Japan

Practical tips

Best time

Four sharply marked seasons, with a hot humid summer, a typhoon season in late summer and heavy snow in the north and along the Sea of Japan coast. The country runs from subtropical to subarctic, so Okinawa's climate is not Hokkaido's.

Languages

Japanese uses three writing systems at once. English is signposted in stations and big cities but less spoken than the signage suggests; learning to read station names pays off more than memorising phrases.

Etiquette

Take your shoes off where there is a step and a shoe cupboard, keep your voice down on transport, do not eat while walking, and give and receive things with both hands. Silence on a full train is normal, not coldness. The rest of the practical guide is in preparation.

What to see & culture

Places

Kyoto with its temples and the Gion district; Fuji seen from Hakone or the Five Lakes; the Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima; the shrines and deer of Nara; the Kiso valley and the old Nakasendo road; and Tokyo, which reads better neighbourhood by neighbourhood than as one city.

Culture

An archipelago that closed itself to the outside for more than two centuries and then industrialised in a few decades, and where both still coexist: Shinto and Buddhism practised side by side, family workshops centuries old, and a contemporary popular culture exported worldwide.

Food

Far beyond sushi: ramen whose broth changes from region to region, tempura, okonomiyaki in Osaka, kaiseki cooking in Kyoto, and an izakaya culture built for sharing. Green tea has as many grades as wine.