The Private Collection
Essential Japan
Nine days, three cities, from a Tokyo sushi counter to kaiseki in Kyoto
$18,000per person, twin share
Choose datesThe Yasaka pagoda above Higashiyama, Kyoto, at dusk
Essential Japan, a private tour of Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka
Evening in Gion. The lanterns are being lit along the lanes below Yasaka Shrine, the wooden lattices of the old teahouses glow from within, and your Tour Director is walking you down Hanamikoji as the teahouses open their doors for the evening. The next evening, at a counter in Kyoto awarded two Michelin stars, the season arrives in a procession of small courses, each on a dish chosen for it.
That is the pace of Essential Japan, a nine-day private journey through Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka, taken on the dates you choose. Three nights in Tokyo, three in Kyoto with a day in Nara, and two in Osaka, joined by first class on the shinkansen. A Tour Director is beside you every day, every day is planned in full before you land, and the price covers everything on the plan: eight nights, the tables, the trains, the entrances and the transfers.
- how long
- Nine days, eight nights
- where
- Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka
- who
- One to four, in one or two rooms
- when
- On the dates you choose
- with you
- A Tour Director, every day
- price per person
- $18,000, twin share, one inclusive price: all breakfasts, and all other meals as detailed in the itinerary
for you
Is Essential Japan the journey for you?
Essential Japan is made for a first journey to Japan, or a return to the three great cities in more depth: nine days, taken privately, with nothing for you to design yourself. It keeps an easy pace: late mornings at the markets, afternoons in gardens and temple precincts, and an evening at a counter to close each day.
Of the three journeys across Honshu, Essential Japan is the shortest. Classic Japan, eleven days, adds two nights at a ryokan in Kinosaki Onsen. Definitive Japan, thirteen days, adds two nights beneath Mount Fuji as well. If you would like a journey shaped around you, on a route of your own, that is the Custom Tour of Japan.
highlights
Five moments of Essential Japan
Kaiseki at a two-Michelin-star restaurant in Kyoto
The season told in a procession of small courses, each on a dish chosen for it, cooked at the counter in front of you.
Edomae sushi at a Tokyo counter
Omakase, the order of the evening left to the chef, each piece pressed in the palm and set before you with the rice still warm.
A private tea ceremony in Kyoto
A host receives you alone, and the bowl is set down with its front turned towards you.
Gion as the lanterns are lit
The lanes of the geiko district walked with your Tour Director at the hour the teahouses open their doors.
First class on the shinkansen
From Tokyo to Kyoto in a little over two hours, and on a clear day Mount Fuji stands on the right of the train.
the difference
Your Tour Director, every day
The same Tour Director in every city, from the first evening to the last.
The same Tour Director is with you in every city, from the first evening to the last, in charge of every hotel, table and transfer along the way.
At the welcome dinner in Tokyo the days ahead are laid out in conversation, and every question is answered in person. At the Tsukiji Outer Market your Tour Director leads you from stall to stall, eating as you go. At the izakaya on the third evening your Tour Director orders for the table. In Kyoto you walk Gion together as the lanterns are lit, and at Nishiki Market the tasting runs from the pickle tubs to the rolled omelette sliced from the block. On the evenings left open, your Tour Director's recommendations are booked on request.
Every room, every table and every car is ready before you arrive. On Essential Japan, that means one person beside you from the first evening to the last, who knows the plan, the places and you.
taken care of
Taken care of, from arrivals to departures
When you clear arrivals at Narita or Haneda, a private chauffeur takes every bag and drives you into Nihonbashi. On the last morning another drives you to Kansai or Itami for your flight.
Between the cities your luggage is sent ahead to the next hotel, so you travel light, and every check-in and check-out is taken care of. You ride in first class on the shinkansen from Tokyo to Kyoto and on to Osaka, and on the days the rail cannot do, a private car and driver takes you.
Every entrance on the plan is included. Because you choose your dates, the order of the days is set around them, so that each temple, garden and market is open on the day you visit. You book your international flights, and we advise you on the routing and on the flights that land you in good time for the welcome dinner.
where you sleep, three nights
Nihonbashi Premier
You stay in one of its luxury suites, the largest rooms in the hotel, some fifty-six square metres.
Nihonbashi Premier stands a few minutes on foot from Nihonbashi bridge, in the quarter the Mitsui family has kept since the seventeenth century. Mitsukoshi is a few minutes away, Ginza a quarter of an hour on foot and Tokyo Station about ten, and the hotel keeps a large bath of cypress on its ninth floor, a quiet place to end a day of walking.
or choose, in Tokyo
Aman Tokyo
Every room a suite, on the top floors of the Otemachi Tower, looking over the city to the Imperial Palace gardens.
Quoted with your dates
Palace Hotel Tokyo Palace Hotel Tokyo
In Marunouchi, facing the gardens of the Imperial Palace across the moat, with Tokyo Station close by.
Quoted with your dates
day 1
Arrival in Tokyo, and the welcome dinner
From the moment you clear arrivals at Narita or Haneda, nothing is yours to carry: a private chauffeur takes every bag and drives you into Nihonbashi. The afternoon is yours, to settle in or to walk the few minutes to the bridge and its bronze kirin.
Read the full dayClose the day: Arrival in Tokyo, and the welcome dinner
In the evening your Tour Director receives you at the welcome dinner, the first of the tables chosen for you, and the days ahead are laid out over it in conversation, every question answered in person.
Nijubashi and the palace moat, Tokyo day 2
Tsukiji, the castle gardens, Ginza, and Edomae sushi at the counter
Late in the morning you walk the Tsukiji Outer Market with your Tour Director, eating as you go: rolled omelette still warm from its square copper pan, and tuna cut to order at the stall. Lunch is taken among the stalls. In the afternoon the Imperial Palace East Gardens open on the ground of Edo Castle's inner citadel, where the granite base of the keep still stands above the lawns, and Ginza follows in the late afternoon, beneath the Wako clock tower.
Read the full dayClose the day: Tsukiji, the castle gardens, Ginza, and Edomae sushi at the counter
The day ends at the counter for Edomae sushi, omakase. You sit facing the chef, the order of the evening is the chef's to decide, and each piece is pressed in the palm, brushed and set down before you with the rice still warm and the fish cured, marinated or aged in the Edo way, to be eaten the moment it is made.
Shibuya Crossing as the lights come on day 3
Senso-ji and an Edo craft, Meiji Jingu, Shibuya, and an izakaya evening
The morning is Senso-ji, Tokyo's oldest temple, with incense drifting across the courtyard beneath the great red lantern of the Hozomon gate. In the lanes behind it you visit a studio where one of the crafts of old Edo is still made by hand at the bench, and you watch the work at close quarters.
Read the full dayClose the day: Senso-ji and an Edo craft, Meiji Jingu, Shibuya, and an izakaya evening
In the afternoon the gravel approach to Meiji Jingu leads into a forest of some hundred thousand trees, given from every part of Japan and planted a century ago. Shibuya Crossing follows as the lights come on, and the evening is an izakaya: the room warm and loud, small plates crossing the counter, cold sake, and your Tour Director ordering for the table in Japanese.
where you sleep, three nights
Hotel The Celestine Kyoto Gion
You stay in one of its luxury suites, in pale wood and stone.
Hotel The Celestine Kyoto Gion stands on Yasaka-dori in Higashiyama, between the temple of Kennin-ji and the Yasaka pagoda, so that Gion, Kiyomizu-dera and the stone lanes of the old city are all within an evening's walk of its door. It keeps a large bath for its guests.
or choose, in Kyoto
Aman Kyoto
A forest garden at the foot of Hidari Daimonji, on the northern edge of the city, a short drive from Kinkaku-ji.
Quoted with your dates
Hoshinoya Kyoto
On the Oi River above Arashiyama, reached by its own boat, every pavilion looking into the gorge.
Quoted with your dates
The stage of Kiyomizu-dera above the city day 4
First class to Kyoto, Higashiyama on foot, and Gion at lantern light
The shinkansen brings you to Kyoto in first class in a little over two hours, and on a clear day Mount Fuji stands on the right of the train. In the afternoon you walk Higashiyama, beginning at Kiyomizu-dera, whose wooden stage stands out over the valley on pillars of zelkova joined without a single nail, and descending the stone steps of Sannenzaka and Ninenzaka to the hotel.
Read the full dayClose the day: First class to Kyoto, Higashiyama on foot, and Gion at lantern light
Gion as the lanterns are lit, walked with your Tour Director through the lanes of the geiko district, closes your first day in Kyoto, and the evening after it is yours.
Kinkaku-ji across the Mirror Pond day 5
Kinkaku-ji and Arashiyama, a private tea ceremony, and kaiseki at a two-Michelin-star restaurant
The morning is Kinkaku-ji, its two upper storeys leafed in gold and doubled in the still water of the Mirror Pond, and then a private car west to Arashiyama, where the path through the bamboo of Sagano runs between the stems and the wind in them sounds like rain.
Read the full dayClose the day: Kinkaku-ji and Arashiyama, a private tea ceremony, and kaiseki at a two-Michelin-star restaurant
In the afternoon a host receives you for a private tea ceremony and sets the bowl down with its front turned towards you; you turn it a little before you drink, so as not to drink from the face you have been shown. Dinner is kaiseki at a two-Michelin-star restaurant in Kyoto: the season told in a procession of small courses, each on a dish chosen for it, cooked at the counter in front of you.
The torii of Fushimi Inari day 6
Fushimi Inari, the Great Buddha of Nara, and sake in Fushimi
The day begins at Fushimi Inari, where some ten thousand vermilion gates climb the mountain, each given by a merchant or a company whose name is brushed in black on its back. The private car goes on to Nara, where Todai-ji keeps the Great Buddha in one of the largest wooden halls in the world, and the deer of the park wander between the stone lanterns.
Read the full dayClose the day: Fushimi Inari, the Great Buddha of Nara, and sake in Fushimi
Lunch is in Nara.
On the way back, sake is poured for you in Fushimi by the people who brew it, from breweries that stand on the soft spring water beneath the district. The evening is yours, with your Tour Director's recommendations booked on request.
days 7 to 9
Osaka
Beside the castle park, in the city once called the kitchen of the nation
Osaka, the place
where you sleep, two nights
Hotel New Otani Osaka
You stay in one of its luxury suites.
Hotel New Otani Osaka stands on the edge of Osaka Castle Park, and its upper floors look across the trees to the keep. The castle is a walk through the park, and Dotonbori and Kuromon are a short drive away.
or choose, in Osaka
Four Seasons Hotel Osaka
High above Dojima, on the 28th to 37th floors of the One Dojima tower.
Quoted with your dates
The Imperial Floor, Imperial Hotel Osaka
The upper floors of the hotel above the Okawa river, with a lounge of their own.
Quoted with your dates
Osaka Castle above its park, the city beyond day 7
Nishiki Market, south to Osaka, the castle, and sushi omakase
Late in the morning your Tour Director walks you down Nishiki Market, five blocks of covered street that Kyoto has shopped in for four centuries, tasting as you go: pickles from wooden tubs, grilled skewers, and rolled omelette sliced from the block. The shinkansen then reaches Osaka in a quarter of an hour. Osaka Castle stands a walk through the park from the hotel, Hideyoshi's fortress, its keep on stone walls the Tokugawa raised in the 1620s, some single stones larger than a room.
Read the full dayClose the day: Nishiki Market, south to Osaka, the castle, and sushi omakase
In the evening you walk Dotonbori, the canal street dug in 1615, beneath the running man of the Glico sign.
Tonight is sushi omakase at a counter in Osaka: you sit facing the chef, the order of the evening is the chef's, and each piece reaches you the moment it is made, the rice still warm.
Wagyu on the teppan day 8
Kuromon Market, an afternoon at leisure, and wagyu teppanyaki to close
Late in the morning you walk Kuromon Market, the covered arcade the city calls its kitchen, lunching from stall to stall on scallops grilled in their shells, fatty tuna and wagyu seared on skewers.
Read the full dayClose the day: Kuromon Market, an afternoon at leisure, and wagyu teppanyaki to close
The afternoon is at your leisure.
The farewell dinner is wagyu teppanyaki at the hotel, the beef seared on the steel in front of you and carved as you watch.
day 9
Departure
After a last breakfast a private chauffeur collects you and your luggage and drives you to Kansai or Itami for your flight.
included
Everything the price includes
Your stays
- Nihonbashi Premier, Tokyo, three nights.
- Hotel The Celestine Kyoto Gion, Kyoto, three nights.
- Hotel New Otani Osaka, Osaka, two nights.
- Every night at the hotels and ryokan named above, in the rooms described for each city.
At the table
- Breakfast every day.
- Six dinners: the welcome dinner, Edomae sushi omakase at a counter in Tokyo, an izakaya evening, kaiseki at a two-Michelin-star restaurant in Kyoto, sushi omakase at a counter in Osaka, and a farewell dinner of wagyu teppanyaki.
- Three lunches: at the Tsukiji Outer Market, in Nara, and at Kuromon Market, and the tastings at Nishiki.
- Two evenings in Kyoto left open, with your Tour Director's recommendations booked on request.
Travel
- A private chauffeur at the airport on the day you arrive and on the day you leave.
- First class on the shinkansen from Tokyo to Kyoto and from Kyoto to Osaka.
- A private car and driver on the days the rail cannot do.
- Your luggage sent ahead between hotels, so you travel light from city to city.
Every day
- A private tea ceremony in Kyoto, a sake tasting in Fushimi, a craft studio visit in Asakusa, and the market walks at Tsukiji, Nishiki and Kuromon.
- Every entrance on the plan.
- The same Tour Director with you in every city, from the first evening to the last, with every room, table and car ready before you arrive.
the price
$18,000
per person, twin share, nine days. One inclusive price: all breakfasts, and all other meals as detailed in the itinerary.
All prices are in US dollars.
finding the best of the best in food experiences in Japan
the itinerary
Essential Japan, to read and to keep
The cover, the route by night, each chapter and each day, the hotels and ryokan where you sleep, everything included and the price, in one document to print or to share.
Download the itineraryOne price, settled before you travel. A deposit of $3,500 per person confirms your dates; the balance is due 95 days before you travel. Safe, secure, encrypted payment, by card or bank transfer.
Prices are per person. Two couples, or four friends, take it together in two rooms. Each journey is available across the year, on the dates you choose. You book your international flights, and we advise on the routing and on the flights that land you in good time for the welcome dinner.
Tell us the dates you have in mind and we reply in person. Each journey of The Private Collection is taken as it is designed here; if you would rather have a journey shaped around you, begin with the Custom Tour of Japan.
the extension
Hiroshima and Miyajima
Three days more, to Hiroshima and the island of Miyajima. With the extension, Essential Japan runs to twelve days. Ask us when you enquire.
the extension, day one
First class to Hiroshima, and the Peace Memorial Park
On the last morning of the journey you take the shinkansen west in first class from Osaka to Hiroshima instead of flying home, a little under ninety minutes. The afternoon is given to the Peace Memorial Park and Museum, laid out beside the Motoyasu River around the dome that has been left as it stood in 1945, and your Tour Director walks it with you.
the extension, day two
Miyajima and Itsukushima Shrine
The ferry crosses to Miyajima in ten minutes. Itsukushima Shrine is built out over the tidal flats, so that at high water its vermilion halls stand in the sea, and its great torii, some sixteen metres tall, is kept upright by its own weight alone. The afternoon is for the lanes of the island, and lunch and dinner are included.
the extension, day three
Shukkei-en, and the farewell dinner
Shukkei-en, the garden laid out for the Asano lords in 1620 around a pond of islands and small bridges, fills the morning. The afternoon is at your leisure, and a farewell dinner closes the journey. The next morning a private chauffeur takes you to Hiroshima Airport, or the shinkansen returns you to Osaka or Tokyo for your flight, in first class.
where you stay, three nights
Hotel Granvia Hiroshima
Hotel Granvia Hiroshima stands at Hiroshima Station, so the shinkansen leaves you at its door, with the Peace Memorial Park a short drive away and the ferry for Miyajima under an hour by car.
questions
Essential Japan, your questions answered
How much does Essential Japan cost?
Essential Japan is $18,000 per person, twin share, for nine days, one inclusive price: all breakfasts, and all other meals as detailed in the itinerary. A deposit of $3,500 per person confirms your dates; the balance is due 95 days before you travel.
What does the price include?
Eight nights at the hotels and ryokan named on this page, at the room level shown, breakfast every day, six dinners and three lunches, a private chauffeur at the airport on the day you arrive and the day you leave, first class on the shinkansen between the cities, and a private car and driver on the days the rail cannot do, your luggage sent ahead between hotels, every entrance on the plan, and the same Tour Director with you in every city.
Is it the same Tour Director throughout?
Yes. A private chauffeur meets your flight, and your Tour Director joins you that first evening. The same Tour Director is with you in every city, from the first evening to the last, and every room, table and car is ready before you arrive.
Can we choose a different hotel?
Yes, city by city. The price includes the hotels and ryokan named on this page, at the room level shown. In any city you may take one of the alternatives named beside it instead, and we quote it with your dates: Aman Tokyo, Palace Hotel Tokyo, Aman Kyoto, Hoshinoya Kyoto, Four Seasons Hotel Osaka and The Imperial Floor, Imperial Hotel Osaka.
Is Essential Japan right for a first visit to Japan?
Yes. It takes in Tokyo, Kyoto, Nara and Osaka, the places a first journey should see, with a Tour Director beside you throughout.
How much walking is there?
The pace is gentle, with time on your feet in gardens, temple precincts and markets, and a private car on the days the rail cannot do. If you have any question about the pace, tell us when you enquire and we will advise you honestly.
Can we choose our own dates?
Yes. Each journey is available across the year, on the dates you choose. Tell us when you would like to travel and we confirm your dates with you; because you choose them, we set the order of the days so that every place on the plan is open on the day you visit.
Who is the journey for?
One guest, a couple, or a party of up to four in two rooms. Two guests travelling together share one room, twin or double, and four guests in two rooms pay the twin-share price each.
Do you book our flights?
You book your international flights, and we advise on the routing and on the flights that land you in good time for the welcome dinner.
Is there anything to add to the price?
Tipping is not customary in Japan. In restaurants and hotels the service is in the bill. A gratuity for your Tour Director at the end is standard practice and welcomed.
Can the journey be changed?
Each journey of The Private Collection is taken as it is designed here. A guest who would like a journey shaped around them is welcome on the Custom Tour of Japan.
Can we add Hiroshima and Miyajima?
Yes. The extension adds three days, with three nights at Hotel Granvia Hiroshima, the Peace Memorial Park and Museum, a day on Miyajima for Itsukushima Shrine, and Shukkei-en. Ask us when you enquire.
How do we book?
Begin with an enquiry and the dates you have in mind, and we reply in person with the itinerary and the next step. A deposit of $3,500 per person confirms your dates; the balance is due 95 days before you travel. Safe, secure, encrypted payment, by card or bank transfer.
Choose your dates, and we plan every day of Essential Japan before you land.
the private collection
The other three journeys
- TokyoKyotoKinosakiOsaka$22,000 per person, twin share
ClassicJapanEleven days, and two nights at a Relais & Châteaux ryokan - TokyoMount FujiKyotoKinosakiOsaka$26,000 per person, twin share
DefinitiveJapanThirteen days, the most complete journey we make - HakodateNoboribetsuOtaruSapporo$21,600 per person, twin share
PureHokkaidoNine days, six nights at onsen ryokan
