No amount of research fully prepares you for Tokyo. It is big in an impossible, unimaginable way. It is alive day and night with what feels like a magnetic, electric energy. And still, in the middle of all that overwhelming enormity, it also manages to be one of the most calm, organized, and genuinely beautiful places I've ever been fortunate enough to visit.

We spend three days here and we pack them well. Tsukiji Market in the morning: the greatest food destination I've ever walked through, and I've walked through a lot of them. A hands-on sushi making class where we roll our own maki and nigiri and then eat all of it. Ancient Asakusa and the 1,400-year-old Sensoji Temple, the forested quiet of Meiji Shrine tucked inside the middle of the city, the absolute chaos of Harajuku and Takeshita Street, and then Shibuya Crossing at rush hour - hundreds of people flooding the intersection from every direction at once, surrounded by neon. It's one of those moments where you feel very small and very alive at the same time. (If these locations are foreign to you, no need to worry - that is exactly why you’re coming with us! We can’t wait to show you Tokyo’s top sights)!

And we also have a guided night in Shinjuku Ni-chome, Tokyo's legendary gay district. Over 400 bars in a few city blocks, one of the most welcoming queer scenes anywhere on the planet, and a night I promise you won't forget.

If Tokyo is the Japan you dreamed about as a kid, Kyoto is the Japan that makes you fall in love with it and you’ll now dream about it as an adult too!

We board the Shinkansen bullet train which is extremely smooth, punctual, and glides at nearly 200 mph, Mt. Fuji out the window if the skies cooperate, and arrive in Kyoto to spend two full days in one of the most beautiful cities on earth. We'll walk the Arashiyama Bamboo Grove, world famous for photography, where the light filters through the canopy in a way that makes everything feel a little otherworldly. We'll visit the UNESCO-listed Tenryuji Temple and its legendary Zen garden. We'll dress in traditional kimonos for a real tea ceremony: meditative, beautiful, and with this group, guaranteed to also be at least a little ridiculous. And we'll climb up the stone-paved lanes of Higashiyama to Kiyomizudera Temple, perched on the hillside with panoramic views over the city below (this one is my favorite).

The lantern-lit streets, the wooden machiya houses, the shrines tucked around every corner… Kyoto looks exactly like a Miyazaki film and feels even better in person. This is the Japan people talk about when they say Japan changed them. I know it changed me.

We finish big. After checking out of Kyoto, we board our private bus and head first to Nara, one of Japan's most quietly extraordinary cities, where hundreds of wild sacred deer roam freely through the park and will walk straight up to you, nudge you for snacks, and bow back when you bow to them. Yes, really. Then we continue into Osaka, stopping at the magnificent Osaka Castle before diving headfirst into Dotonbori — the loudest, most neon-lit, most delicious entertainment district in Japan. Takoyaki, okonomiyaki, mechanical crabs, the iconic Glico Running Man - this is Osaka at its most alive. We spend our last two nights here, with a free day to wander and a farewell dinner that will make you not want to leave!

On cherry blossoms: We're going at the end of March, right as peak cherry blossom season begins in earnest. The parks, temple grounds, and castle gardens will be blooming, and we're just ahead of the absolute peak crowds and prices that hit in early April. If you've ever wanted to experience Japan with cherry blossoms, this is the best window.

On traveling solo: Most people on our trips book solo. By the time we land in Tokyo, you'll have been in the trip WhatsApp group for months, on several group Zoom calls, and you may now already know most of the people you're traveling with. You don't need to arrive fully as strangers. You arrive as a group that's already building something.

On arriving early or staying late: A lot of people in this group are do exactly that - fly in a day or few before, or tacking on extra time in Japan after Osaka. If you want help planning your pre or post trip anywhere in Japan, our local tour partner Out Asia Travel can help with that. Booking this trip gets you in, and you can build out whatever else you want around it. This is your vacation — we want you to make it exactly what you're looking for. Once you book, we’re here to help connect you!

On the food: Japanese food has been my personal favorite for as long as I can remember, and nothing, I mean nothing compares to experiencing it in Japan. Finding a tiny ramen shop, sitting at a solo stall, pressing a button to order, having your bowl appear and the blinds close so it's just you and your ramen. There is nowhere else on earth where you can experience that. Japan is going to expand your entire relationship with food, and that alone is worth the trip.