Tokyo is a unique, unpredictable, puzzling city. Those who have never seen it, and might be expecting an exotic Eastern capital, are in for disappointment: Tokyo is an enormous, chaotic, hypermodern megalopolis, unbelievably thick with building. Every centimetre square matters. It’s a wild urban jungle, void of the rationale, the monuments, the boulevards, the palaces that are typical to most great cities. Yet with Tokyo appearances are deceiving. Its history and truest essence emerge in the details; its secret beauty hides in the interior. Sheer vivacity permeates its thriving cultural landscape and unanimously celebrated museums, filling the everyday life of a people that never stops.
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Day 4 — Tokyo → Hakone / Mount Fuji
Hakone is a beautiful location overlooking the Ashi lake, 90 km west of Tokyo. It offers a stunning alpine scenery and many hot springs (onsen). If you want, you can take the cable car up to Owakudani, a spectacular volcanic valley. Weather permitting, you can enjoy a breathtaking view of Mount Fuji (note, however, that summers are usually cloudy in the area).
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Day 8 — Ise → Kyoto
As soon as you catch sight of Kyoto’s skyscrapers, you will be tempted to think it a hypermodern city. You will soon find out, however, that the heart of Kyoto is as traditional as it can be. With its beautiful Zen gardens and cherry trees, it’s almost a window on the ancient, mysterious Land of the Rising Sun. Aside from being a historic landmark, this old capital is also the only Japanese big city that was spared by the devastation of the Second World War. Today, the city takes pride in its temples and shrines, imperial palaces, gardens, and traditional wooden townhouses. Many of these sites are UNESCO-listed. Kyoto is also the city that has the greatest concentration of artisans in Japan. It is not just temple and shrines, then, that make it unique: its humming daily routine is just as special.
