Japan Essentials: Tokyo, Kyoto & Osaka

Land at Narita or Haneda and meet your shared transfer to the hotel. Collect your Japan eSIM and pre-loaded transport card at check-in. In the evening take an easy walk around Shinjuku: the neon streets, the tiny bars of Omoide Yokocho and the free observation deck at the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building.

A full-day guided group tour of Tokyo. Visit Senso-ji, Tokyo's oldest temple, and the shopping lane of Nakamise; walk the forest path to Meiji Shrine; see Harajuku's Takeshita Street; and finish at Shibuya Crossing. Your rooftop observation-deck ticket for sunset over the city is included.

Spend the day at your own pace: shopping in Ginza, the electronics stores of Akihabara or the gardens of the Imperial Palace East Garden. Or add the optional full-day Mount Fuji and Hakone tour with Lake Ashi cruise and ropeway (weather permitting).

Your large bags are forwarded the day before, so board the reserved-seat Shinkansen with just a day bag (about 2 hours 15 minutes). After check-in, walk the trail of thousands of vermilion torii gates at Fushimi Inari. In the evening explore the lantern-lit lanes of Gion, Kyoto's old geisha district.

Guided morning at the Arashiyama bamboo grove, then Kinkaku-ji, the Golden Pavilion, and the wooden terrace of Kiyomizu-dera. In the evening take the short train ride (about 30 minutes) to Osaka and check in near Namba.

Morning trip to Nara (about 45 minutes). Feed the friendly deer in Nara Park and see the giant bronze Buddha inside Todai-ji, one of the world's largest wooden buildings. Return to Osaka for an evening of street food and neon along the Dotonbori canal.

Check out and take the airport limousine bus to Kansai International Airport (ticket included) for your flight home.