Japan railway vacations guide

These are small group tours with numbers capped at 14, and led by professional tour leaders to ensure you meet all connections and have no difficulties in getting around. There may be a few included activities and tours, such as an introduction to the ancient art of tea ceremonies with a geisha in Kyoto, or a visit to a samurai castle in Matsumoto on the return to Tokyo. But for the most part in each location you will be free to explore on your own initiative. For instance, while in Osaka you might take an easy train journey for a day-trip to Hiroshima.

Highlights are bound to include the aforementioned tea ceremony; the opportunity to climb Japan’s most iconic peak, Mt. Fuji (in July or August); diving into the eclectic food culture of Osaka; the whole experience of riding the bullet train network but perhaps most of all, a few days in the Japanese Alps. Here you can try the sublime Hida beef, soak in a hot spring (not for the shy), hike out to look for wild monkeys, and wander the craft shops, sake breweries and markets of Takayama.

Japan’s bullet trains, or shinkansen (new trunkline) to give them their actual name, travel at speeds of up to 320km/hour. An actual bullet travels at around 2700km/hour but still, these are some of the speediest trains in the world. You can get from Tokyo to Osaka, 500km to the west, in two and a half hours. This is life in the fast lane. The bullet train network extends throughout Japan, connecting major cities, and running through the Hida Mountains – the ‘Japanese Alps’. They are clean, spacious and amazingly punctual – the railway companies sometimes produce a ‘delay certificate’ if a train is five minutes late, so rare is it . A Japan Rail Pass will be included and arranged on your behalf by the tour operator.