One of the things I found most surprising about Japan was that every hotel provides pyjamas. They’re usually laid out neatly on top of the bed, rather than tucked away in a wardrobe like robes and slippers often are in Western hotels. According to Google, this is done for a mix of cultural, practical and hospitality reasons. You can look that up for yourselves. We found that pyjamas were provided in both traditional Japanese hotels and Western-style chains. In every case, the

A day spent mostly travelling. The day started with breakfast on the plane — 05:30 Tokyo time, or 20:30 London time. Neither is an acceptable time for breakfast. Not far to go now — two hours to landing. I can’t work out where my AirPods are, though they seem close… and charged. We had hot soba noodles for breakfast — a bargain price of £8 — before settling in for an hour’s wait for our next flight up to Sapporo, which promises to be snowy. This will be a surprising change fr

Here's our draft itinerary for visiting Tokyo in late January 2026. We have been to Tokyo before and loved it. As it's our last stop on...

Here's our draft itinerary for visiting Okinawa in late January 2026. We haven't been to Okinawa before but have heard its name as a...

Here's our draft itinerary for visiting Osaka in late January 2026. We haven't been to Osaka before - but know it to be Japan's culinary hotspot, offering a unique mix of tradition and modern living.

I'd rather have too many options and leave some out if it gets too busy to enjoy. We'll commit or change the plans as we go - booking experiences as we go - buying local when we can, which will leave our itinerary nice and flexible.