Tailor-made Japan Holidays

Time difference: GMT +9 (winter) +8 (summer)

Flight time: 12 hours (direct flight London/Tokyo)

Currency: Japanese yen (JPY/¥)

Language: Japanese

Electricity: 100 V, 50/60 Hz (flat two-pin plugs)

Telephone code: +81

Tipping: Perhaps surprisingly, given the exemplary levels of service, tipping is not customary in Japan and may even cause embarrassment.

Etiquette: No one expects visitors to grasp all the complex rules of Japanese society, but there are a few basics that will stand you in good stead. Keep your phone on silent mode on public transport; don’t eat while you’re walking along the street; take off your shoes and put on the provided slippers when you visit anyone’s home as well as some temples and restaurants; and definitely don’t blow your nose in public as the Japanese find this rude. Ask permission before taking photos of local people and do not take photos of government buildings, police, military personnel or any political demonstrations.

Religion: Buddhism 79.2%, Shintoism 66.8%, Christianity 1.5%, other 7.1% (many Japanese embrace both Buddhist and Shinto practices).

Visas: You can look up the latest advice on https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/japan/entry-requirements. Please be aware that this information can change at short notice.

Vaccinations: Health risks vary depending on the destination so it’s essential to check the specific vaccination and hygiene requirements for Japan on the NHS Fit For Travel website.

The Japanese archipelago stretches almost 2,000 miles from sub-arctic Hokkaido in the north to subtropical Okinawa in the south, so there are significant variations in weather conditions throughout the year. Summers can be hot and humid, except in the north; spring (late March-May) and autumn (September-November) are popular times to visit as they coincide with the flowering of the cherry blossom and the fall foliage season respectively. Winter (December-March) is perfect for skiing in the north, for balmy days in the south and for seeing the famous ‘snow monkeys’ near Nagano.

Japan is known for its super-speedy bullet trains (shinkansen), but they’re only part of an extensive rail network where even the slowest local trains are punctual, clean and comfortable, and the staff go out of their way to be helpful. The sheer number of routes and services means that stations can be vast and bewildering, but the larger ones will have signposts in English.

Long-distance coaches and buses can be a convenient – and cheaper – alternative to trains, and are particularly useful for reaching the more out-of-the-way destinations.

If you’re exploring beyond Hokkaido, Honshu, Kyushu and Shikoku, a network of ferries and high-speed boats covers all but the most obscure destinations.

Occasionally, flying may be the only realistic option – Okinawa’s other connection to the rest of Japan’s main islands is a ferry that takes 25 hours – but it’s usually possible to avoid taking to the air and missing the sights on the ground.

Within and around towns and cities, metro, tram and bus services are reliable and reasonably easy to navigate – though best avoided at peak times.

A liking for supermarket sushi and coffee-shop miso soup will do little to prepare you for the sheer otherness of traditional Japanese food (washoku), particularly as the same types of dishes are served at breakfast as well as lunch and dinner. Distinctive enough to have a place on UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage list, washoku is based on fresh and cleverly preserved local, seasonal ingredients, and typically involves rice served with several side dishes such as pickled vegetables, grilled fish and fermented soy beans. Other options include noodles in an array of types, which crop up in everything from bone-broth ramen soups to delicately flavoured soba salads.

When it comes to drinks, sake – more commonly known as nihonshu – occupies a special place in Japanese society. No mere alcoholic beverage, it comes in a giddying range of types, flavours and strengths, with an equally giddying range of customs attached to the serving and drinking of it. Despite this – or perhaps because of it – sake has been falling out of favour of late as younger drinkers opt for lighter choices such as locally made beers or non-alcoholic options such as oolong tea, matcha, coffee and fizzy soft drinks.

Shopping is practically a national pastime in Japan, which is hardly surprising given the stratospheric standards of customer service. And there’s plenty to buy, from up-to-the-nanosecond tech to handicrafts made in the same painstaking way for hundreds of years.

Of the latter, the country’s ceramics are internationally known for their rustic simplicity, an aesthetic influenced by Buddhist principles. But there are other craft pieces that are just as meticulously made, require less tender nursing in transit and will spark joy every day. Chief among these has to be a hand-printed cotton yukata – the humbler version of the kimono – which makes a chic, and long-lasting, dressing gown. Traditional-style woodblock prints and sleek lacquerware chopsticks are also canny purchases.

At the other end of the scale, the dizzying electronics stores in Japan’s main cities are packed with covetable gadgets that aren’t yet available on the international market, often at bargain prices. Still your beating heart long enough to check carefully that they will work at home with its different voltage. There are sometimes export-only versions, though they are usually more expensive.

On a practical note, credit cards – especially foreign ones – are not as widely accepted as might be expected, though the situation is improving all the time. Take some cash, just in case, especially outside the big cities and in smaller shops.

At the root of Japan’s most distinctive celebrations lies the concept of mono no aware, a wistful awareness of the impermanence of things that only adds to their beauty. The best known of these is the all-too-brief spring flowering of the country’s many Japanese cherry trees (sakura), which begins in around late March in the south and continues for a month or so as a pink tide works its way north and is so eagerly anticipated that there are official cherry-blossom blooming forecasts online. It’s the cue for day trips to the most scenic sakura-viewing spots and for picnics with friends under the trees in parks and gardens across the land.

In similar vein, the vivid autumn colours of the maple foliage in October and November are almost as widely celebrated, and hunting for the reddest of leaves even has its own special name: momijigari.