10 Things to Do in Japan: A First-Time Travel Guide for Cities, Culture, Food, Trains, and Scenic Day Trips
Planning a Japan trip? This easy guide covers ten great things to do in Japan, from Tokyo and Kyoto to Mount Fuji views, onsen stays, food districts, and bullet train travel.
Few countries make it this easy to have several different holidays in one trip. A morning in a
Tokyo neighborhood, an afternoon in a Kyoto temple district, dinner from a street cart in Osaka,
a bullet train in between, a clear-day view of Mount Fuji, and a night soaking
in an onsen. No wonder the search for the best things to do in Japan never
really goes out of fashion.
Here are ten that consistently work for first-time visitors. I have included the actual prices
and the timing details that matter, because those are the things you cannot easily guess from
photos.
For most people, Tokyo is the first impression of Japan, and it rarely disappoints: energetic, efficient, and full of contrast. Source: Wikimedia Commons.
1. Explore Tokyo Neighborhoods Properly
Think of Tokyo as a collection of small cities rather than one big one. Shibuya
has the famous Scramble Crossing (free, busiest between 6 and 8pm) and the
Shibuya Sky observation deck (¥2,700, book in advance).
Asakusa is home to Senso-ji, which is free and open 24 hours;
go before 8am and you will have it nearly to yourself. In Shinjuku, the
Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building has a free observation deck that stays
open until 10:30pm most nights (closed Mondays). Akihabara covers electronics
and anime, while Harajuku gives you Takeshita Street on one side and the
elegant Omotesando on the other. Give each area a few hours at least.
Getting around is simple once you have an IC card (Suica or ICOCA, ¥500 deposit). It covers
every train and bus, and works at convenience stores too. Single metro rides cost
¥170-310. One honest piece of advice: give Tokyo three days minimum.
Squeezing it into one day means leaving most of the city unseen.
2. Walk Through Kyoto Temple and Historic Districts
Kyoto is where the cultural side of Japan comes into focus, and the good news is that much of it
costs very little. Fushimi Inari Taisha is free and open 24 hours.
Kinkaku-ji, the Golden Pavilion, is ¥500 (9am-5pm), and
Kiyomizu-dera is also ¥500. The Arashiyama Bamboo Grove is free,
the Tenryu-ji garden next to it is ¥500, and wandering the
Gion district costs nothing. Across a full temple day, expect to spend around
¥2,000-3,000 per person on admissions.
The single biggest thing you can do for your Kyoto experience is wake up early. Fushimi Inari
before 7am, the Bamboo Grove before 8am, Kinkaku-ji right when the gates open at 9am. The crowds
build shockingly fast after that. Two full days is the realistic minimum here.
3. Visit Fushimi Inari Early in the Day
You have seen the photo: thousands of vermillion torii gates tunneling up a mountainside. That is
Fushimi Inari Taisha, and it is free and open 24 hours. Here is
what the photos do not tell you. The full hike to the summit takes 4-5 hours return, but the
densest, most photogenic stretch of gates (the Senbon Torii) sits within the
first 20-30 minutes of the walk. You do not need to reach the top to get the
best of it.
Timing is everything here. Before 7am on a weekday, the gates are almost empty. By 9am the tour
groups arrive and the main path turns into a slow-moving queue. Getting there is easy:
JR Inari Station is 5 minutes from Kyoto Station on the JR Nara Line
(¥160), and the shrine entrance is a 2-minute walk from the platform.
4. Take a Day Trip for Mount Fuji Views
You do not have to climb Fuji to have a Fuji moment. The Fuji Five Lakes area
around Kawaguchiko is the easiest base for views, and the lakeshore itself is free. The
Chureito Pagoda viewpoint, the one with the pagoda framed against the mountain,
is a 400-step climb from Fujiyoshida Station and also free. From Tokyo, the direct highway bus
costs about ¥1,500-2,000 and takes 2 hours, or trains via Otsuki run
¥1,300-2,000.
If you do want to climb, the official season runs July 1 to September 14. The
Yoshida Trail is the most popular route, requires advance online registration,
and charges a ¥4,000 gate fee per person. Count on 5-8 hours up and 3-5 down.
One warning from experience: Fuji hides behind cloud more often than it appears, so treat a
clear view as a bonus rather than building a rigid day around it.
5. Ride the Shinkansen at Least Once
The bullet train is somehow both the most practical and the most enjoyable way to cover distance
in Japan. The route you will almost certainly use:
Tokyo to Kyoto costs ¥13,620-14,370 (unreserved to reserved) and takes
2hr 15min on the Nozomi or 2hr 44min on the Hikari. Continuing to Osaka adds another
¥570-1,000 from Kyoto.
Now, the JR Pass question. A 7-day pass costs ¥50,000 (~$330)
and a 14-day pass ¥80,000 (~$525). It pays off when your route covers
Tokyo plus Kyoto or Osaka plus Hiroshima inside the validity window. But there is a catch people
miss constantly: the pass covers the Hikari and Kodama trains,
not the faster Nozomi. And for a simple 7-10 day Tokyo-Kyoto-Osaka route, adding
up individual tickets often comes out cheaper than the pass. Do the maths for your actual route
before buying.
6. Eat Your Way Through Osaka
Osaka does not apologize for being obsessed with food, and you should not resist.
Dotonbori is the main artery, free to wander and at its best from late
afternoon onward. What you will actually pay: takoyaki (octopus balls, 6-8
pieces) run ¥500-800; kushikatsu fried skewers are
¥100-200 each; a proper sit-down okonomiyaki costs
¥700-1,500; a bowl of ramen lands between ¥800-1,200. Ten
minutes' walk away, Kuromon Ichiba Market has been feeding the city for 170
years, free to walk, with seafood stalls where you can eat on the spot.
Osaka Castle (¥600 for the tower, 9am-5pm) is 20 minutes from Dotonbori by
metro. Castle in the morning, Kuromon for lunch, Dotonbori in the evening: that one day covers
the essential character of the city surprisingly well.
7. Spend One Night in a Ryokan or Onsen Town
A ryokan is not just accommodation, it is an evening-long experience: tatami floors, futon
bedding laid out while you eat, a multi-course kaiseki dinner, a proper Japanese breakfast, and
usually onsen bathing on site. Nearly all ryokan include both meals in the rate, which changes
how the price should be read.
What to expect: budget ryokan run ¥8,000-15,000 per person with meals,
mid-range ¥15,000-35,000, and luxury places start around ¥50,000.
Hakone is the classic first-timer choice, 1.5 hours from Tokyo on the Odakyu
Romancecar from Shinjuku (from ¥1,200), with volcanic hot springs and, on a clear day, Fuji on
the horizon. Even a single ryokan night changes the whole texture of a trip. It is the night
most people remember.
8. Enjoy an Onsen Experience
Hot spring bathing sits deep in Japanese culture, and you do not need a fancy ryokan to try it.
Public sento and day-use onsen charge just ¥500-1,500 a visit, one of the
cheapest genuinely local experiences in the country.
The etiquette is simpler than it sounds: wash thoroughly at the shower stations before getting
in, no swimwear in traditional baths, and keep your towel out of the water. One real caveat:
most facilities still prohibit tattoos, so check the policy first if that applies to you. And if
you visit between November and March, find an outdoor rotemburo. Sitting in steaming water while
cold air bites your face is hard to describe and impossible to forget.
9. Take a Day Trip to Nara or Hiroshima and Miyajima
Nara first, because it is the easy one. The park is free and roamed by around
1,200 wild deer who have learned exactly what a ¥200 packet of deer crackers looks like.
Todai-ji Temple, home of Japan's largest bronze Buddha, costs ¥800. It is
40-45 minutes from Osaka or Kyoto (¥680-1,000 by Kintetsu or JR), so it slots
into either city's stay without a hotel change.
Hiroshima and Miyajima ask for more time but give back more. The Peace Memorial
Museum costs just ¥200, and the Peace Park and Atomic Bomb Dome (UNESCO listed)
are free. From there, the JR ferry crosses to Miyajima (free with a JR Pass, otherwise ¥200 each
way) for Itsukushima Shrine (¥300) and grilled Hiroshima oysters from street
stalls (¥700-1,500). The shinkansen from Osaka takes about an hour (unreserved
~¥8,500). Doing all this as a day trip is possible but tight; staying overnight is the better
version.
10. See Japan in a Seasonal Moment
Seasons change Japan more than they change almost any other country, and it is worth planning
around one deliberately. Cherry blossoms (sakura) peak between late March and
mid-April depending on the year; Tokyo usually goes first in late March, Kyoto follows in early
April. Autumn foliage (koyo) hits its peak around mid-November in Kyoto and
Nara. Summer belongs to the matsuri festivals and fireworks of July and August,
including Kyoto's Gion Matsuri in July, one of the oldest festivals in Japan and free to watch.
And winter buries Hakuba, Niseko, and Tohoku in famously deep snow while leaving the cities at
their quietest for sightseeing.
The honest trade-off: sakura season and autumn foliage push hotel prices and crowds up sharply.
If you are set on either, book well ahead and make peace with sharing the view.
How to Build These Into a Real Japan Itinerary
Do not try to force all ten into one trip. Pick the ones that suit your route and your pace.
- 7 days: Tokyo (3 nights), Kyoto (2 nights), Osaka (1 night), shinkansen ride + Fushimi Inari + Nara day trip
- 10 days: add Hakone (ryokan + onsen) and Hiroshima; JR Pass 7-day ¥50,000 worth calculating
- 14 days: add Miyajima, Himeji Castle, a seasonal extension, or simply a slower pace; JR Pass 14-day ¥80,000
Planning Your Japan Trip
Between them, these ten things to do in Japan cover the city energy, the
cultural depth, the food, the scenery, the trains, and the quieter ryokan-and-onsen side of the
country. Japan rewards travelers who arrive knowing the real prices and the right timings, not
because the country is difficult, but because every hour you do not spend queuing or
recalculating is an hour spent on the moments you actually came for.