Japan travel guide: when to go, budget, itineraries and cities to see

The capital and its region hold contemporary Japan: Shibuya and Shinjuku for urban excess, Asakusa and Yanaka for the pre-war city, the Imperial Palace at the centre. Plan three nights minimum, four if you add a day trip. Within two hours by train: the gilded shrines of Nikko, the great buddhas of Kamakura and Mount Fuji views from the Fuji Five Lakes. It is also the main gateway to the country, through Narita and Haneda airports.

Capital for more than a thousand years, Kyoto has around two thousand temples and shrines: visit Fushimi Inari before 8am, then Kinkaku-ji and Arashiyama the same day. Nara, forty minutes away, keeps the country's largest bronze Buddha and its free-roaming deer. Osaka closes the triangle with its street food and its international airport. Three to four nights in Kyoto make a solid base.

Between Tokyo and Kyoto, the centre of Honshu rises to 3,000 m. Takayama keeps an old town of merchant houses and a morning market; an hour by bus, the thatched farmhouses of Shirakawa-go are UNESCO-listed. Matsumoto and its black castle are the gateway to Kamikochi, a glacial valley open from mid-April to mid-November. Give it at least three days, on regional buses rather than trains.

West of Honshu, Hiroshima takes a full day: the Peace Memorial and its museum in the morning, then the ferry to Miyajima and the floating torii of Itsukushima shrine, best at high tide. On the way from the Kansai, Himeji Castle, the best-preserved in the country, fits into a two-hour stop from the shinkansen station. Two nights are enough for the area.

The northern island has its own climate: long winters and powder snow at Niseko from December to March, cool dry summers that make it a refuge when Honshu swelters in August. Sapporo, its miso ramen and its February snow festival; the Daisetsuzan and Shiretoko national parks for hiking from June to September. Count on a domestic flight of about 90 minutes from Tokyo rather than the train.

The south-western island lives on its geology: the smoking crater of Aso, one of the world's largest, the hot sand baths of Beppu and the onsen of Kurokawa. Fukuoka, the main city, stands out for its yatai, tonkotsu-ramen stalls set up by the river at night. Nagasaki carries a unique Christian and atomic history. The shinkansen links Fukuoka to Kagoshima in about 80 minutes.

Some 1,500 km south of Tokyo, the Ryukyu archipelago has a subtropical culture, cuisine and climate of its own. The beaches and reefs of Miyako and Ishigaki are good for diving from April to October; typhoon season runs June to October. Access is by air, about two and a half hours from Tokyo, and you should allow at least four days to make the trip worthwhile.