Japan Trip Guide

The visa

Two applications. Japan is a short-term tourist visa, filed on paper through VFS, and it is document-heavy: it gets refused for weak paperwork, not weak intentions. Vietnam is an eVisa and it is a form and a photo. You need the Vietnam one because the return has a 23-hour layover in Hanoi where you leave the airport and sleep in the city. The outbound leg only changes planes, so that part needs nothing.

Where to go. Japan Visa Application Centre, 1st Floor, Gopalan Innovation Mall, Bannerghatta Road, 3rd Phase, J. P. Nagar, Bengaluru 560078. Appointment booked on the VFS portal, morning slot between 09:00 and 11:00, on 5 October.

What it costs at the counter. ₹500 embassy fee for single entry, about ₹1,560 VFS service charge, about ₹500 if you want the passport couriered back. Carry ₹2,600 in cash, because the card machine at the counter is unreliable.

How long. Officially five working days, commonly five to ten. Passports stay with them for one to two weeks, so plan nothing else that needs a passport.

The checklist

Everything on A4, single sided, printed. No handwriting anywhere except your signature.

Where these applications actually fail. A vague itinerary instead of dated days with addresses. A bank balance that appears three weeks before applying. Bookings that contradict the itinerary. An employment letter that does not mention approved leave. A balance that does not cover the trip you have described.

Never inject a lump sum just before applying. A single large transfer landing days before you file damages the file more than a modest balance does, because officers see it constantly. If you genuinely need family money, declare it: a signed sponsor letter with the sponsor's own statements and ITR.

If you are all applying together, file with identical itineraries and matching accommodation bookings, and say in each cover letter that you are travelling as a group, naming the others. Inconsistencies between versions of the same trip are exactly what gets flagged.

Cover letter template

Replace everything in brackets. Keep it to one page. Every number in it must match a document in the file.

To,
The Consul General,
Consulate-General of Japan, Bengaluru

Subject: Application for Short-Term Tourist Sticker Visa, Travel Itinerary Enclosed

Respected Sir/Madam,

I am writing to formally request a single-entry short-term tourist sticker
visa for my upcoming leisure trip to Japan. I am a resident of Bengaluru,
currently working as a [Your Designation] at [Your Company].

My travel itinerary is fully finalized with confirmed, paid international
flight tickets. I am scheduled to depart from Bengaluru on [Departure
Date], landing in Japan on [Arrival Date]. My journey focuses on exploring
the historical, cultural, and scenic landmarks across [List major cities,
e.g. Tokyo, Kyoto, and Osaka]. I will officially exit Japan from [Exit
City] on [Exit Date], traveling via [transit city/country] before
returning home to Bengaluru on [Date of Arrival in India].

I will be processing my [Name of Country] tourist visa closer to my
departure date, keeping in alignment with their official application
eligibility window.

Regarding my financial capability to sponsor this journey, I have enclosed
my certified personal bank statements demonstrating a stable income and a
healthy liquid cash balance of [exact closing balance]. Additionally, to
ensure complete financial flexibility and access to emergency funds during
my travels, I have enclosed [backup funds, e.g. a credit card limit
certificate reflecting a limit of X / fixed deposit certificates]. As all
international air travel is fully prepaid, these combined resources are
more than sufficient to comfortably support all day-to-day lodging,
transit, and operational costs during my stay.

Enclosed for your review are:
  1.  Completed visa application form and passport photographs
  2.  Day-by-day travel itinerary with confirmed flight tickets
  3.  Confirmed hotel and accommodation vouchers
  4.  Certified 6-month bank account statements
  5.  Leave approval letter, recent salary slips, and income tax documents
  6.  [Any extra financial proofs]

I assure you that I am a law-abiding visitor, fully self-funded, and will
return to my home country well within the authorized timeframe. Thank you
for considering my application.

Sincerely,
[Your Full Name]
Passport Number: [Your Passport Number]
Mobile: [Your Phone Number]
Email: [Your Email Address]

Vietnam eVisa

Single entry, tourism, US$25 a head, applied for on evisa.gov.vn and nowhere else. Almost every other Vietnam visa site is a reseller charging three to five times the fee to fill in the same form. Apply between 10 and 20 November: it takes three to five working days, and it is dated against your declared entry.

Enter the arrival date as 16 December 2026 and the port of entry as Noi Bai International Airport, Hanoi. The eVisa is tied to the entry point you declare, so this is the one field where a mistake actually costs you. Print the approval, because check-in staff sometimes ask for paper.

What to pre-book, and when

Japan runs on reservations. Highway coach seats open exactly one month before departure, to the day, and several of the legs here have one or three services daily. Miss one and the day reshapes around it.

teamLab Borderless tickets open two months ahead, on the 1st of the month, which is why it is first on this list. It sells out.

Do not buy a JR Pass. After the price rise it is about ¥50,000 for seven days, and this route uses exactly one JR bullet train. Everything else is private railways and highway coaches that the pass does not cover.

Keep in mind

Costs are per person and are estimates. Yen is converted at ₹0.56. Taxi and private car fares are given as the full fare, so divide by however many of you are going.

Paying for things. Use one zero-forex credit card for everything that takes a card: online bookings, hostels, the Shinkansen app, tickets, convenience stores, restaurants. Turn on international transactions in the issuer's app before you fly.

Never take cash out on that credit card. An ATM withdrawal on a credit card is a cash advance: interest from day one plus a fee. Carry a separate prepaid forex card, loaded with ₹15,000 to ₹20,000, and use it only at 7-Bank ATMs, which sit inside every 7-Eleven and accept foreign cards when ordinary bank ATMs refuse them. The fee there is a flat ¥100 to ¥220.

Carry ¥10,000 to ¥15,000 in paper notes from India, about ₹5,500 to ₹8,500 from an authorised dealer. Japan is more cash-dependent than it looks. The tourist IC card machines at the airport take paper yen only, and so do shrine entry booths, rural taxis and old street-food counters.

The IC card is how you use every train. Suica and Pasmo are contactless cards that work on trains, metros, buses and in convenience stores nationwide. You tap in and tap out and it deducts the fare, so you never buy a paper ticket. On iPhone, add one in the Wallet app before you fly and top it up with a credit card. Indian Android phones cannot hold one, because the hardware chip is Japan-only, so buy a physical Welcome Suica or Pasmo Passport at the airport counter instead.

Data. Buy an eSIM online before leaving, not at the airport, where it is marked up. A 10GB 15-day plan is about ₹1,250 to ₹1,650. Pick a provider running on the NTT Docomo network, which is the one with coverage in the mountains around Fuji and Takayama. Your phone has to be carrier-unlocked.

Plugs and power. Japan is Type A, two flat parallel pins, 100V. A small universal adapter covers it. Check each charger reads "Input 100 to 240V". Power banks must stay in cabin baggage, never checked, on both flights and bullet trains, and must be under 100Wh, roughly 20,000mAh.

Clothes. Tokyo and Osaka are 6 to 13°C in the day, cold but dry. Kawaguchiko, Takayama and the Nara hills drop to -3 to 2°C with wind and a real chance of snow. Bring two or three sets of thermal base layers, a windproof down jacket, water-resistant shoes with grip, and gloves that work on a touchscreen.

Vegetarian food needs a rule, not luck. The trap is dashi, a stock made from dried fish flakes, which sits under most Japanese soups and sauces including things that look completely vegetable. Vegetable ramen is usually not vegetarian, and neither is miso soup. Three phrases to screenshot in Japanese before you fly: niku nashi, no meat, sakana nashi, no fish, and dashi nashi, no fish stock. The third one is the one nobody thinks to say. Install HappyCow, which maps vegetarian places and is unusually good in Japan.

Some words that appear below. A konbini is a convenience store, and in Japan that means a decent cheap meal, an ATM and a clean toilet. An izakaya is a small pub that serves food. A yokocho is a narrow alley of tiny six-seat bars. A torii is the gate at the entrance to a Shinto shrine. An onsen is a hot spring bath. Takkyu-bin is same-day or next-day luggage courier between hotels, which is how you avoid dragging bags around.

Etiquette that matters. Do not eat while walking. No phone calls on trains, and keep your voice down. Queue on the markings painted on the platform. Carry a small bag for your rubbish, because public bins barely exist. In an onsen you wash thoroughly before getting in, wear nothing, and never let your towel touch the water.

Save money on food without trying. Supermarkets cut the price of prepared food from about 19:00, thirty percent first, then half-price stickers near closing. Life, Ito-Yokado, Aeon and Gyomu Super. A ¥600 sushi tray becomes ¥300.

Day 1 · 6 Dec, Sunday

Bengaluru to the airport and out. Nothing happens today except leaving.

The flow. Reach Kempegowda International by 20:30. Before you check in, physically confirm the visa dossier is in your cabin bag: stamped bank statement, salary slips, card limit certificate. You will not need them again unless someone asks, and Japanese immigration occasionally does. Clear check-in and immigration, and board at 23:40.

Tips. Charge every camera, power bank and gimbal at the gate, and move the power banks into cabin baggage now if they are not already. If your phone can hold a digital Suica card, add it and load ¥3,000 tonight, so you walk off the plane able to tap through a turnstile.

Cost. Nothing beyond the flight, already paid.

Day 2 · 7 Dec, Monday

Land at Osaka, cross the country to Tokyo, sleep in Akihabara. Five hours of transit on top of an overnight flight, and the most expensive day on the ground.

The flow. Land at Kansai International Airport at 14:25. Immigration takes about 40 minutes with the Visit Japan Web QR codes ready on your phone. Collect bags, clear customs, then walk across the terminal bridge to the JR station.

Buy your IC card here if you do not have a digital one, then take the Haruka Express, an airport train, to Shin-Osaka Station, 50 minutes. At Shin-Osaka follow the yellow overhead signs to the Shinkansen gates and take the Tokaido Shinkansen to Tokyo Station, 2 hours 30. Buy an ekiben, a boxed meal sold on the platform, and eat it on board. It is a proper dinner, not a snack.

At Tokyo Station do not leave through the outer gates. Transfer inside to the JR Yamanote Line, northbound, and ride two stops to Akihabara. The hostel is about five minutes from the Electric Town exit.

Drop your bags and go back out. Akihabara is the electronics and anime district and it is at its best lit up: arcades running until eleven, billboards stacked eight floors high, cheap food in the lanes off the main road.

Commute.

Eat. Ekiben on the platform at Shin-Osaka, about ¥1,200: look for the vegetable or sansai boxes if you do not eat meat, and check the label with Google Translate. Late night, the ramen counters around Akihabara are open; Kyushu Jangara Ramen does a fully vegan soy milk and vegetable broth bowl alongside the usual pork ones, ¥600 to ¥1,100.

Cost. About ¥19,750, roughly ₹11,100.

Tips. Keep the evening to one drink. Everyone will have been awake for 24 hours and day three is a full one. For pictures, Manseibashi Bridge and the elevated tracks give you the neon with a yellow train blurring across it.

Day 3 · 8 Dec, Tuesday

The old city in the morning, the electronics district by daylight, and a tower view at sunset.

The flow. From Akihabara take the Tsukuba Express two stops north to Asakusa and walk five minutes to Senso-ji, Tokyo's oldest temple, founded in 645. It is free, and at 08:45 it is quiet in a way it never is later. Walk in under the Kaminarimon, a gate with an enormous red paper lantern hanging from it, then down Nakamise Shopping Street, the stall-lined approach, before the crowds arrive.

Take the Ginza Line three stops west to Ueno Park, then walk into Ameyoko Market, a loud street market running directly under the elevated railway. This is your lunch stop.

Back to Akihabara by mid-afternoon to see it in daylight: Radio Kaikan and the big multi-floor electronics stores, which are a completely different thing from the night version.

At 17:30 take the Hibiya Line straight across the city to Roppongi, and go up to Tokyo City View on the 52nd floor of Roppongi Hills, about ¥2,000. It is an indoor deck with floor-to-ceiling glass, and the east-facing side looks straight at Tokyo Tower. Sunset is 16:30, so get there by 18:00 for the lit version.

Commute.

Eat. Lunch is street food at Ameyoko: yakitori and takoyaki for the meat eaters, grilled corn, roasted chestnuts and taiyaki for everyone else. Near Senso-ji, Sekai Cafe labels its whole menu vegetarian, vegan and halal, ¥800 to ¥1,400, which is the easy option in a district that is otherwise thin on them.

Cost. About ¥5,900, roughly ₹3,300.

Tips. Shoot the Kaminarimon from directly underneath, pointing up, so the calligraphy fills the frame. At the temple, the five-storey pagoda frames cleanly from the left of the main hall, behind the stone washing fountains. At Ameyoko, stand where the tracks split above you.

Day 4 · 9 Dec, Wednesday

Shift base from east Tokyo to west, then a full day across the fashionable half of the city, finishing in two lantern alleys. This is the heaviest day in Tokyo.

The flow. Check out at 08:30 and take the JR Chuo Rapid straight across to Shinjuku, 12 minutes. Leave your bags at the new hostel counter, they all hold them before check-in.

Take the Yamanote Line two stops to Harajuku and walk into Meiji Jingu, a Shinto shrine set in dense forest in the middle of the city. The gravel path in is twenty minutes each way and is as much the point as the shrine. On the way, look for the wall of decorated sake barrels donated to the shrine.

Come out into Takeshita Street, the loud teenage shopping lane, then walk down Omotesando, the wide designer avenue, stopping at Tokyu Plaza Omotesando, whose entrance escalator is lined with mirrored tiles.

Keep walking downhill into Shibuya. See Shibuya Crossing from ground level, then go up to the 11th-floor free sky lobby of Shibuya Hikarie to look down on it. It is free and uncrowded, and the paid decks show you the same city.

At 15:00, teamLab Borderless, a digital art museum at Azabudai Hills where the works move between rooms. Around ₹2,480, timed entry, booked in October. Give it two and a half hours.

Walk ten minutes east at 17:30 to the 7-Eleven at Shibakoen, where the convenience store sits with Tokyo Tower lit up directly behind it.

Evening is two alleys: Nonbei Yokocho in Shibuya, tiny wooden bars under the train tracks, and then Omoide Yokocho by the west exit of Shinjuku Station, which is the same idea in charcoal smoke and walking distance from bed.

Commute.

Eat. Lunch in Harajuku or along the Shibuya Stream canal walk. In the alleys at night the yakitori grills will do king oyster mushrooms, ginkgo nuts and shishito peppers for vegetarians on request, but say niku nashi and point. If you would rather not gamble, Ain Soph. Ripple in Shinjuku is entirely vegan and open late, ¥1,000 to ¥1,500, and T's Tantan inside Tokyo Station does plant-based dandan noodles.

Cost. About ¥9,450, roughly ₹5,300.

Tips. Two alleys in one night is a choice, not a rule. If the group would rather eat properly once, keep Omoide Yokocho, since you are sleeping beside it, and use the 19:00 slot for a real dinner in Shibuya. The route does work geographically: Shibakoen back to Shibuya is 15 minutes and Shibuya to Shinjuku is 7.

Day 5 · 10 Dec, Thursday

Out of the city to Mount Fuji, and a whole day going around the lake at its foot.

The flow. Check out by 08:00 and walk to Busta Shinjuku, the expressway bus terminal on the 4th floor above Shinjuku Station's south exit. The 08:45 coach takes 1 hour 45 to Kawaguchiko Station.

Put the big bags in station lockers or at the hostel straight away. Fuji is visible from the town itself, and the day is a loop of viewpoints rather than a climb.

Rent a bicycle at a shop by the station and ride ten minutes to Lawson Fujikawaguchiko Town Hall. This is the convenience store with the mountain directly behind it. The more famous branch nearer the station now has a screen up to stop crowds, and this one does not, so you can cross the road safely.

Cycle back and take the local Fujikyu Railway three stops to Mt. Fuji Station for Fujiyoshida's retro shopping street, an ordinary high street with lanterns, overhead wires and old shop banners lining up straight at the mountain.

At 15:00 take a ten-minute taxi up the pass behind Kawaguchi Asama Shrine to Tenku no Torii, a single red shrine gate standing on a hillside with Fuji centred behind it. Cash entry, about ¥500.

Check in on the north shore of the lake in the late afternoon and spend the evening in the onsen.

Commute.

Eat. Lunch is hoto, the local winter dish: thick flat wheat noodles in a miso broth with pumpkin, served in an iron pot. Houtou Fudou across from the station does it for about ¥1,200, and the standard version is vegetable-based, but ask them to confirm there is no fish-flake powder in your pot.

Cost. About ¥7,600, roughly ₹4,300.

Tips. Mind the painted pedestrian boundaries at the convenience stores. The town has had genuine problems with photographers standing in the road, and the locals are out of patience. Before bed, ask the hotel to book a taxi to the station for tomorrow morning, because the lake bus does not start early enough.

Day 6 · 11 Dec, Friday

A dawn reflection, a run around the south side of the mountain, and then a long coach into the mountains. The single longest travel day.

The flow. Out at 06:45 to the lake edge at Oishi Park for Sakasa Fuji, the mountain reflected upside down in still water. This only exists at dawn, before the wind starts, so it is the whole reason for sleeping on the north shore.

At 07:30 take a pre-arranged car around to the Shizuoka side, the southern face. Fujisan Yume no Ohashi is a wide concrete pedestrian bridge with a staircase that, shot from the bottom, appears to climb straight into the mountain. Then 25 minutes west to Shiraito Falls, where hundreds of thin falls come straight out of a black volcanic rock face, fed by Fuji's snowmelt.

Back to Kawaguchiko Station by 11:15, collect the luggage, and take the Limon coach at 11:45. It crosses the Alps via Matsumoto and reaches Takayama at about 17:30. One service a day, wide seats, USB and wifi, a rest stop every 90 minutes.

The hostel is two minutes north of the bus terminal. In the evening walk ten minutes east across the red Nakabashi Bridge into Sanmachi Suji, a preserved district of black-timbered Edo-period merchant houses, quiet and lantern-lit after dark.

Commute.

Eat. Dinner in Takayama is Hida beef, the local wagyu, grilled on a magnolia leaf over a small clay burner at your table, about ¥2,500. Vegetarians get thick mountain tofu and shiitake on the same leaf with the same sweet miso, but tell the restaurant when you book, not when you sit down. Center4 Hamburgers is the other option and has a proper grain-patty vegetarian burger, ¥850 to ¥1,500.

Cost. About ¥17,700, roughly ₹9,900, assuming the car splits four or five ways.

Tips. This is the one bus in the trip with no alternative. Miss it and the fallback is a full day by train via Otsuki, Matsumoto and Nagoya. Be at the stop twenty minutes early. If the south shore run looks too expensive or the weather is bad, drop it and take the morning slowly instead: the reflection at Oishi Park is the part worth getting up for.

Day 7 · 12 Dec, Saturday

A day trip out to a thatched mountain village, then an easy evening back in Takayama.

The flow. Walk two minutes to the Nohi Bus Center and take the 08:20 from platform 4 to Shirakawa-go, 50 minutes through the valleys. The village is a UNESCO site of gassho-zukuri farmhouses, built with enormously steep thatched roofs to shed heavy snow. Some are 250 years old and people still live in them.

From behind the terminal a ¥200 shuttle runs up to the Shiroyama viewpoint, where the whole valley of roofs sits below you in one frame. Come back down, cross the suspension bridge into the village, and walk the lanes. On the southern edge, three farmhouses line up over the fields. You can go inside Wada House, the largest of them, for about ¥400.

Take the 14:20 bus back, arriving 15:10. Spend the late afternoon at a sake brewery in the old town: a few hundred yen buys a small ceramic cup and tastings poured from the barrel.

Commute.

Eat. Lunch is village stall food: gohei mochi, grilled rice cakes on a stick with a sweet walnut-miso glaze, which is vegetarian, and Hida beef croquettes, which are not. Back in Takayama, soba for dinner, and check the broth if you do not eat fish.

Cost. About ¥9,800, roughly ₹5,500.

Tips. Seats on the Nohi bus are reserved, so this is booked on 12 November. If a snowstorm suspends the highway, cancel and stay in town: Takayama Jinya, a 17th-century government house, is fully indoors, and the Matsuri Yatai Kaikan holds the carved festival floats. If anyone is up early tomorrow, the Miyagawa morning market runs along the river from 07:00.

Day 8 · 13 Dec, Sunday

Four hours down out of the mountains to Kyoto, then an afternoon and evening through the old eastern temple district.

The flow. Check out by 07:30 and take the 08:00 Nohi highway coach from the bus terminal. It reaches the Hachijo exit of Kyoto Station around 12:00. Walk through the station to the north side and ten minutes along Shichijo-dori to drop your bags.

At 13:30 take the subway to Nijo Castle, the shogun's residence in Kyoto, with gold leaf on the palace gate, wide stone moats and floors built to squeak as a warning of intruders.

At 15:40 cross the city by bus to Kiyomizu-dera, a temple whose main hall stands on a huge wooden platform propped over the hillside. Walk past the hall to the Oku-no-in terrace and look back at it with the city behind. Entry ¥500.

Come down the stone steps of Sannenzaka and Ninenzaka, old lanes of wooden shopfronts, as the lanterns come on and the day crowds leave. The Yasaka Pagoda stands at the end of the slope, which is the most recognisable view in Kyoto.

Ten minutes north, Kodai-ji runs a winter night illumination, about ¥600: projections across the raked gravel of the Zen garden with lit bamboo behind it. Then Yasaka Shrine, where hundreds of white paper lanterns hang over the central stage, and out into Gion, the old entertainment district, along the Shirakawa canal.

Commute.

Eat. Lunch near Gion after you drop bags. Dinner is ramen back near the station; ask for the vegetable broth version or use Sukemasa inside the station complex, which has a labelled ginger and vegetable gyoza set with no meat or seafood, ¥800 to ¥1,200. Kyoto is also the best place in Japan to eat shojin ryori, Buddhist temple cuisine, which is entirely plant-based, if you want one proper meal out of it.

Cost. About ¥10,900, roughly ₹6,100.

Tips. Several Gion lanes now fine people for photographing geiko and maiko, and the private streets ban photography completely. Walk them, do not chase anyone. Kyoto Station itself is worth twenty minutes on the way past: the 1997 building is a glass canyon with an enormous open staircase and a free rooftop garden.

Day 9 · 14 Dec, Monday

The early start that the whole trip is built around. Two of the most photographed places in Japan are free, and both are ruined by nine in the morning.

The flow. Leave at 06:30 and take the JR Nara Line two stops south to Inari. At 07:00 Fushimi Inari Taisha is effectively empty. It is a shrine with thousands of vermilion torii gates lined up into tunnels running up the hillside, donated over centuries, with the donor's name on the back of each one. Walk twenty minutes up past the first dense stretch and you will have it to yourself.

At 09:00 take the train back through Kyoto Station and out to Saga-Arashiyama. The famous bamboo grove here is unusable by then, so walk north out of the commercial strip into the Saga-Toriimoto preservation district instead.

Adashino Nenbutsu-ji is a temple with thousands of small moss-covered stone Buddhas gathered in a quiet valley, and its own bamboo stair, which is empty all day. Ten minutes further up the hill, Otagi Nenbutsu-ji has 1,200 carved stone figures, every face different and most of them cheerful.

Walk back down to the Togetsukyo Bridge and the Katsura river for lunch, then take the train back. In the evening, the top-floor skywalk inside Kyoto Station is free and looks straight at the lit Kyoto Tower.

Commute.

Eat. Breakfast is a konbini stop on the walk to the station. At Fushimi Inari, the approach is lined with stalls: inari sushi, pouches of sweet fried tofu stuffed with vinegared rice, is named after this shrine and is entirely vegetarian. Lunch by the river in Arashiyama.

Cost. About ¥4,100, roughly ₹2,300. The cheapest day of the trip.

Tips. If the alarm fails and you arrive at nine, do not fight it. Go to Gio-ji, a small moss temple in the hills that stays quiet all day, or Tofuku-ji, which has raised wooden bridge galleries over a wooded valley. At Fushimi Inari, the light comes through the gaps between the gates early and not later, which is the real reason for the time.

Day 10 · 15 Dec, Tuesday

Nara in the morning, taken downhill instead of uphill, then into Osaka for the last night in Japan.

The flow. Check out at 07:30 and use the hostel desk to send your main bag ahead to the Osaka hostel by takkyu-bin, the luggage courier, about ¥2,000. That leaves you with nothing to carry on the Nara trails.

Take the Kintetsu express from Kyoto to Kintetsu-Nara Station, 45 minutes. From the taxi rank outside exit 4, take a cab 15 minutes up the driveway to the Mount Wakakusa summit, about ¥2,200 a car. Day-trippers rarely come up here, so the grass ridge is quiet and the deer on it are resting rather than begging.

Walk down the marked trail off the south face, through mossy forest, and you come out at the back gates of Kasuga Taisha, a shrine known for around 3,000 stone and bronze lanterns lining its paths.

Keep going downhill into Nara Park, where around a thousand wild deer live. Buy shika-senbei, deer crackers, for ¥200 from a park stall. They bow for them. They are also wild animals: they headbutt, and they will eat a paper map.

At the bottom of the park is Todai-ji, whose main hall is one of the largest wooden buildings in the world and holds a 15-metre bronze Buddha.

On the way back to the station, stop at Nakatanidou on Sanjo-dori, where the bakers pound mochi with heavy wooden mallets at high speed, shouting in rhythm. ¥180 for a fresh one, cash only.

Take the Kintetsu rapid express to Osaka-Namba, 38 minutes, check in and collect your forwarded bag. Then Rikuro's for a hot jiggly cheesecake stamped with an iron brand, and at dusk stand on Ebisu Bridge over the Dotonbori canal as the neon billboards come on around the Glico running man sign.

Finish in Hozenji Yokocho, a stone lane three minutes off the chaos with a moss-covered statue that people splash with water, and then the Dotonbori food stalls.

Commute.

Eat. Lunch in Nara at a conveyor-belt sushi place, which suits a mixed group: plates of fish and plates of cucumber, corn and inari roll past the same table. Dinner is street food in Dotonbori: takoyaki, octopus balls, and kushikatsu, deep-fried skewers, are both meat or seafood, but okonomiyaki, the savoury cabbage pancake, can be made vegetarian. Chibo will cook one with no meat, no seafood and no dashi if you ask, ¥1,000 to ¥1,600.

Cost. About ¥9,300, roughly ₹5,200.

Tips. Confirm when you hand the bags over that same-day delivery runs on that route, because the standard service is next-day. If it is next-day only, send them on the evening of the 14th and keep one change of clothes. Film the mochi pounding in slow motion, it is over in about twenty seconds.

Day 11 · 16 Dec, Wednesday

A slow morning, one high view over Osaka, then out to Vietnam.

The flow. Check out at 09:00 and take the Midosuji subway line eight minutes north to Umeda. Leave your daypack in a station coin locker and walk three minutes to HEP Five. The red ferris wheel on its 7th floor opens at 11:00 and takes you 106 metres up between the skyscrapers, about ¥800.

At 12:15 head back south and take the Nankai Airport Express from Namba to Kansai International Airport, 45 minutes, ¥930. Be there by 13:00 for a 15:40 flight, and use the tax-free refund desk if you bought anything over ¥5,000 in a single shop.

Land at Noi Bai airport in Hanoi at 19:15. Clear immigration on the eVisa, then take Express Bus 86 into the city, 45,000 VND, about ₹150, getting off at Long Bien and walking five minutes into the Old Quarter.

Commute.

Eat. Breakfast at Kuromon Ichiba, the covered market five minutes from Namba, which is mostly grilled seafood but also has fruit, tempura vegetables and fresh soy milk doughnuts. In Hanoi, late dinner is bun cha, grilled pork with noodles, or pho chay, the vegetarian version of pho, for under ₹200 a head.

Cost. About ¥4,300 in Japan plus ₹550 in Vietnam, roughly ₹2,950 in total.

Tips. International check-in closes earlier than you expect, so being at the airport by 13:00 is the plan and not the fallback. Change a small amount of dong at the airport for the bus and the first meal only. The rate there is poor and the Old Quarter has better ones on every second street.

Day 12 · 17 Dec, Thursday

Half a day in Hanoi, then home.

The flow. Leave your bags at the accommodation after checkout, almost every Old Quarter place holds them, so the morning is hands-free.

Walk ten minutes south to Hoan Kiem Lake at 08:30, when the neighbourhood is out doing tai chi around it and mist is still sitting on the water. The red Huc Bridge crosses to a small temple on an island in the middle.

At 10:30 walk fifteen minutes west to Train Street, a residential railway corridor so narrow that the train passes an arm's length from the houses. You sit at a trackside cafe with an egg coffee and wait for it. Access is opened and closed by the police without notice, so check on the morning rather than building the day around it.

Collect your bag and take Express Bus 86 back to the airport at 14:30 for the 18:50 flight home, landing in Bengaluru at 22:25.

Commute.

Eat. Breakfast is pho on a plastic stool on the pavement, which is the correct way to eat it. Vietnamese broth is pork and fish based by default, so ask for pho chay. Hanoi has good vegetarian restaurants because of its Buddhist tradition, and HappyCow works here too. Then ca phe trung, egg coffee, which is a Hanoi invention and closer to a dessert.

Cost. ₹1,500 to ₹2,500, including the bus and a buffer.

Tips. If Train Street is shut, the French Quarter around the Opera House is a fifteen-minute walk and fills the same slot. St Joseph's Cathedral, neo-gothic and built in 1886, is five minutes from the lake.

What it adds up to

Four things are more than half the on-ground cost: the day-two rail at about ¥17,500, the Limon coach at ¥10,000, the private car around Fuji, and the Nohi coach to Kyoto at ¥5,000. Everything else is food and metro fares.

All figures are per person and are estimates, not quotes. Fares, entry fees and opening hours are as published for the current season and should be confirmed when booking, because Japanese operators revise fares in spring.