| Animals | Scenery | Culture | Shopping | Food |
| * | **** | ** | *** |
| Highlights | |
| Tokyo / Osaka | a climpse at the modern side of Japan should not be missed, for example in Shinjuku in Tokio where you can see girls in high plateau shoes and ultra mini skirts walking next to traditionallly clothed women in Kimonos |
| Nikko | a collection of colourful shrines and temples in picturesque cedar forests; a Japanese proverb says " Don´t say kekko (magnificent) before you have seen Nikko" |
| Kyoto |
of the numberous things to see in Kyoto, we specially recommend |
| Nagasaki | a visit to the atombic bomb museum is a most daunting experience |
| Miyajima | a island near to Hiroshima which houses some shrines and the famous floating Torii |
| Himeji | the most splendid Japanese castle |
| Restaurants / Hotels | |
| restaurant Izusen in the Daitoku-ji temple, Kyoto |
try traditional, vegetarian temple food in a gorgeous garden behind the Daitoku-ji Zen temple |
| Kawaramachi dori, Kyoto | a street close to the river with many restaurants along the side |
| Dotomburi dori, Osaka | a street in central Osaka (Namba) where one restaurant follows the other |
| Tips | |
| rail pass | travelling by train is very comfortable and fast, but not cheap; rail passes for foreign tourists are available outside of Japan only, they are a good bargain |
| ryokan | a stay at a Riokan gives a taste of traditional Japanese life; take it from humorous side, if you do same things wrongly |
| japanese bath | where else can you sit on a stool while showering, and slowly cook yourself in very hot water ? |
| business hotels | rooms in business hotels are small, but reasonably priced in this very expensive country |
| French bakeries | you don´t have to eat rice in the morning, there are numberous French bakeries with nice croissants and sweets in the big cities |