The Setouchi Art Islands.

The programme.

1. Days 1–2Osaka or Okayama

   Arrive Kansai. A night to reset, then across to Uno and the ferry — or straight in via Takamatsu if the routing suits.

2. Days 3–4Naoshima

   Chichu and Lee Ufan on timed entry booked months ahead, the Art House Projects in Honmura, and the island to yourselves after the last ferry out.

3. Day 5Teshima

   The Teshima Art Museum, which is one room and water and is the thing people remember longest. Ferries are infrequent; this is a planned day, not an improvised one.

4. Day 6Takamatsu

   Ritsurin Garden at opening, Sanuki udon made rather than eaten, and the Isamu Noguchi garden museum by appointment.

5. Day 7Takamatsu or Okayama

   Out, or two hours to Kyoto if the client is combining.

When to ask.

Six to nine months. Benesse House rooms and Chichu slots are the constraint, and Mondays are a closure day that catches people out.

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.

Classic · 8 nights

The Golden Route, Properly

Tokyo, Hakone and Kyoto — the itinerary every operator sells, built so it does not feel like the itinerary every operator sells.

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.