Grand Japan in 12 Days: Tokyo to Osaka through the Alps

Welcome to Japan. Your driver meets you at Narita or Haneda arrivals and takes you straight to the hotel — no train maps on day one. Depending on your landing time, ease in with an evening stroll near the hotel and your first bowl of ramen.

Begin in the cedar forest of Meiji Jingu, where the great torii gate swallows the city noise. Walk the tree-lined Omotesando avenue with its flagship architecture, then cross town to Asakusa: through the Kaminarimon gate, along the snack stalls of Nakamise street, to the incense smoke of Senso-ji, Tokyo's oldest temple.

A morning of food and play: graze the outer stalls of Tsukiji market, then roll your own sushi at a hands-on class with a local chef. In the afternoon step into the digital art worlds of teamLab, and end the day at the Shibuya scramble as the screens light up.

Drive out to the Fuji Five Lakes. From Oishi Park the whole of Mt Fuji rises over Lake Kawaguchi and its flower beds; in autumn, walk the canal-side maple tunnel of the Momiji Corridor. Check in at an onsen ryokan for the night — tatami, yukata, and a hot-spring bath under the mountain.

Cross the Japan Alps. Stop midway at Matsumoto to see the black-and-white "Crow Castle", one of Japan's original keeps, then continue into the mountains to Takayama. Evening is for the Sanmachi Suji old town: dark wooden merchant houses, sake breweries marked by cedar balls, and riverside lanes.

Morning at the Miyagawa riverside market — local pickles, chestnuts, hot amazake — then tour Takayama Jinya, the only surviving Edo-period government house. In the afternoon wander Hida Folk Village, an open-air museum of steep thatched gassho farmhouses, and finish with a sake tasting back in town.

On to Kanazawa, the old castle town on the Sea of Japan side. Stroll Kenroku-en, counted among Japan's three finest gardens — in autumn its pines are already dressed in yukitsuri ropes — then cross to the reconstructed halls of Kanazawa Castle and finish in the Higashi Chaya teahouse district with its gold-leaf shops.

Ride down to Kyoto, the old imperial capital. Settle in with an evening in Gion: lantern-lit Hanamikoji street, Yasaka Shrine glowing at the district's head, then dinner along Pontocho — a single narrow alley of restaurants pressed against the Kamo river.

The Golden Pavilion of Kinkaku-ji first, doubled in its mirror pond. Then west to Arashiyama: the Zen garden of Tenryu-ji with the hills as borrowed scenery, the bamboo grove behind it, and the Togetsukyo bridge over the Katsura river — at its best when the slopes turn red.

Walk the squeaking "nightingale floors" of Nijo Castle, graze through the 400-year-old Nishiki food market, then climb to Kiyomizu-dera and stand on its wooden stage above a sea of maples. Wind down through the preserved Ninenzaka and Sannenzaka lanes as the lanterns come on.

Early at Fushimi Inari, climbing through thousands of vermilion torii gates before the crowds. Continue to Nara: bow to the sacred deer of the park and stand before the Great Buddha in Todai-ji's vast wooden hall. By evening you're in Osaka, under the neon of Dotonbori with takoyaki in hand.

A last morning to taste: Osaka Castle and its gold-trimmed keep, or — in season — the waterfall walk of Minoh Park with maple-leaf tempura. Then a private transfer to Kansai International Airport. Safe travels home.