A practical guide to the trip most people actually take on a first visit to Japan: a week to ten days based in Tokyo and Kyoto, with day trips to Osaka, Hiroshima and Nara — plus four detours worth the extra days if you have them.
Written and photographed by Nakul Bhatnagar, a San Francisco-based travel and landscape photographer.
What's inside
· 45 pages, nine photographs, instant PDF download
· What it actually costs, and why the JR Pass probably isn't worth it anymore
· The etiquette that matters, and the rules people invent that don't
· Three itineraries — 7, 10 and 14 days
· 52 phrases with kana and romaji, plus the 22 signage kanji that make stations readable
· 21 places marked with a red seal — every one personally photographed, with the hour to be there
No affiliate links, no listicles, no places I haven't stood in. Everything was checked in August 2026.
A practical guide to the trip most people actually take on a first visit to Japan: a week to ten days based in Tokyo and Kyoto, with day trips to Osaka, Hiroshima and Nara — plus four detours worth the extra days if you have them.
Written and photographed by Nakul Bhatnagar, a San Francisco-based travel and landscape photographer.
What's inside
· 45 pages, nine photographs, instant PDF download
· What it actually costs, and why the JR Pass probably isn't worth it anymore
· The etiquette that matters, and the rules people invent that don't
· Three itineraries — 7, 10 and 14 days
· 52 phrases with kana and romaji, plus the 22 signage kanji that make stations readable
· 21 places marked with a red seal — every one personally photographed, with the hour to be there
No affiliate links, no listicles, no places I haven't stood in. Everything was checked in August 2026.
