Japan is the country I get asked about more than anywhere else on earth, and it’s also the one I most love planning, partly because the questions people arrive with are almost never the ones that matter. You’ll ask me how many cities you can fit in. What I’d love you to ask is which season you’re travelling in, because in Japan the season decides everything: the prices, the crowds, what’s open, and whether April means standing under the blossom or standing behind someone photographing it.

Here’s the genuinely good news. Japan is the easiest complicated country in the world to travel in. The trains run to the second. The food is outstanding at every single price point. You could leave your wallet on a bench and find it there an hour later. And the service culture is unlike anywhere else; people take real pride in doing small things beautifully, and you feel it all day long.

What catches people out is never the big stuff. It’s the small, unglamorous details nobody mentions: cash, luggage, shoes, tattoos, booking windows that open months ahead. Sort those and the whole trip glides, so do read this before you decide anything.