Dec 1, 2025
We’re just back from our first trip to Japan and wanted to share with you a selection of our favourite moments and photos.
Recognising the country’s popularity, we very much enjoyed creating an itinerary that moved beyond the standard tourist routes, allowing our seven guests to experience authentic and cultural engagement with Japan’s history and to include six country walking days to experience Japan’s beauty.
The tour began with an hour’s transfer from Osaka Itami airport to Nara, Japan’s capital for most of the 8th century. Our time was spent exploring on foot, encountering the sika deer in Nara Park and proceeding via the hundreds of stone lanterns to the vermilion Torii gate of the 8th-century Shinto shrine, Kasuga Taisha. The exploration continued to the monumental bronze statue of Vairocana Buddha within the Great Hall of Todai-ji Temple, followed by a wander through the narrow Naramachi streets, lined with traditional merchant houses.
Our exploration continued in Uji where we spent one night, a small city in between Nara and Kyoto - renowned for its green tea and its powerful literary history as the location for the last ten chapters of The Tale of Genji.
Leaving Uji, we stopped in Fushimi, Kyoto's historic 'Sake Paradise,' renowned for its excellent underground water - the critical ingredient for brewing. We visited the Gekkeikan Okura Sake Museum, housed within original brewery buildings. The museum provides a deep insight into the traditional techniques and history of sake production, showcasing how this delicate craft has evolved over centuries. The visit culminated in an optional tasting, allowing us to sample various sakes brewed with the celebrated Fushimi water.
A short transfer brought us to Kyoto, our base for 3 nights, where the architectural power of the 17th-century Nijo Castle, with its impressive reception rooms adorned by the finest Kano School artists, was a central focus. Here, the exquisite castle gardens offered a fine example of Japanese design, featuring carefully positioned stones and various trees.
We balanced our time here with walks in beautiful parks, gardens and visiting temples and museums. Whilst in Kyoto, our itinerary offered an optional day excursion to Hiroshima, a decision we recognise as a personal choice; around half our group chose to visit.
Using a variety of transport, including the Shinkansen and local railways, the tour progressed into the beautiful Kiso Valley. Our focus turned to the historic Nakasendo trade route, where we undertook well-paced walks along wooded slopes and among charming post towns. The journey covered a 7 km section of the Nakasendo between the preserved towns of Magome-juku and Tsumago-juku, before continuing to the well-preserved Narai-juku, lined with traditional wooden merchant houses.
Further on in Matsumoto, the cultural immersion continued, pivoting from history to art. A visit to the Japan Ukiyo-e Museum provided a chance to view an extensive collection of classic woodblock prints. In a distinct change of pace, the Matsumoto City Museum of Art introduced guests to the contemporary work of the locally born, famous artist, Yayoi Kusama.
Our final stages took us to the Northern Japan Alps in Kamikochi, where our riverside walk revealed rugged scenery in autumn colours. Guests were rewarded with views of the snow-covered mountains and cascading waterfalls as we moved toward Mt. Fuji, where we walked a forest trail on a bed of 9th-century lava.
We finished with a walking tour of Tokyo, including the inner gardens of the Imperial Palace, the adjacent Marinouchi quarter and the atmospheric Jimbocho bookshop area.
To those who joined us, thank you for making our inaugural tour a resounding success. And to those who have long held a desire to explore this remarkable nation with a truly cultured perspective, we echo the final words of some of our happy travellers:
"The order of places visited and the variety of transport used, made the holiday flow well while introducing us to different aspects of the history and modern life of the country."
"I think it is fantastic introduction to such a big and very different country. Considering that this was the first Kudu holiday to Japan, it demonstrated your wonderful planning and rechecking of everything that we did."
"Only that I think Kudu has done it again - devised a brilliant trip to a popular destination that finds the best and most interesting places and experiences and somehow manages to avoid the worst of the crowds (which in Japan is quite an achievement)."
To book our next trip to Japan, please click here to view the itinerary.