The Japanese national tourist agency

The Japanese National Tourist Organization [JNTO] has some excellent information, guides, deals and photos on its website. Here is our little guide on the best of it.

Every country has its top attractions and the Japanese themselves are well known for trying to do as many of them in the shortest possible time when they visit other countries. Making that same mistake here would be a crime. There are of course some ‘must see’ items but it really depends on which time of year you will be visiting Japan as to what you concentrate on. In fact, approaching your visit to Japan based on which season it is you are travelling is probably the best thing to do.

It is also the way that the JNTO lays out a large proportion of their site. This is not a coincidence. You will soon learn that there is, in Japan, no such thing. All things are planned. But that needn’t detract from your visit in the slightest. Just sit back, select whatever level of organisation you can cope with, and enjoy…..

A Rough Guide to the Japan National Tourist Organiszation Website [and to planning your trip to Japan]:

Traditonal Annual Events: a list of these is available on the JNTO site and is a pretty good first port of call when planning what to see. From January’s ‘exchange of Bull-finches festival’ to Kasuga Wakamiya On-matsuri - a festival of arts and sports dating from the 12th Century - in December, the year has a lot to offer. Look elsewhere than the JNTO though, including via our suggested tourism links article, for the year’s more exotic events. Such as the Kanagawa “Giant Penis Festival”, which is happening this year on the 6th of April in Kawasaki. We shall be there, naturally, to soak up the atmosphere. No pun or inuendo intended I can assure you.

Seasonal Attractions: on top of the month-by-month list of events there are the events and sights to be seen offered up by Japan’s excellent seasonal variations. One of the great things about being a Brit here is that here, once again as I did in my childhood back in the UK, I can enjoy four seasons. Japan is very connected to its seasons and each is welcomed with some degree of razzmatazz, often inane media coverage and - at the level we enjoy - amongst your average Japanese person, via their diet, home habits and regime and by the activities they undertake as a family and with friends. The JNTO page of seasonal attractions will give you a good start at discovering where to go to see cherry blossom, winter festivals, summer fireworks [hanabi] or autumn food festivals. It must be said though that the celebration of each season revolves, more often than not, around consumption of different foods and along with them, alcohol. Seasonal food is very much a part of Japanese life.

Destination Based Planning: if you are flying in from Australasia or elsewhere in Asia, chances are you may have an alternative to Narita Airport outside Tokyo; Kansai Airport or Haneda amongst others. Most tourists though will arrive via Narita and fan out around Japan from Tokyo either using internal flights - most commonly from Haneda in Tokyo city centre - or by using the excellent network of Bullet Trains, or shinkansen. Top destinations after Tokyo include: Kyoto, Nara, Hakone, Osaka, Kobe, Hiroshima, Hokkaido. All of which we have visited and can thoroughly recommend. Week and two-week ‘Japan Rail Pass‘ tickets can be bought but usually only outside of Japan. The voucher is then redeemed at an approved station and exchanged for your ticket. We can recommend this kind of ticket and will be writing a separate article shortly all about a week spent using one, which our editor did back in 2002. The JNTO’s list of destinations within Japan is good and acts as an excellent starting point for your planning.

Interest Based Planning: we all have our individual taste. Vive la difference! So, if you fancy basing planning for your trip to Japan on the sorts of interests you have, the JNTO has a pretty good set of pages on this theme. Whether it is the city, coast, mountain, or hot-spring; historical sites, shrines, temples, castles, lakes or rivers there is a good steer from their site on where to go. Check their interest pages here.

Other Resources Available From The JNTO:

• Essential information: such as money, visas, health information, location of tourist information and guide facilities, etc.
• Transportation: planes, trains and automobiles, bicycles, rickshaws etc.
• Accomodation: from the humble ryokan [guest house] to your five star palace ‘perhaps we might need a second mortgage for this’ type thing.
• The section they call ‘Attractions’ but which includes trip planning advice, details of museums, special interest travel, affordable Japan, The Golden Route and much more.
• About Japan: an introduction to the country and customs.