The Best Things to Do in Japan

Maruyama Park, tucked against the eastern edge of Gion, is where Kyoto comes to sit on blue tarps under blossoming yoshino cherry trees with beer, bento boxes and paper lanterns strung overhead. The centerpiece is a weeping cherry tree lit up after dark, usually glowing from around sunset until roughly 22:00 during peak bloom, typically the first half of April though the exact week shifts year to year.

Arrive by 17:00 if you want a patch of grass with a clear view; by 19:00 the park is shoulder to shoulder with families, students and the occasional shamisen player. Food stalls sell yakitori, taiyaki and cups of warm amazake for roughly ¥400-800 each (2025 prices), and the walk back through Gion's lantern-lit lanes afterward is its own quiet reward.

While everyone else jams into Ueno Park for sakura, Yanaka — one of the few Tokyo neighborhoods that survived both the 1923 earthquake and the 1945 firebombing largely intact — offers the same blossoms with a fraction of the foot traffic. Yanaka Cemetery's central cherry-lined avenue is spectacular in early April, and it's genuinely tranquil at 8am.

Wander down to Yanaka Ginza, a narrow shopping street of maybe 60-70 small shops, for grilled dango and croquettes fresh from the fryer for around ¥150-300 apiece. If Tokyo is new to you, our guide to the city goes deeper into which neighborhoods reward this kind of unhurried walking.

Fushimi Inari Taisha's tunnels of orange torii gates are the most photographed shrine approach in Japan, and for good reason — but the trick is knowing that most visitors turn back after the first 15 minutes near Senbon Torii. Keep climbing past Yotsutsuji intersection, roughly 30-40 minutes up, and the path thins out dramatically.

The full loop to the summit and back takes about two to three hours depending on your pace and how often you stop at the fox-guarded sub-shrines. The shrine itself never closes and entry is free, so an arrival before 7:30am buys you a version of the gates almost nobody else sees.

Nara Park's roughly 1,000-plus free-roaming sika deer are the draw everyone's heard about, and they're genuinely tame enough to bow for shika senbei crackers sold nearby for about ¥200 a pack. But the real reason to come is Todai-ji's Great Buddha Hall, one of the world's largest wooden buildings, housing a bronze Buddha statue cast in the 8th century that still fills the room.

Entry to the Great Buddha Hall runs around ¥600 for adults (2025), and the temple grounds open by 7:30am, well before the day-trip crowds arrive from Kyoto Station on the roughly 45-minute JR Nara Line rapid train. Kasuga Taisha, a 15-minute walk further into the park, has a stone-lantern-lined approach that's especially atmospheric in the dappled early spring light.

Takayama's old town, a compact grid of dark-wood merchant houses in the Sanmachi Suji district, hosts riverside morning markets along the Miyagawa from roughly 7am to noon, selling pickles, apples and local Hida beef skewers. It's a two- to three-hour walk to see properly, with sake breweries offering free tastings marked by cedar balls hanging over their doors.

From Takayama, buses run about 50 minutes to Shirakawa-go, a UNESCO-listed village of steep, thatched gassho-zukuri farmhouses built to shed heavy snow. Late April brings the last patches of snow on the surrounding peaks against fresh green fields — a combination you won't get in summer or autumn.

Kinosaki, on the Hyogo coast about 2.5 hours from Kyoto by direct limited express train, is built around a willow-lined canal with seven public bathhouses (sotoyu) scattered along it. Guests staying at any of the town's ryokan get a pass, usually around ¥1,300-1,500 if bought separately (2025), letting them hop between all seven in a yukata and wooden geta sandals.

Ko-no-yu, said to be the oldest of the seven, and Satono-yu, with its striking modern bathhouse design, are the two most worth prioritizing if you only have one evening. Spring evenings here are cool enough that the walk between baths, robe damp and canal lanterns reflecting on the water, feels like its own kind of ritual.

Dotonbori's neon signage, including the famous Glico running-man billboard, is Osaka's postcard shot, but the real point of the district is what's underneath the lights: takoyaki stalls, kushikatsu counters and okonomiyaki grills spilling smoke into the street. A serving of fresh takoyaki runs about ¥500-700 for six to eight pieces.

During the day, Kuromon Ichiba Market, a roofed arcade about 15 minutes' walk north, is the place for grilled scallops, uni and wagyu skewers eaten standing up between stalls, generally open from around 9am to 6pm. Osaka doesn't do fine-dining ceremony the way Kyoto does, and that's exactly the appeal.

Miyajima island, a roughly 10-minute ferry ride from Miyajimaguchi Pier near Hiroshima (around ¥200-360 round trip in 2025, depending on operator), is built around Itsukushima Shrine's iconic torii gate, which appears to float at high tide and becomes walkable across the sand at low tide. Check the tide schedule before you go — the two experiences are completely different and both are worth timing for.

Spring adds a second layer: the island's wild deer wander among blooming cherry trees near the shrine's approach, and the local specialty momiji manju, maple-leaf-shaped cakes filled with sweet bean paste, are sold warm from small shops along the main street for about ¥120-150 each.