Konnichiwa and welcome to Tokyo!
Touchdown at Haneda Airport (HND) in Tokyo, where your once-in-a-lifetime 12-day design journey begins. Meet your transfer and make your way to your hotel.
Sheraton Miyako Hotel Tokyo is a serene city retreat in Minato, blending modern comfort with Japanese sensibility and traditional gardens – the perfect base for exploring Tokyo. While room sizes in Japan can be more compact than international standards, you’ll find they are clean, well-equipped and efficiently designed to make the most of every inch.
This evening, meet your guide for a trip briefing before settling in for dinner.
Signature Highlight: Welcome dinner with Anthony Burke
Dinner tonight is at Gonpachi Nishi-Azabu, a local restaurant serving authentic Japanese cuisine. Famous for its appearance in Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill (2003), it captures the nostalgic charm of a bygone Japan. Your dinner includes a beer or cocktail to enjoy with a hearty izakaya meal.
Later, transfer back to your hotel and rest before another exciting day tomorrow.
Travel time: Driving – approx. 30 minutes
Welcome dinner with Anthony Burke
After breakfast, your Tokyo adventures begin.
Signature Experience: Meiji Jingu tour
Board a private bus to Meiji Jingu – a renowned Shinto shrine set within a tranquil forest near Shibuya. Dedicated to Emperor Meiji and Empress Shoken, who played key roles in Japan’s modernisation, the shrine is one of the country’s most important spiritual sites. Pass beneath the towering torii gate, visit the main hall, then wander through the Meiji Jingu Museum – a striking timber structure by architect Kuma Kengo – home to artefacts from the Meiji era.
Signature Highlight: Explore Harajuku & Omotesando districts with Anthony Burke
Enter a district of fashion and forward-thinking design in Harajuku, where Takeshita Street buzzes with streetwear, kawaii culture, quirky boutiques and trendsetting cafes. Just south, Omotesando offers a complete contrast – a tree-lined boulevard where flagship designer stores rub shoulders, such as those found in Tod’s Omotesando Building, designed by architect Toyo Ito. With Anthony guiding you through the day by foot, you won’t miss a beat in this trendsetting pocket of Tokyo.
Recharge with lunch near Harajuku before continuing your explorations. Stop by the architectural wonder of Tokyu Plaza Omotesando Harajuku, a multi-storey department store best known for its kaleidoscopic mirror-clad entrance. Swing past Dior Omotesando, a glowing white monolith of layered glass on the leafy boulevard, and Sunny Hills Cake Shop, instantly recognisable for its timber lattice – another creation by Kengo Kuma.
Admire the glass box perched atop the Louis Vuitton building – Espace Louis Vuitton – an exhibition space designed by renowned Japanese architect Jun Aoki. To complete the day, visit another of Kuma’s masterworks when you step inside the astounding Nezu Museum for a glimpse at pre-modern East Asian art, with Anthony’s running commentary offering a truly bespoke experience.
Later, transfer back to your hotel and enjoy dinner at leisure.
Travel time: Driving – approx. one hour / Walking – approx. four hours
Explore Harajuku & Omotesando districts with Anthony Burke
After an energising breakfast, meet your transfer in the hotel lobby and transfer to today’s sumo wrestling experience.
Signature Experience: Sumo demonstration
Sumo wrestling has long been considered Japan’s national sport, rooted in Shinto traditions and rich with ritual. The aim of the game is to force your opponent to touch the ground with any part of the body other than the soles of their feet. This morning, enjoy a live sumo practice demonstration featuring basic training exercises, winning techniques and a match demonstration between former wrestlers. You might even want to step into the ring yourself.
Signature Highlight: teamLab Borderless in the MORI Building Digital Art Museum & Shibuya Crossing with Anthony Burke
With Anthony Burke joining you, transfer to teamLab Borderless in the MORI Building Digital Art Museum, a world-famous immersive experience. Step into a series of ethereal worlds where light, mirrors and motion-reactive art blur the line between reality and imagination. Step into the enchanting ‘Forest of Resonating Lamps’, where floating lights respond to your presence, then move through the dazzling ‘Crystal World’, a shimmering tunnel of cascading light that shifts with every step.
On your transfer back to the hotel, pause at the iconic Shibuya Crossing. Featured in films like Lost in Translation and The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, it’s the world’s busiest pedestrian intersection, framed by neon-lit billboards and towering buildings.
Transfer back to your hotel or stick around in Shibuya for the evening and make your own way back – the choice is yours. Tonight, dinner is at your own leisure.
Travel time: Driving – approx. one hour
MORI Building Digital Art Museum & Shibuya Crossing with Anthony Burke
After breakfast, meet your guide in the lobby and catch a public bus to Tokyo Station. Pack an overnight bag, as your main luggage will be transported separately to your Kyoto hotel and as such won’t accompany you on the bullet train.
After arrival at Tokyo Station, take a stroll to the nearby Imperial Palace – a sprawling park surrounded by moats and massive stone walls. Find a local eatery nearby for lunch at your own leisure.
Board the bullet train to Tokyo with assistance from your tour leader, who will help prepare your tickets and guide you to the correct platform.
Once you’ve arrived at Odawara Station, you’ll be transferred to Enoura Observatory.
Signature Highlight: Enoura Observatory with Anthony Burke
Enoura Observatory is a one-of-a-kind outdoor museum, home to contemporary art installations and observation platforms with sweeping views of Sagami Bay. This coastal complex reflects Japan’s deep cultural connection to nature and forms part of the Odawara Art Foundation’s mission to advance Japanese culture with a global perspective.
Afterwards, transfer back to your hotel for a delicious dinner. Tonight’s stay showcases Japanese hospitality at its finest – backed by the Hilton name and featuring an in-house bowling alley, karaoke rooms and badminton courts.
Travel time: Bullet train – approx. 40 minutes / Driving – approx. 40 minutes
Enoura Observatory with Anthony Burke
After a delicious breakfast at the hotel, meet your guide in the lobby and transfer to POLA Museum of Art.
Signature Highlight: POLA Museum of Art & Hakone Open Air Museum with Anthony Burke
In signature Japanese style, this concrete-and-glass structure sits strikingly amid verdant forest, showcasing paintings, sculptures, ceramics and glassware by Japanese and European artists. Beyond the museum’s impressive collection, you’ll also enjoy a walk through the surrounding nature trails.
Your next stop is the Hakone Open-Air Museum, reached via private transfer. Sprawling across 70,000 square metres, this museum has countless permanent outdoor sculptures enveloped by mountainous landscape, as well as indoor exhibits, including the Picasso Pavilion, which displays over 300 of the iconic Spanish artist’s pieces.
After your art-filled morning, take a private transfer to Odawara Station, where you’ll board a Shinkansen bound for Kyoto. At the train station, be sure to grab an ‘ekiben’ – a Japanese boxed meal sold at train stations, perfect for a delicious and hearty meal on the go (at your own expense).
Once you arrive in Kyoto, stretch your legs over a short walk to the hotel. Enjoy the evening at your leisure before coming together for dinner at a local restaurant.
Travel time: Driving – approx. 90 minutes / Bullet train – approx. three hours
POLA Museum of Art & Hakone Open Air Museum with Anthony Burke
After breakfast at the hotel, meet your guide in the lobby and transfer to Katsura Imperial Villa.
Only accessible by guided tour, Katsura Imperial Villa is brought vividly to life with the guidance of an expert host. An exemplar of shoin-zukuri architecture and garden design, the villa’s grounds offer a walk that is both meditative and revealing of traditional Japanese aesthetics. The garden layout has been meticulously designed to shift perspective as you move through it, guiding the eye with intention. Staggered around the central pond and bamboo forest are teahouses (chashitsu) – masterpieces of Japanese tea culture – which you’ll have a chance to explore.
For lunch today, your private transfer will take you to a traditional Japanese restaurant, offering refined Kyoto-style cuisine, focusing on seasonal ingredients.
After lunch, transfer to the renowned Philosopher’s Path.
Signature Highlight: Philosopher’s Path with Anthony Burke
A two-kilometre stone path along a scenic canal, the Philosopher’s Path is one of Kyoto’s most famous walks, lined with hundreds of cherry trees that bloom in spring. It takes its name from Nishida Kitaro, a renowned philosopher who is said to have frequently meditated while walking this route.
The path begins at Ginkaku-ji (the Silver Pavilion), a symbol of Higashiyama culture – a distinctly Japanese aesthetic rooted in Zen Buddhism and Wabi-Sabi. Built in the 15th century as the retirement villa of shogun Ashikaga Yoshimasa, Ginkaku-ji became a centrepiece of the cultural renaissance he helped inspire. Alongside Anthony Burke, you’ll explore the temple and meander the path, encountering traditional gardens and uncovering the history behind this influential aesthetic.
Afterwards, transfer back to your hotel and spend the evening at your own leisure.
Travel time: Driving – approx. 90 minutes
Please note: Today’s experiences may run in reverse order, depending on the confirmed time of your visit to Katsura Imperial Villa.
Philosopher’s Path with Anthony Burke
Enjoy breakfast at the hotel and spend the morning at your own pace. If you’re looking to explore Kyoto’s wonders, consider visiting Fushimi Inari Shrine, the Arashiyama Bamboo Grove, Kinkaku-ji, Kiyomizu-dera Temple or the historic Gion district.
Later today, you’ll board another bullet train. Pack an overnight bag – your main luggage will be transported separately to your Okayama hotel and won’t arrive until tomorrow, so it won’t travel with you on the train. Walk from your hotel to Kyoto Station and board the shinkansen bound for Okayama.
Once in Okayama, your hotel is just a short walk away, where you may settle in and spend the evening however you please.
Travel time: Bullet train – approx. 60 minutes
Wake up with a delicious breakfast before heading to the hotel lobby to meet your guide, who will help organise your ticket for this morning’s trip to Uno Port.
Signature Highlight: Teshima Island with Anthony Burke
From Uno Port, board a ferry to Teshima – once a thriving rice and dairy farming town, now a hub for contemporary art and a wondrous example of Japan’s harmonious blend of nature and creativity. You’ll explore Teshima Yokoo House, an old private house transformed into an art gallery, from artist Tadanori Yokoo and architect Yuko Nagayama.
After a quick lunch at the port or Shima Kitchen (at your own cost), head to the jewel in Teshima’s crown: Teshima Art Museum. Set on the edge of a rice field, this striking structure resembles a droplet from above – a smooth concrete shell with organic curves and two oval openings that let wind, sound and light gently filter through as the day unfolds. Architecturally designed by Ryue Nishizawa, and featuring works from Rei Naito, this is truly a masterpiece – and witnessing it with Anthony Burke’s expert eye to aid you is a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
Afterwards, board the local bus back to the port and ferry back to Uno. Tonight, settle in for a delicious dinner at BLUNO Restaurant at UNO HOTEL, where French-inspired dishes showcase fresh seafood from the Seto Inland Sea.
Your hotel in Uno is Japan’s first to be integrated with a sports stadium, connected directly to a velodrome. Design-forward and characterful, it features a racing theme throughout – a truly one-of-a-kind stay.
Travel time: Drive – approx. 90 minutes / Ferry – approx. 90 minutes
Teshima Island with Anthony Burke
Fuel up with breakfast before heading to the hotel lobby to meet your guide for another island adventure. Today, you’ll be transferred to Uno Port again, but this time you’ll be taking a ferry bound for Naoshima, another ‘art island’ of the Seto Inland Sea.
Once you’ve disembarked at Miyanoura Port, you’ll have some time to wander and take photos.
Signature Highlight: The Benesse Art Island, Naoshima with Anthony Burke
Transfer to the Benesse House Museum – a museum-hotel complex perched high above the sea, exhibiting everything from paintings to installations and photography. The building itself is an architectural statement, featuring apertures that blur the lines between indoors and outdoors.
Next, transfer to the Chichu Art Museum. This underground marvel tells its artistic story through clever manipulations of light, concealed by its unassumingly complex architectural design. Inside, you’ll find five paintings from the Water Lilies series produced by the Impressionist painter Claude Monet, displayed in diffuse natural light filtered through the concrete ceiling and walls, intended to capture the environment in which they were painted. Additionally, you’ll find sculptures from Walter De Maria, as well as the illusory spatial works of James Turrell. Wander through the echoing concrete corridors of this masterpiece museum alongside Anthony Burke to deepen your understanding of these ingenious designs.
Enjoy lunch at a local restaurant and then make a final stop at the Ando Museum. This 100-year-old wooden building hides a modern interior – transformed into an architectural masterpiece by Tadao Ando, the self-taught, award-winning architect.
Return via ferry to Uno Port, where you’ll be transferred to your hotel to enjoy the evening at your leisure.
Travel time: Drive – approx. 90 minutes / Ferry – approx. 90 minutes
The Benesse Art Island, Naoshima with Anthony Burke
After breakfast, meet your guide in the lobby with your luggage packed – you’ll be out for the day before checking into your Osaka accommodation. From here, transfer to the iconic Himeji Castle.
Signature Experience: Himeji Castle
Radiating with regal splendour, the Himeji Castle is one of Japan’s most well-preserved and imposing in size. The UNESCO World Heritage Site consists of over 80 buildings with defence systems that have survived since the Shogun period.
Weave through labyrinthine paths and narrow staircases as you uncover the sheer beauty of this historic complex. Enjoy lunch at a local restaurant before being transferred to Honpukuji Water Temple.
Signature Highlight: Honpukuji Water Temple with Anthony Burke
A modern take on the traditional temple, this structure enshrines a statue of Yakushi Nyorai, the Buddha of medicine and healing. Unlike classic temples, the sleek concrete building is topped with a reflective pond, where waterlilies and lotuses float. Soak in the serenity of this sacred space and listen closely for Anthony’s commentary along the way.
Later, transfer to your Osaka accommodation and spend the evening however you wish.
Travel time: Drive – approx. five hours
Honpukuji Water Temple with Anthony Burke
Enjoy breakfast at the hotel before an action-packed day uncovering Osaka’s brightest gems. Meet your guide in the hotel lobby and transfer to the Nakanoshima Museum of Art, home to a highly esteemed collection of more than 6,000 works, both Japanese and international.
Afterward, transfer to Shinsekai.
Signature Experience: Shinsekai Sightseeing
This nostalgic pocket of Osaka is brimming with retro signs, bustling streets and local bites – kushikatsu being an Osaka specialty (deep-fried skewers of meat and vegetables). Discover its lantern-lined alleys at your own pace, as well as the landmark Tsutenkaku Tower that has an observation deck (surcharges apply).
Later, meet your transfer and head to Dotonbori, Osaka’s vibrant entertainment district. Enjoy lunch and shopping at your own pace amid a dazzling display of neon lights, oversized signage and an endless choice of eateries and shops. The energy here is infectious – a true taste of the city’s playful spirit.
Return to the hotel for some time to unwind before gathering for a farewell dinner to remember. Toast to your time in Japan over a final meal at a local restaurant, where you can savour Osaka-style okonomiyaki and other delights cooked on a teppan grill.
Following breakfast, part ways with your fellow travellers as your immersive exploration of Japanese art, culture and design concludes. Transfer to Kansai International Airport (KIX) for your onwards journey.
Travel time: Drive – approx. 45 minutes