Formula 1 · 9 nights

Suzuka and the Golden Route

The race as the centrepiece of a proper Japan trip, rather than a long-haul flight for three days at a circuit.

Art & design · 6 nights

The Setouchi Art Islands

Ando concrete, a Monet room underground and a spotted pumpkin on a pier — the strongest contemporary-art sell in Japan, and a day that fails without planning.

Winter · 7 nights

Hokkaido Powder and Culture

The best snow in the world with something to do when it stops falling, which is what separates a Japan ski trip from a Japan ski holiday.

Craft · 7 nights

Onsen and Craft

Gold leaf, lacquer, a hearth and a hot spring — the trip for a client who has seen Kyoto and wants to make something rather than photograph it.

Region · 7 nights

Kyushu, Steam and Caldera

Hot springs that are geology rather than décor, a live caldera you drive across, and Nagasaki — the one Japanese city whose history is not domestic.

Region · 7 nights

Tohoku, North of the Crowds

Two hours north of Tokyo the coaches stop and the country opens — samurai streets, a gas-lit onsen village, and the loudest week in the Japanese calendar if the dates suit.

Culture · 6 nights

Old Towns, Across the Alps

A castle, two preserved towns and a thatched valley, crossed west in one direction — the trip that answers 'somewhere that still looks like Japan' without leaving the main island.

Beach · 6 nights

Okinawa, and Then Further Out

Subtropical Japan with its own kingdom, its own kitchen and water that starts warming in April — sold as two islands rather than one, because the good beaches are not on the big one.

Seasonal · 8 nights

Cherry Blossom, Held Loosely

The most requested trip in Japan and the one most often mis-sold, because the flowers are forecast rather than scheduled — so this is built to move with them instead of against them.

Seasonal · 10 nights

Autumn Colour, Held Loosely

Japan's second peak season and the one agents under-price — colour that moves down the country over six weeks, so the trip is built to follow it rather than to sit and wait for it.

Culinary · 8 nights

Japan at the Counter

Kaiseki, a working market at six in the morning, a counter that seats eight, and a brewery that will actually talk — the food trip built around what can be booked, not around a wish list.

Rail · 9 nights

Japan by Rail, at the Front

The country seen from the window it was built around — premium shinkansen as the spine, the named sightseeing and observation trains as the days, and one balloted luxury cruise train if the file can carry the risk.

Wellness · 7 nights

Quiet, and Hot Water

Onsen, forest, a temple that will seat a guest properly and three days with nothing in them — the programme whose whole skill is in what it refuses to schedule.

Art · 8 nights

Concrete, Light and Collections

Mainland Japan read as a building rather than a view — postwar concrete, a digital art museum, the national collections, and the craft museums that explain what all of it is arguing with.

Family · 9 nights

Three Generations, One File

Grandparents, parents and children in the same country at three different speeds — built so the nine-year-old and the seventy-nine-year-old both have a good day, usually not the same one.

Honeymoon · 8 nights

Two People, Eight Nights

A honeymoon that is not a sightseeing itinerary with flowers on the bed — three bases, private baths, late mornings and exactly two things booked per day.

Wildlife · 7 nights

Cranes, Eagles and Drift Ice

Eastern Hokkaido in February — dancing cranes on a frozen river, Steller's sea eagles over pack ice, and a boat out of Rausu that only sails if the ice and the wind agree.

Craft · 8 nights

Workshops, Not Showrooms

Pottery towns, a lacquer workshop, indigo, and a knife forge — access to people who are working, arranged in advance, with an interpreter who knows what a kiln firing schedule actually means for a Tuesday.

Short break · 5 nights

Five Nights, No Waste

Two cities, one transfer and nothing that costs a half-day in transit — the short Japan introduction for a senior traveller who has the interest and does not have the fortnight.

Events this programme is built around.

Each of these is a fixed date with its own booking constraint, so the itinerary moves to the event rather than the other way round.