Tokyo

Two calendars run Japan. Cherry blossom holds late March into early April, is gone in a fortnight, and the good hotels sell out close to a year ahead. November's autumn colour is nearly as beautiful and half as fought over. Between them sit two weeks we will steer you around without apology: Golden Week at the turn of April, and Obon in mid August, when the whole country travels at once.

In the city itself, the question is old Tokyo or new. Aman Tokyo floats thirty-three floors above Otemachi; Hoshinoya answers it differently, a true ryokan stacked into a tower, tatami underfoot and an onsen at the top. Days work best as contrasts: the outer market at Tsukiji at dawn and an omakase counter by noon, Ginza's basement food halls one afternoon and the surviving lanes of Yanaka the next. Sumo morning practice can be arranged with the right introduction, which is precisely the sort of thing you pay us to have.

And Tokyo is rarely the whole trip. The shinkansen to Kyoto is the spine; the value a specialist adds is what happens between: a night in a Hakone ryokan, Kanazawa's markets, the art islands of Naoshima if the dates allow.

Best windows

Late March to early April for sakura (book a year out), November for colour.

Avoid

Golden Week (late April to early May) and Obon (mid August). Domestic travel surges, prices with it.

Reserve early

Ryokan with in-room dining, the famous omakase counters, teamLab entry slots.

Good for

Once-in-a-decade holidays, honeymoons, small-group travel with a guide worth the name.