Highlights of Japan – 14 Days of Tokyo, a Temple Stay, Kanazawa, Miyajima & Kyoto

On arrival at Narita or Haneda airport, our representative will meet you in the arrivals hall and see you onto your transfer into the city, about 50 minutes from Haneda or 90 minutes from Narita.

Check in to Park Hotel Tokyo, high above Shiodome, and spend the rest of the day at your own pace.

Airport meet and greet and arrival transfer. Meals at leisure.

Overnight: Park Hotel Tokyo, City Room

Your private guide meets you at the hotel at 9:00. Begin at Meiji Jingu, Tokyo's most revered Shinto shrine, set in a forest of more than 100,000 trees, where you may see a traditional wedding procession.

Walk on through Harajuku, home of Tokyo's playful street fashion, and Omotesando, the city's elegant tree-lined boulevard. After lunch, travel by public transport to Koishikawa Korakuen, one of Tokyo's finest traditional gardens.

End the day in Asakusa, at Senso-ji, Tokyo's oldest temple, and along Nakamise Street with its stalls of traditional snacks and crafts.

Private English-speaking guide, about 8 hours, with public transport and entrance fees included. Breakfast and lunch.

Overnight: Park Hotel Tokyo, City Room

The day is yours. Explore the electronics and anime streets of Akihabara and Tokyo's world-class museums, or take the train to Kamakura, about 50 minutes away, a former capital by the sea known for its temples and 13-metre bronze Buddha.

If you would like company, we can add a guided cycling tour through Tokyo's hip backstreets and parks, or an evening food walk through an old Tokyo neighbourhood, with stops at a standing bar, a kappo restaurant and an eatery dating from the 1850s.

Breakfast.

Overnight: Park Hotel Tokyo, City Room

Take the train to Nagano, about 1 hour 40 minutes from Tokyo, the gateway to the Japanese Alps and home of Zenkoji, one of Japan's most visited temples, founded some 1,400 years ago.

Spend the afternoon exploring the temple grounds, or ride an hour to Matsumoto to see its black-walled castle, one of only twelve original castles left in Japan. We can also arrange a zazen meditation session and a goma fire ceremony led by Zenkoji monks.

Tonight you stay in a shukubo, a temple lodging within the Zenkoji precinct, and share a traditional vegetarian Buddhist supper. Rooms are Japanese-style, divided by paper doors, with shared bathrooms, and the temple gates close at 19:00.

Train ticket included. Breakfast and dinner.

Overnight: Zenkoji temple lodging (Fuchinobo), Japanese-style room with shared bathroom

Rise early and follow a local guide to the Main Hall for the morning service, when the curtain is drawn back to reveal the temple's sacred Amida statue. Afterwards, walk the pitch-dark passage beneath the hall in search of the "key to paradise", said to grant salvation to those who touch it.

After a vegetarian breakfast at the temple, take the train to Kanazawa, about an hour away, a castle town that thrived as a centre of culture and the arts in the 17th century.

The afternoon is free. We can add a guided visit to Kenroku-en, ranked among Japan's three finest gardens, and a tea ceremony at the city's oldest teahouse in the Gyokusen-en garden.

Guided morning service and train ticket included. Breakfast.

Overnight: Hyatt Centric Kanazawa, Standard Room

Take the bus into the mountains to Shirakawa-go, a UNESCO World Heritage village of gassho-zukuri farmhouses, their steep thatched roofs shaped like hands joined in prayer and built without nails to bear the heavy winter snow.

Step inside Wada House, home of the family that once led the village, then return to Kanazawa for a free afternoon. In the evening, you could join an optional food tour of the Korinbo district for fresh local seafood and sake.

Return bus tickets included. Breakfast.

Overnight: Hyatt Centric Kanazawa, Standard Room

At 9:30, your guide leads you into Kanazawa's old samurai quarter, a short walk from the castle. Begin at the samurai museum, with its collection of armour, weapons, paintings and calligraphy.

Visit a restored samurai residence with its garden and tea room, then meet a local descendant of Kanazawa's samurai clans who will show you his family's katana swords and explain their craft and history.

The afternoon is free to explore the geisha teahouses of Higashi Chaya or the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art.

Guided tour, about 4 hours. Breakfast.

Overnight: Hyatt Centric Kanazawa, Standard Room

Enjoy a relaxed morning before the train journey west to Miyajima, a sacred island in the Seto Inland Sea. The journey takes about 5.5 hours, the longest of the trip, so it is worth sending your luggage ahead.

Check in to Iwaso, a historic ryokan set in the island's maple valley, then unwind in the hot-spring baths before a traditional multi-course dinner.

Train and ferry tickets included. Breakfast and dinner.

Overnight: Iwaso, Japanese-style room

Start early at Itsukushima Shrine, whose vermilion torii seems to float on the water at high tide, a view long counted among Japan's three most beautiful. Climb to Daisho-in, the island's most important temple, spinning the sutra wheels along the stairs for good fortune, and try the local oysters and maple-leaf cakes.

In the early afternoon, take the ferry and train to Hiroshima to visit the Peace Memorial Park and Museum, the A-Bomb Dome and the Children's Peace Monument, then return to the island for the evening.

Return train and ferry tickets included. Breakfast and dinner.

Overnight: Iwaso, Japanese-style room

Take the train to Kyoto, about two hours from Hiroshima, Japan's cultural capital, with some 2,000 temples and shrines.

At 17:30, meet your guide as the lanterns are lit. Walk the lanes of Gion, learning what geisha are and are not, past the wooden teahouses and the schools where maiko train. Continue through Higashiyama to the illuminated Yasaka Pagoda, and finish at the Tatsumi Bridge over the Shirakawa canal, one of the most beautiful corners of the city.

Train ticket and guided evening walk of about 2 hours included. Breakfast.

Overnight: Noku Kyoto, Standard Room

Your private guide meets you at 9:00. Begin at Fushimi Inari, where thousands of vermilion torii gates climb the mountainside in long tunnels, then see the 1,001 golden statues inside Sanjusangendo.

Snack your way along Nishiki Market, "Kyoto's kitchen", before lunch at a nearby restaurant. In the afternoon, walk the "nightingale floors" of Nijo Castle, built for the shogun in the early 1600s, and end at Nanzen-ji, a Zen temple with a famous rock garden.

Private English-speaking guide, about 8 hours, with public transport and entrance fees included. Nijo Castle is closed on Tuesdays. Breakfast and lunch.

Overnight: Noku Kyoto, Standard Room

Spend the day as you like, in Kyoto's temples, gardens and craft shops, or in Nara, Japan's 8th-century capital, about 45 minutes away.

We can arrange a full-day guided tour of Nara, with tea in Isui Garden, the giant Buddha of Todai-ji, the deer of Nara Park, the lanterns of Kasuga Taisha and the old merchant streets of Naramachi.

Breakfast.

Overnight: Noku Kyoto, Standard Room

Take the train to Osaka and check in to the Osaka Marriott Miyako Hotel, set high in the Abeno Harukas tower.

Spend the evening in Dotonbori among the neon signs and food stalls, or take in the city from the Umeda Sky Building's Floating Garden Observatory. We can also arrange a guided food walk with stops at three local restaurants.

Train ticket included. Breakfast.

Overnight: Osaka Marriott Miyako Hotel, Superior Room

Enjoy a final breakfast and some time at leisure before your transfer to Kansai International Airport for your flight home.

Departure transfer. Breakfast.