Free tool
Which part ofJAPANfits your trip?
Five quick questions about how you actually travel. You get one honest pick, a close second, and the trade-offs stated instead of hidden, built on our own Japan guides.
Your match
Tokyo
Tokyo is the pick for a first trip and for the city at full volume: a chain of cities along the Yamanote loop, with Shinjuku the obvious base (a vast station, department stores above it, Golden Gai's alley bars behind) and Asakusa or Ueno if you want to sleep and pay less.
Where it falls shortSummer is hard work: the average August high is above 31°C, and the nightlife districts of Kabukicho, Roppongi, Shibuya and Ikebukuro are the police's high-risk zones at night for drink spiking and card fraud.
Read our Tokyo guideClose second
Osaka
Food, nightlife and value; the easiest Kansai base for long evenings.
Read our Osaka guideTreat this as a starting point, not a verdict: most first trips combine Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka, and Hakone or Kanazawa are one or two nights added on rather than a choice instead.
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All eight bases at a glance
The one-line honest version of each base, whatever the quiz says.
- TokyoThe capital: Shinjuku or Shibuya at full volume, Asakusa or Ueno to sleep and pay less.
- KyotoTemples, shrines and old lanes; quiet at night, packed in blossom and leaf season.
- OsakaFood, nightlife and value; the easiest Kansai base for long evenings.
- HakoneOnsen, Lake Ashi and Fuji on clear days; best as a night out of Tokyo.
- KanazawaGardens and samurai lanes on the Sea of Japan side; calm, and wet in winter.
- SapporoHokkaido's capital: snow, space and the February Snow Festival; a trip of its own.
- HiroshimaThe Peace Park and Miyajima; a day or two from the Osaka end of the route.
- FukuokaKyushu's largest city and base; its own festivals, far from the classic route.
Common questions
Where should I stay on a first trip to Japan?
Most first trips take Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka in that order. In Tokyo, Shinjuku or Shibuya if you want the city at full volume, Asakusa or Ueno if you want to sleep and pay less; in Osaka, Minami for the nights and Kita for day trips; in Kyoto, the station area for convenience or Higashiyama for early, empty lanes.
Kyoto or Osaka: which is the better base?
Osaka for food, nightlife and value, Kyoto for temples and early mornings. They are fifteen minutes apart by shinkansen, so plenty of people sleep in one and spend their days in the other; if Kyoto's rates look wrong for your dates, compare the same nights in Osaka.
Is Shinjuku a good area to stay in Tokyo?
Yes, it is the obvious base: a huge station, trains to everywhere and food at every price. One line of care: Kabukicho, inside Shinjuku, is one of the police's high-risk zones at night for drink spiking and card fraud. Stay there by all means, but never follow a street tout into a bar.
Where should I stay in Japan with kids?
In the calmer halves: Ueno or Asakusa in Tokyo, with a park, museums and quiet streets after dark; Kita around Umeda in Osaka; and the station area in Kyoto, so every departure is short. In Hakone, a private bath is how families bathe together, since public baths separate the sexes.
Is it worth adding Hakone or Kanazawa?
Both work as one or two nights on a longer trip. Hakone is the hot-spring stop out of Tokyo, with Mount Fuji in view on clear days; Kanazawa has Kenroku-en, samurai lanes and fewer crowds than Kyoto, around two and a half hours from Tokyo by shinkansen.