How to Spend 14 Days in JAPAN 🇯🇵 Ultimate Travel Itinerary

Visit Omicho Market, Kanazawa's largest market since the Edo era, with over 200 bustling shops. I love it because you can find pretty much every Japanese food imaginable. The vendors are friendly, and there are tons of street foods to enjoy. I can't get enough of the unagi (grilled eels). For just ¥500, you can enjoy a skewer of the good stuff, grilled to perfection and drizzled in sticky-sweet unagi tare sauce. For the love of God, you've got to try this stuff!

Wander the streets of Higashi Chaya, one of Kanazawa's three historic entertainment districts. Many old tea houses have been converted into cafes. I couldn't resist the promise of tasty green tea matcha-infused confectionery, often topped with 24-karat solid gold. Across the road, you'll find Hakuichi, serving up visually striking gold leaf ice cream. The gold leaves are incredibly thin, so eat it fast before it blows away! It looks golden, but the flavor is unaltered, and you can't even feel the texture on your tongue.

Kanazawa is famed for its arts and crafts, making it the perfect place to grab omiyage (souvenirs) for friends and family. Head to Kanazawa HAKUMACHI store downtown. You'll find meticulous handcrafted cups, glamorous chopsticks, Maneki Neko figurines, and the star attraction: a 24-karat gold leaf face mask for ¥6,600. While it might make you look like a Bond villain, it's probably not worth it. For a more reasonable ¥2,200, you can get a 'trial set' of gold leaf products.

For a quiet, contemplative evening stroll, head to Nagamachi Samurai District. The historic streets are lined with earthen walls, private gated entrances, and narrow lanes leading to gently gushing streams. It offers a glimpse of what life may have looked like here 200 years ago. I love it here, full of history, wealth, and culture.

For dinner, head to Kirari Zushi, not far from downtown Kanazawa station. This isn't your typical cheap conveyor belt sushi; the sushi is high quality and whisked over to you on sleek bullet trains from the kitchen. The fish is sourced from the nearby port and is some of the best in town. And yes, even the sushi gets the 24-karat gold treatment! I tried the nodoguro (black throat fish), the local fish of Kanazawa, drenched in gold. You can't taste the gold, thankfully, just very good fish. If you want reasonably priced sushi and gold sushi, come here.

After a fun day in Kanazawa, retreat to your cozy matcha townhouse. I can finally have my long-awaited soak. The natural materials and quiet atmosphere make it a perfect place to unwind.

Head to South Kyoto to climb the city's most famous shrine, Fushimi Inari. With 10,000 red torii gates snaking up through the luscious forests of Mount Inari, it's an ancient shrine dating back to the 8th century. Mount Inari is 233 meters high, and you can reach the summit in 30-40 minutes, but there's no real destination; the breathtaking journey through the gates is the reward. The gates are donated by companies and individuals seeking good luck, with their names and dates inscribed. A small gate costs ¥400,000, and a big one is about ¥1 million.

Return to Higashiyama for dinner at Tempura Endo, the finest tempura restaurant in all of Kyoto. Every time I'm in Kyoto, I visit this restaurant. From the moment you step inside, you're hit with the tantalizing rich aroma of the batter. Similar to a sushi restaurant, each dish—whether fish, vegetables, or meat—is battered one at a time and placed before you. It's so good, you'll drop your chopsticks!

Our first stop in Arashiyama is the Bamboo Grove. With a cool morning breeze blowing through the forest, it's an almost otherworldly, ethereal sight as you follow the winding path through the trees. It's a truly magical experience.

Climb Mount Arashiyama, and the reward at the top isn't just incredible panoramic views over Kyoto, but an encounter with 120 snow monkeys that call Iwatayama Monkey Park home. It's quite a sight to get up close to the monkeys as they walk around visitors without a care in the world. But remember, they are wild, so don't get too close and certainly don't look them dead in the eye unless you want a trip to buy some bandages!

In the late afternoon, an hour before dusk, return to Higashiyama to catch a glimpse of Kyoto at sundown from Kiyomizu-dera Temple. The journey through the maze-like streets is half the appeal, with many shops selling confectionery, pottery, crafts, and sake. Kiyomizu-dera, meaning 'pure water temple,' resides in an enviable spot on the mountainside with sweeping views over Kyoto. Its towering wooden stage, built without nails, rises 13 meters above the ground, offering spectacular views over cherry and maple trees. From here, you can appreciate Kyoto's story, past and present. For just ¥500, you can also appreciate your fortune by grabbing an omikuji, a message from the gods written on a paper slip. If you get bad luck, keep buying until you get good fortune!

When it comes to dining out, Pontocho Alley is home to more bars and restaurants than almost any other stretch in Kyoto, and it's well worth a stroll for the atmosphere alone. However, we're going across the bridge into Gion to a restaurant serving up the local Omi beef, said to be one of Japan's three great beefs. Here, you can sample the buttery, rich A5 wagyu as it's gently and delicately sizzled before you by the master chef. Omi beef is typically cheaper than its rarer cousins, Kobe and Matsusaka. It's an incredible experience!

As you stumble from Nara station to the park, you'll chance upon Nakatanidou, the most famous shop in town, serving up yomogi mochi rice cakes. These are deliciously fluffy parcels of rice that have been relentlessly pounded down, dusted with soybean flour, and filled with generous amounts of gooey red bean paste. It's the perfect breakfast! You'll often see this shop featured in Japanese news for their energetic mochi pounding. It's very chewy, like bubblegum, but be careful when eating it, as many people die choking on mochi every year. Don't talk while eating it!

As you make your way into Nara Park, you'll come face to face with the local deer—not hard, given 1,200 Sika deer call Nara Park home. The deer are remarkably friendly, especially when they spot a fistful of crackers. Before accepting the crackers, if you bow to the deer, they too will bow in return. Such civilized creatures! But things can get out of hand pretty fast once they discover the crackers, as the seemingly composed deer soon become, well, pretty crackers themselves.

If there's one thing to see in Nara, it's Todai-ji Temple, one of the largest wooden structures on the planet. It's not just that the exterior looks like a video game boss battle, but what's inside: one of the largest bronze Buddha statues in all of Japan, which is spectacular. Todai-ji means 'Great Eastern Temple,' built in 752. A colossal 49-foot tall Buddha awaits you inside, weighing an astonishing 500 tons. Around the back, you'll find a pillar with a hole in its base, the same size as the Buddha's nostril. It's said if you can squeeze through it, you'll be granted enlightenment in your next life. Good luck!

Street foods are in abundance around Dotonbori at night, including yakitori skewers, pancakes, and the most famous street food of all: takoyaki (fried octopus balls). These are chopped-up octopus drenched in batter and doused with tangy Worcestershire sauce, green onion, pickled ginger, and mayonnaise. Eight balls for ¥600 is an absolute steal! But be warned, the food comes with one dangerous downside: wait about 10 minutes because it is like molten lava. You'll incinerate your mouth if you're not careful!

After incinerating our mouths with takoyaki, it's time to check into our accommodation. The area surrounding Dotonbori is the best place to stay in Osaka for nightlife and connectivity. Tonight, we're staying at the Henn na Hotel, staffed entirely by robots! You're greeted at check-in by two multilingual robot dinosaurs. This hotel chain, found throughout Japan, straddles the line between cool and gimmicky, but the rooms are good value for money. Don't be deterred if you're not someone who enjoys robot dinosaurs!

In the colorful streets around Tsutenkaku Tower in Shinsekai, you'll find restaurants selling one of Osaka's most iconic dishes: kushikatsu (deep-fried skewers). The only flaw is it's hard to discern what you're eating, as it all looks the same. Here, we've got cuts of pork, beef, onions, potatoes, shrimp, and my personal favorite, cheese—lots of cheese! Take a skewer, dip it into thick tonkatsu sauce (essentially Worcestershire sauce), and never look back. My God, it's good! Beautifully crunchy batter and a nice cold beer make a great combination.

For a one-night excursion in Hakone, it's the perfect place to experience a Japanese ryokan, a traditional inn. A ryokan is a holiday destination in its own right, a mini-break where the food, hot springs, and relaxing surroundings help you escape and unwind. The ritual is typically the same: shoes off, dinner and breakfast times chosen, a lobby tour, then escorted to your room. We found a beautifully illuminated room with a rotenburo (outdoor bath) on the balcony, overlooking the mountainside scenery. Kaiseki, a traditional multi-course dinner, is the star attraction, emphasizing fresh, seasonal ingredients. It will likely be one of the finest meals of your trip, served with immaculate dishes like seafood and marbled A5 wagyu sukiyaki. Breakfast is equally artistic.

After breakfast, head downstairs to enjoy the kashikiri onsen. While all ryokans have hot springs separated for men and women, kashikiri means a reserved private bath, allowing couples or families to enjoy a large private bath all to themselves. We reserved it for a whole hour. The creamy, mineral-rich waters are around 45°C, so after about 20 minutes, you'll transition from relaxation to feeling like a boiled frog. Be careful not to enjoy it too much!

Head to the very source of the hot spring water: Owakudani, literally 'the great boiling valley.' Three thousand years ago, Mount Hakone erupted, leaving behind this sulfur hellscape. At 1,040 meters near the summit, thousands of travelers ride the Hakone Ropeway daily to see it firsthand, with the cable car ominously almost directly over the fuming vents. We drove up, which was less impressive, but offered the same rewarding view of Mount Fuji magnificently looming 3,776 meters overhead. We got lucky today; it's one of the best views of Mount Fuji in all Japan, especially when it's caked in snow. It's like Mordor down there, but the view is damn good, not only of Fuji but also towards Tokyo. I can't recommend it enough!

If you're feeling peckish at Owakudani, be sure to try kuro tamago, literally 'black eggs.' These eggs are placed into baskets and dunked into the 80°C hot spring for an hour, with the iron in the water turning their shells black. According to local legend, a hardboiled kuro tamago will extend your lifespan by up to 7 years. Not bad for ¥500!