Matsushima, near Sendai, Miyagi-ken

I came back from last year's trip around southern Honshu determined to work on my kanji and head back the next year. One year, one hundred and twenty kanji and three more terms of general  study later, I was on a plane to Narita again. And this time, with something approaching a plan.

The Narrow Road to the Deep North

My intention for this year was originally to visit Kyushu, but on reflection decided on Tohoku: it's a huge chunk of the country that I'd never seen, and is suffering from a lack of tourism in the aftermath of last year's earthquake. Tohoku hasn't ever been a huge tourist hotspot compared to, say, Tokyo or Kyoto, but it's a beautiful place well worth visiting, and needs visitors more than ever. And so, armed with a notepad full of tips – thanks in particular to Clay Harris and Bethan Hutton – I headed north for Sendai.

As before, I'll run through all the key places I visited in separate posts, noting any information that might be handy to future visitors. But first, general travel stuff.

Trains and Car rental

Last year I used a seven day JR Japan Rail Pass, which is fantastic but expensive: the 14 day version would have blown my £100-ish-per-day budget. This time I could stick to JR East, which is even easier: you can buy a 10 day JR East Pass online for Y32,000 (around £250). This covers you on every train journey from Narita, around Tokyo on the Yamanote line, up to the north, and back to Narita again. Versions that cover five days and four-non-sequential days are also available.

I also tried something new: renting a car in Japan. To do this requires a bit of preparation, as you'll need a  International Driving Permit based on the 1949 Treaty – a truly comical bit of paperwork available either from the AA or major branches of the Post Office. Renting also requires a pretty decent grasp of Japanese, but more of that later. The cost was around £70 for a day, with reductions on subsequent days, for a tiny Toyota.

Shimbashi, Tokyo

Cheap Hotels

For accommodation, I mostly stuck to the same plan as last time: cheap business hotels that run to £50-60 per night. This time I tried as many chains as possible, and found the following:

Sunroute – I used a load of these in 2011 and 2009, too. Classic business hotel service, with prices between £45 in the sticks and £110 in Tokyo. The price is always representative of what you get: the Plaza Shinjuku, for example, is expensive but flashy, while Higashi-Shinkuki is older and less smart but cheaper, and Nara costs almost nothing but is a bit knackered. You can reserve online via the website without putting any payment down in advance – in English, if you wish.

JAL City – These aren't quite normal business hotels – you pay on checkout and there are minibars in the rooms, although in practice that just means you pay more for a beer or bottle of water. They are, however, really nice for the money – usually £50 or so if you book in advance. The website is a disaster that's pretty hard to understand (a million and one options), so reserve on the phone or through a third party site.

Toyoko Inn – You cannot miss the Toyoko inn in any town: it'll be right by the JR train station, or have a giant blue light on the top, or usually both. And it'll be cheap: £35-50. I've only stayed in one, which was a little worn, but fine for the money. I'd recommend if you can't find a JAL or inexpensive Sunroute.

Super Hotel – Ah, the Super Hotel. I've stayed in only one, which was pretty new, but not super. On the plus side, these are ultra cheap: £30-40 or so, and you get a small room with a capsule bathroom. On the downside, my experience was a tiny room that stank of smoke (not the only smoking room I stayed in, but the only one I regretted), and about four hours of sleep. You get what you pay for.

I tried to reserve as many as possible on the phone – I need to work on my speaking – but JAL, Toyoko Inn and Super Hotel are all listed on the English-language reservation service Japanican.com. Sunroute's own website is better.

Internet Access

Travel guides can be pretty useless when it comes to Tohoku. In the latest Lonely Planet, published just after the quake, it's a black hole – presumably ninety percent of the chapter was pulled at the eleventh hour. This makes internet access particularly handy for checking trains, sizing up hotels and so on.

Every business hotel I stayed in had free, fast, working internet access – but only the Toyoko Inn had WiFi. This makes having a cheap netbook computer invaluable. This will just plug in, and you can use the free tool Connectify to create a local hotspot for your mobile phone.

I also used 3G on my iPhone. To do this, buy a B-Mobile temporary visitor SIM card online – a 14 day one costs around £35 if purchased from outside Japan, and you can simply request delivery to your first location in Japan. It connects to 3G only – no voice or SMS services, but iMessage works – on the NTT DoCoMo network, which has good coverage. The service speed is limited, but good enough for email, web and occasional Google Maps when utterly lost.

A warning, though: on switching SIM cards my iPhone 4S reset and required re-registration via WiFi. Fortunately I could hook it up through my laptop (see above), but if that option isn't available you could be left with a useless, bricked phone. Thanks, Apple.

Anyhow, I paused one night in Tokyo to collect the SIM card, eat some noodles and indulge in a jetlag-busting onsen. With that done, on to Sendai.

(This is part of a guide to travelling Honshu on a moderate budget and in limited time. Click here for the whole series).

I arrived in Kyoto on my second day, via Shinkansen from Tokyo. You arrive at the huge JR Kyoto station, from which you can link to the local JR lines, the private railway (pass not valid) and the subway (ditto). Coming in at around 1pm I dropped my backpack in a coin locker (there are several sets – try the side of the station if the main area is full) and headed out on the local train to Inari. It's a few stops, and trust me, you want to travel light for this one.

Fushimi Inari-taisha

The Fushimi Inari-taisha shrine complex is directly opposite the JR Inari station – look for the red Torii gate. Then look for another, up the hill. Then look for a couple of thousand of them lining the mountain path. It's stunning.

The first torii

The path leads on and on, past dozens of shrines and some scenic views. It's steep in places, and not something to undertake with luggage or nearing dusk. The route is signed, badly, and even with maps everywhere it can be a little baffling, but nonetheless I managed a scenic circuit taking in the very top in about two hours.

Somewhere inside the complex

Kinkaku-Ji, Sanjyu-San and  Kyomizu-dera

Back in Kyoto, you can't walk a few blocks without hitting a gorgeous-looking temple. Probably the best known, though, is the golden pavilion, Kinkaku-Ji. It's a bus ride from Kyoto JR, or a nice walk from the nearby Kitaoji subway stop, passing a huge complex of Buddhist temples en-route. I arrived early, just after 9am, and it was already packed – walking down the approach all I could hear were cries of 'suggeeeeeeiii!' (roughly, 'wow') from schoolkids rounding the corner ahead. And it is, indeed, one hell of a view.

The Kinkaku-Ji. Just stunning.

Most of the other temples lie over the other side of town to the East, and you could easily spend a week checking them all out. With a day and a half in Kyoto, I had to hike about quite a bit. After stopping mid-way at the International Manga Museum (below) I hauled across to the Sanjyu-San – a huge, ancient, Buddhist complex containing a frankly unfeasible number of many-armed statues, plus a Buddah in the middle. No photos are allowed, but to be honest you couldn't capture it anyhow – it's remarkable.

The Kyomizu-dera

The Kyoto National Museum is just across the way from there, but is currently in renovation and was closed as I passed. Instead, I walked to the unfeasibly beautiful Kyomizu-dera temple up on the hill to the East. It's possible to approach via two souvenir-shop-packed streets, but check a map for the path up through the huge cemetery below – it's a climb, but the views are amazing. As was seeing the sun set behind the pagoda from the top of the temple.

Sunset over Kyoto. Such a beautiful place.

International Manga Museum and Nijō Jō

As well as all the temples, it's worth checking out the famous Nijō Jō castle. It's impressive from the outside, with elaborately carved gates, but take the tour to see the inner quarters and walk on the squeaking nightingale-floors. Also, don't miss the inner room decorations: these are housed in a separate museum inside the castle walls (look for the modern building). Photos are forbidden inside.

Carvings on the Nijō Jō

Not far from the castle is the International Manga Museum. This is really more library than museum, but it's a chance to grab, sit down with and read just about any manga you've ever heard of, and then a couple of thousand more, going back decades. Entry (800Y) is good for the day. There are a few shelves of English translations, and English signage in the exhibits, but to be honest you'll need to a bit of Japanese (not much – lots of Manga are furiganated) to get the most from this.

Inside the International Manga Museum

The museum is housed in an old school, and a few rooms are devoted to the history of the building – these are well worth checking out.

Food, Hotels and Travel

From JR Kyoto the subway line runs directly north, then another crosses it at Karasuma-Oike station, running East-West. The rest of the city is served by buses. Both cost <200Y for most trips, but Suica or Pasmo cards won't work (there is a local IC card). As it's on a grid layout, walking is easy, and there are a couple of large covered shopping arcades should you need coffee, a pharmacy etc.

I stayed in the Hearton Hotel Kyoto, which is tucked away about a block from Karasuma-Oike – it's on the sidestreet behind the big sporting goods shop. It's a little worn (well, actually pretty knackered in places), but good value for the £55 or so it costs per night, and the location's good for the subway. I'd recommend it.

For cheap eats there are the usual combini and fast food outlets, plus department store basement food halls on the main Shijo-Dori parade running East-West (check out the posh coffee shop that turns into a cheap curry counter by night!) and some decent ramen places for 15Y or so.

I loved Kyoto, and could have easily stayed longer – but with a public holiday on Monday, all the hotels were full, so I bailed out of town towards Northern Kansai and the onsen of Kinosaki.

(This is part of a guide to travelling Honshu on a moderate budget and in limited time. Click here for the whole series).

From Fukuchiyama I headed across to Hiroshima. If you're heading out this way, be sure to reserve a seat on the Sakura Shinkansen from Shin-Osaka; I can only assume they put too many Green (1st class) cars on these, as the compartments used for reserved seating are ludicrously nice, with 2×2 seats plans, wood panelling and more. They arrive at Hiroshima JR Eki, to the east of the city.

The Children's Memorial

The thing about Hiroshima is this: you know what to expect. Everybody knows of Hiroshima, and the Peace Park and museum have to be a top priority for any visitor. But there's also so much more: the beautiful boulevards, the trams, the parks, and Miyajima. Oh, and did I mention okonomiyaki? Not yet. But it's a marvellous place.

The Bomb

The Peace Park sits, rivers on either side, in the centre of town. It is, appropriately, rather beautiful, and is surrounded by memorials: the children's memorial, the memorial to Korean victims, a memorial for Chinese victims, and more. And in the centre, the mausoleum and flame. To the South lies the museum, which is exactly as distressing as you would expect and then some more. Plan a couple of hours to see it and recompose yourself afterwards, as quite a lot of it is  hard to cope with.

The Peace Park

On the other side of the park, to the North East, is the Genbaku-Domu – the nuclear bomb dome, or what's left of one of the few buildings left standing after the attack. Heading past it, East, takes you into the city. A giant covered arcade runs a good half-way towards the JR station, ending around the giant Parco department store.

The Genbaku-Domu – just about the only building that survived the blast area

The Shukkei-En

A bit of a walk to the North East lies the Shukkei-En garden – turn right at the art museum, and look for the gate. Complete with tea house, giant hungry koi and flying fish, it's probably the single prettiest Japanese garden I saw on this trip. Closes at 5pm.

The beautiful Shukkei-En

Miyajima

Another must see in Hiroshima is actually outside the city. The island of Miyajima is home to a temple with famous 'floating' O-Torii gate – head by JR or tram (about 1h from West of the Peace Park, it's a terminus stop) to Miyajima-Guchi, then jump on the JR ferry (free with a Rail Pass). It's worth making sure you arrive around high tide to get the best view – tide tables are here.

On the island, the main sight is of course the temple – you can also pay a few hundred yen extra to see the 'treasure house', which isn't really that interesting except that it lets you get a good look at the plaque from the previous O-Torii gate, which is appropriately massive.

The O-Torii, Miyajima

In the town you'll find tasty barbequed oysters for sale (400Y), and it's worth visiting the giant wooden pagoda that overlooks the town – it holds some ancient paintings, a measuring stick used when building the gate (er, large) and some ridiculously large rice scoops the purpose of which was somewhat unclear – rice scoops seem to be *the* souvenir from Miyajima.

Besides the temples and town you can walk – or take the cable-car – up the mountain behind. I took the path up that starts near the cable-car station, and it was beautiful, but beware: at 2.5km this might not be a long ascent, but it is steep enough to be hard work in the heat. Near the top lies another temple, and then a viewing platform at the summit. Wild deer roam around attempting to nab food, and I also ran into a big-enough-to-be-frightening snake on the trail.

Miyajima: well worth the ferry trip

Food, Hotels and Travel

I stayed in the Ikawa Ryokan, which is a great budget ryokan to the West of the Peace Park. It's cheap (maybe £60/night with breakfast for a tatami room with bathroom), and very friendly. The only downside is that it's a bit of a hike from the JR station if you arrive in rush hour and can't fit on a tram. The owners speak English – are keen to speak English, in fact – and there's free internet access.

Trams are the best way to get about besides on foot, and with only a few lines, most of which end at the JR station, they're easy to use. Most journeys are 150Y (more to Miyajima-Guchi), pay with coins only when you get off.

Oh, and food: Hiroshima has all the usual stuff, but also, crucially, okonomiyaki: a kind of griddled cabbage pancake thing, topped with stuff (eggs, meat etc) and, crucially, udon noodles. Head to the multi-storey okonomiyaki building behind Parco, choose a booth, and stuff your face.

Sadly, Hiroshima marked as far across the island as I could travel on this trip. Another early start, another bullet train, and I found myself in Nara.

(This is part of a guide to travelling Honshu on a moderate budget and in limited time. Click here for the whole series).

Nara, the capital of Japan before even Kyoto, is all about the parkland, deer and temples. It's a short train ride from Kyoto, so I rolled up early in the morning. If you're coming from a big city, prepare to be surprised: it's easy to walk across the town itself in less than half an hour.

Deer roam wild through the park

The Daibutsu-Den and  Kasuga-Taisha

Nara's main attraction lies in the Nara-Kōen park – follow the maps to the Tōdai-Ji. The Daibutsu (er, 'big buddah') is, indeed, a huge bronze figure, housed in an even huge wooden hall. It's a must-see, even if it is packed full of excited schoolkids.

The Daibutsu-Den hall

The park itself houses many other temples, and it's worth taking a stroll around the lot. My favourite, though, would be the Kasuga-Taisha, which is some way into the park, and founded in the 8th century. The temple, and all its approaches through the park, are surrounded by lanterns.

Nara-Kōen dominates the town, but Nara itself is interesting enough to stroll around – particularly the backstreets of the Nara-Machi district.

Food, Hotels and Travel

There are plenty of cheap restaurants in Nara, from chains to small family businesses – I stopped by a tiny udon place near the Kofuku-Ji, which cost next to nothing, while there are coffee places and so forth in the covered arcade near the Kintetsu-Nara station.

Hotels range from traditional but pricey ryokan to the huge Nara Hotel (fairly expensive) to cheap business places, including a fairly old but serviceable Sunroute with some of the tiniest rooms I found outside Tokyo for £50ish per night.

Getting to and from Nara is easy via the JR-lines (Nara JR station, to the West of the city centre), and there's also the private Kintetsu railway (Kintetsu Nara, central, but excluded from the Japan Rail Pass).

A footnote: Yokohama, and back again

From Nara I was due to head back to Tokyo for a baseball game, so I jumped a local line to Kyoto, then a Shinkansen to Tokyo. With time to spare, though, I stopped off in Yokohama. I wouldn't say this was an essential stop on a tour of the island, but it's interesting to see the Minato Mirai (Future Port) district, complete with its giant ferris wheel and the tallest building in Japan. My big regret: failing to make it to the Ramen Museum. From Yokohama there's a local train direct to Shinjuku, Tokyo.

Sail training ship, Yokohama

And so from Yokohama I returned to Tokyo, and from Tokyo to London. In my nine days I'd trekked around a good part of southern-Honshu, visited six cities, eaten loads of fantastic food, spoken a lot of probably terrible Japanese, and, despite the limited cash and time, enjoyed the whole stay immensely.

And yet there are so many more places left to go back and see. I can't wait.

It's been a while since we returned from Japan. I'm not even going to attempt to explain what it was like – just go, see, enjoy – but I did think I'd jot down a few tips for anyone planning a similarly short visit to Tokyo. And so here's the ten things that I'd absolutely recommend seeing.

1) Tsujiki

Yes, the fish market. Every guidebook will tell you to go here, and the good ones will tell you to go early in the morning while you're still suffering from the kind of jetlag that makes a 4am start seem natural rather than ungodly. Get there at 5am and fight straight through to the tuna auctions at the back, then take a walk around while trying not to get killed by the motorised carts that whiz around. The size of the market and the variety of fish on offer is genuinely breathtaking – although that may also have something to do with the heady stench of dead fish and petrol fumes.

What the guidebook won't tell you: Tokyo's subway lines don't actually start up early enough to get you here by 5am. We managed to get there by 5.30 and caught some of the tuna auctions, but if I were to do it again I'd get a cab there a bit earlier.

Photos: lots, here.

2) Shinjuku

Thanks in part to a certain massively overrated movie, Shibuya has come to signify the neon heart of Tokyo for many westerners. While it is all very impressive and worth seeing, given the choice between spending two hours wandering around Shibuya at night gawking at neon or doing the same in Shinjuku, I'd pick the latter in a heartbeat. Surrounding the frankly enormous Shinjuku Station, it sprawls out in every direction in a maze of neon signs, electronics stores, bookstores, department stores, tiny restaurants, pachinko, arcades and general chaos. The effect of walking around for a few hours after dark is a bit like being bludgeoned around the head with the world biggest, sparlkiest, loudest novelty Pokemon hammer (that is to say, brilliant).

With Shinjuku station connecting the JR lines (including the Yamanote), Tokyo Metro subways, Toei subways (Oedo line) and even the private Odakyu lines, it's also a great place to stay. We stayed in the Sunroute Plaza Shinjuku – a chain hotel that was cheapish, scrupulously clean and generally nice.

What the guidebook won't tell you: A good guidebook should mention that, with so many commuters passing through the Shinjuku area every evening, there are loads of cheap restaurants serving the usual counter-style food (katsu, don, curry, etc etc). This makes it a good place to eat for just a few hundred yen. What they don't mention is that the many ticket restaurants, where you order and pay at a machine, make life easy even for the kanji-illiterate. Oh, and there are some excellent ramen places, too.

It's also worth mentioning that Shinjuku has to be one of the biggest, most sprawling and confusing stations in the world, with about a million floors and exits, so don't ever make plans that require navigating it quickly.

Photos: a few by day, and lots by night.

3) Meiji Jingu Gyoen

The biggest and most important temple in Tokyo is probably the Yasukuni Shrine, but Yasukuni is also politically contentious – partly due to its enshrinement of over 1,000 convicted war criminals, and partly due to the Yushukan, a museum that presents a revisionist interpretation of the second world war. Both are the subject of fierce controversy within Japan. If neither dissuades you from visiting I hear it's impressive, but I decided not to attend.

Whether or not you visit Yasukini, however, the Meiji Jingu is well worth a visit. It's dedicated to the Emperor Meiji and Empress Shoken, and contains everything you'd expect from a Shinto temple on a massive scale, with unfeasibly huge and particularly beautiful Torri. On your way in, however, keep an eye to the left..

What the guidebook won't tell you: .. because otherwise you might not notice the entrance to the Gyoen. This formal garden, apparently "constructed according to the design of Emperor Meiji himself in order to give recreation to Empress Shoken", is beautiful and almost impossibly calm considering it's only a few miles from Harajuku JR station. Huge swathes are dedicated to special iris gardens, sadly not in bloom when I attended. It costs 100Y or so to enter.

Photos: here.

3) Odaiba

This man-made island is culturally about as far from the Meiji Jingu Gyoen as you can get. Guidebooks don't make much of it, and you can see why – there's a Disney-ish air to the place, all artificiality and crass commercialism – but it is, in many respects, fascinating. Go to take a look around huge, themed shopping malls such as Aqua City, then see the Statue of Liberty or even the (temporary, huge) giant Gundam robot. Odaiba also provides a great view across the bay.

What the guidebook won't tell you: Aqua City holds both the Sega Joypolis – an arcade of mindboggling size that's worth seeing even if you do have to pay to enter – and a smaller arcade dedicated to old arcade games (Namco, Taito etc) that's a must for video game geeks. Manga/anime fans should also look out for the Jump Shop.

Photos: many, including giant robots, here.

5) The Ghibli Museum, Mikata

Those who have not heard of Studio Ghibli should click here, buy a lot of DVDs, watch them, then return here. If you have seen the films, you'll want to visit this museum, located in Mikata, in the western suburbs – and in which case you'll need to buy a ticket months in advance (see below).

The museum itself is an entirely Japanese-only affair save for a single leaflet in English, but as it's targeted at kids this isn't really a problem – even if you can't read a word, there's lots to enjoy. As well as the exhibits on the making of Ghibli animations (all very hands-on, with flipbooks etc) and the reference material used (photos of European towns taken when designing the look of Kiki's Delivery Service, for example) there's a bookshop, a cafe and, best of all, a giant (as in life-sized) cat bus for small kids to play on while their older siblings and adults watch enviously. The grounds and the museum building are beautiful, and each visitor also gets to see a Ghibli film created solely for the museum in its own cinema – there are a few, and what you see is random, but ours was really rather charming.

What the guidebook won't tell you: Fortunately some friends warned us that tickets sell out months in advance, and with a very limited number released at any one time. To buy tickets in the UK, visit the My Bus travel agency – it's in the basement of the Mitsukoshi department store on Regent Street (tel 020 7976 1191). Passports are needed to prove that you're not a Japanese citizen attempting to jump the queue for tickets released in Japan. We purchased ours three months in advance. Also, the museum has a limited capacity and no timed-ticket system for international tickets – so show up early to save having to wait around outside.

Photos: are not allowed inside the museum, but a few of the outside are here.

6) Meguro

An odd one, this, but stick with me: one afternoon I found myself in Ebisu outside an annoyingly closed beer museum, so with two hours to kill I took a walk. I got totally, utterly lost, ended up in Meguro and was thoroughly glad I did.

Meguro isn't at all touristy, although it does play home to a castle-shaped love hotel, the biggest and scariest wedding shop you've ever seen, a rather beautiful shrine dedicated to the victims of a great fire and, apparently, the Curl Up Cafe cat cafe (didn't see this myself). It's worth visiting for an hour or so, though, to see a bit of everyday Tokyo life outside the neon-craziness of Shinjuku and the other central areas – it's full of coffee shops, pachinko parlours and people just getting on with stuff. Be prepared to be stared at a little more than usual.

What the guidebook won't tell you: Pretty much anything at all. I think mine mentioned the Meguro Gajoen, which is indeed worth seeing.

Photos: a few here.

7) The Shinkansen

If you go to Japan, get a Shinkansen at some point. If you have the time, I'd say Kyoto would be a good destination – we didn't, so we went to Hakone for the Onsen (see #8) – but the journey is, in this case, as important as the destination. Why so good? Well:

1. They are as fast as bloody hell. Or possibly much faster. When the really fast services fly past in bad weather you can actually see a shockwave push the rain out of the way in front of them. Zwoosh.
2. Despite this, the train runs so smoothly it could be gliding on ice.
3. They are so punctual that the average deviation from the timetable, averaged over 160,000 trips, is around six seconds. Six fucking seconds. In a country that gets regularly whunked by earthquakes.
4. People don't talk on the sodding mobile phone on Japanese trains.

Or to put it another way: ride a Shinkansen and the utter shitness of all other trains, everywhere in the world, becomes abundantly clear. This is how rail transport should work.

What the guidebook won't tell you: This isn't Shinkansen related, but it is to do with trains: when you arrive at Narita, buy the N'EX and Suica special deal. This gets you the fast service into Tokyo, plus an Oyster-style card that works on all JR and subway (Toei and Tokyo Metro) lines in the city, at a discount.

Photos: see inside the Shinkansen here and here.

8) Onsen

I don't have a photo of this one, for reasons that will become obvious: onsen are Japanese hot spring baths. In order to partake of a traditional one you'll have to leave Tokyo; we headed to Hakone, near Mt Fuji. Some can be used for a fee, while many are reserved for the guests of a particular hotel or ryokan (traditional inn). We stayed in a ryokan with its own onsen – I'd recommend this, although it is very expensive by budget-travel standards. Look for outdoor onsen with a view if the weather's good.

However you get to an onsen, though, you'll come out feeling either invigorated, broiled or both. I was sceptical, but it's absolutely worth trying: cooking slowly in a hot pond while looking out over the mountains and forests of Japan at 7am is a fantastic way to start the day.

What the guidebook won't tell you: Onsen etiquette is pretty complicated. At the end of the day, however, it boils down to something like this: make sure you go in the right onsen (learn the kanji for Male and Female, or just ask someone), get completely naked leaving your clothes in the ante-chamber, wash yourself thoroughly while sitting on a bucket type thing that'll be provided, then get in the bath and cook. I've heard that "modesty towels" are a must, but I didn't see a single person bothering with this – instead small towels were used solely for brow-mopping.

Photos: of the onsen? Er, no. Photos of the ryokan and beautiful Hakone are here.

9) Eat until your body complains, and then some more

If you don't like Japanese food then Tokyo is, funnily enough, not a good place to visit. If you do, then it's obviously time to get stuck in. We ate one formal dinner at the ryokan (above), then largely concentrated on the "great cheap food" variety: sushi, katsu, don, noodles of every shape and size, gyoza, yakitori and so on. Oh, and ramen. You can buy passable ramen in London, but nothing I've had anywhere else compares with the real stuff in Tokyo. And the grilled fish is also great. And there's good beer. And shochu.

What the guidebook won't tell you: Ordering can be tricky when menus are in kanji, but knowing the words for one, two, this one and that one can get you a very long way on most menus, especially when many cheaper restaurants include images of set meals. Also, try giru – cold soba noodles that you slurp through a small container of soy-ish broth. I'd never heard of them before, and they're great.

Photos: Not really, no. I was too busy stuffing my face.

10) Fuji-San

No trip to Japan would be complete without seeing the iconic Mr Fuji, right? Er, probably – except we failed on this count. Part of the reason for heading out to Hakone was to see Fuji from one of the many viewing points in the area, but sadly we were foiled by thick clouds at every turn. Hope you have better luck.

What the guidebook won't tell you: That even in the middle of summer it gets incredibly cloudy up in the mountains around Owakudani. Although, to be fair, we should have guessed.

Photos: fail.

And that's it. It's not a complete account by any means, but I hope this might prove at least vaguely useful to somebody. We'll be going back as soon as possible – next time to hopefully include Kyoto and a glimpse of that mountain – and I'll update this with any new information as and when I can.