Japan small group vacation, Japan unmasked

Planet

While this tour includes the big showstopping highlights of any Japan trip, the trip includes visits to smaller towns, further from tourist hubs, like Kurashiki and Nagano. Not only does this elevate your trip to a more authentic experience, it relieves the pressure on infrastructure and supports smaller, more traditional communities away from the cities and main sights.

Japan Unmasked runs outside the peak spring and autumn seasons, which often means a better chance of space at places that get squeezed in cherry blossom and autumn-leaf season. Winter light through Fushimi Inari's torii gates, Kenrokuen on a calmer morning, Kurashiki's canal streets on a day when the pace is slower. The timing is part of the design.

So is the routing: Nagano for Zenko-ji's morning prayers, Matsumoto for the Black Crow castle, Kurashiki -a beautifully preserved canal town that many first-time itineraries skip. The trip moves through the big-name cities, but it keeps finding the quieter version alongside them.

Getting around by Shinkansen, regional train, local rail and cycling keeps you inside Japanese life rather than insulated from it. Behind the scenes, every booking feeds the Impact Fund, backing long-term nature and community work linked to where we operate. We track and report where it goes.

People

You’ll spend three nights in traditional accommodation known as ryokan or minshuku. Here, we’ll experience authentic Japanese living, respecting the traditions that staying here dictates. Taking our shoes off at the door, wearing slippers around the inn and just socks on the tatami mat floors. Communal baths are available (men and women separately): remember to wash yourself fully before climbing in for a soak. And strictly birthday suits only! But don’t worry, your tour leader will explain all social rules and the reasons behind them on tour.

In Nagano we’ll stay in a shukubo, simple lodgings that were built for pilgrims visiting Zenko-ji Temple. As part of our stay we will be taken on a tour around Zenko-ji with an English speaking local guide who will explain the temple’s history stretching back to the 7th Century. The shukubo is just a stone’s throw from the temple which makes it easy for us to join the hall for the monks’ morning prayer service.

These inns offer a real insight into Japanese life helping us to better understand the communities we are traveling through.

We hate the idea of traveling in a ‘tour bus bubble’, talking only to fellow travelers and not interacting with the communities we pass through. On this tour, we travel by public transport. Hopping on the Hiroshima trams and the Tokyo subway and sitting next to commuters on the bullet train gives us plenty of opportunity to experience every day life, as it is truly lived.

Gion has been at the epicenter of Japan’s “overtourism” issue in recent years. The small streets can be overcrowded. Some tourists do not follow correct etiquette and take photos without permission, chasing geisha down the street as they try to go about their daily life. Japan Unmasked includes a guided evening tour of Gion, with a local. The tour is conducted in a respectful way, deliberately timed during the quieter period of the day.