Japan 2025; A thousand days. That’s just about how long Japan was closed to the world, until 2023. And to make up for it, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has deems 2024 the U.S.-Japan Tourism Year. But North Americans certainly do not need a special tourism celebration to make this the year that a bucket list vacation in Japan becomes the plan.
The country of 6,852 islands on the western edge of the Pacific is readying once again for its tourism close-up. And visitors are flowing through its 1,900-mile expanse, from the snowy north to the tropical south, to see the scented forests of cherry blossom blooms; to create unforgettable Instagram moments in the popping neon and vibrant boulevards of Tokyo; to immerse in the wisdom of Buddhist monks and Shinto priests in hidden temples and shrines; to whizz through the countryside like a speeding bullet and to soak in ancient volcanic waters in the company of mischievous macaques.
Japan 2025
If you could portray the fullness of Japan in a word, it might be … umami. It’s a taste that takes in all the others, the sour, the sweet, the salty, the bitter and the savory to make a mélange that can only be experienced. It can’t describe.
You can put the taste in a Bento box but you would missing the seductive omakase that presents in more than a dozen small bites, each a world of difference from the last in a delicate design and tradition of its own. You can marvel at the lights of Tokyo from on high, but you would be missing the alleyways of artisanal craft sellers, hide noodle shops, and odd recess temples beckoning with clowders of whimsical but lucky maneki-nekos – those placid cat charms with waving paws.
Best Thing To Do
You could fly by Mt. Fuji in a bullet train but then you would miss wondering between farms and towns and the banks of the Kano River, perhaps cycling, perhaps driving and dipping into 15th century samurai steads to discover a temple built more than 1000 years ago and once served as a school for geishas in training.
In its indescribable tastes, Japan remains mysterious. Westerners will meet friendly people who may not speak English but will easily communicate their warmth and joy. Foods will open the senses in ways not foretold. Forests will impart silence and wisdom of the ages. And art is everywhere – in stellar museums, in precious artistries, in the very act of the written letter or word. For in Japan, reverence for beauty is everything. It shows up in pristine cities, painstaking fashion, the precise cut of a fish gill, in the caretaking of the earth that holds histories in all its crevices.
So, to visit Japan today is a waking up of sorts. It’s a trip everyone must take during a lifetime … a pilgrimage to the past and journey to the edge of this moment. Find a gateway here to more than 20 UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Sacred shrines and temples dot the forest and countryside as do hot springs, ancient villages, famous museums, traditional wayside inns, five-star hotels and Michelin chefs …. In a wonderful mélange that must be savored slowly and experienced purposefully.
Seeing Japan 2025 with SITA
SITA World Tours can make this happen, whether a small specialized group jaunt or a customized personal tour. Japan may be beautiful but it can also baffling for the uninitiated. Japan has always been an inward nation and its centuries of feudal lordships, warring clans and emphasis on Confucian ideals kept it isolated for most of those eras and away from Western influence and trade. But SITA has created a curated selection of ways visitors can delve into the Japanese way of life, a way to immerse in beauties, poetries and perceptions they would miss without the care of a knowing guide.
Perhaps it is a week dipping into the different sides of Japan — from its urban glamour to its iconic landscapes, to the castles, temples and cities, and onward to the preserved magnificence of Kyoto. Maybe it’s a food focus with time to take in Tsukiji Market, the largest market in Japan. Have lunch on Mt. Fuji and dinner in a Shokudo, enjoying sushi specials with locals.
SITA guests will visit temples, castles, and residences. They will soak in an Onsen, or two or three, each with their own serene setting. They will wander the byways of Tokyo and see why the city was spared in the last days of WWII. SITA’s guides lead to places seen and unseen and experiences rare among those well-travelled.
Photo by Ilene Perlman: ileneperlman.com
As Japan dictates new waves in the digital age it has also found peace with its eras of tradition and reverence, preserving them carefully in a world spinning so fast it cannot catch its breath.
Japan 2025: Conclusion
There is a word in Kanji that allows Japan to deliver to visitors what other destinations cannot: wabi sabi. That’s “the beauty found in simplicity and sobriety”. It’s the art of purposely leaving the imperfections visible, the heart of the beauty in its highest order. We are always becoming, always in Ikigai. As travelers on this planet, a trip to Japan will help us do that, be that. A trip to Japan is a vacation for all the senses; an inspiration for the soul.
Get Social