japan travel guide | travel info | part of luketravels.com

There are flights to Japan from all over the world, usually to Tokyo but also to a number of other Japanese airports. Consider arriving elsewhere than in Tokyo's impersonal Narita airport - it can be an unpleasant, expensive and tedious introduction to Japan. There are a few sea transportation options between Japan and South Korea. The cheapest is the Shimonoseki-Pusan ferry which runs nightly across the Sea of Japan in both directions. Between Fukuoka and Pusan there's both an ultra-fast (3 hours) hydrofoil and a ferry (15 hours).

To China, there are ferries connecting Shanghai to Osaka, Kobe and Nagasaki; there's also a weekly ferry from Kobe to Tanggu (near Tianjin). To Taiwan, a weekly ferry leaves from Okinawa. Japan's two major airlines are Japan Airlines (JAL) and All Nippon Airways (ANA). Delta Air Lines and United Airlines also operate sizable hubs at Narita, with flights to many destinations in the US and Asia.

Spring, with its clear skies and cherry blossoms, is probably the most celebrated Japanese season, but it's a holiday period for the Japanese and many of the more popular travel destinations tend to be flooded with domestic tourists. Autumn (September to November) is a great time to travel: the temperatures are pleasant and the autumn colors in the countryside are fantastic. Mid-winter (December to February) can be bitterly cold, while the sticky summer months (June to August) can turn even the briefest excursion out of the air conditioning into a soup bath.