The icons (worth every bit of the hype)
Stand in the middle of Shibuya Crossing. Walk the 10,000 torii of Fushimi Inari at dawn. Watch Mount Fuji appear behind Hakone's lake torii. Ride the shinkansen at 285 km/h with an ekiben lunch box. See the floating gate of Miyajima at high tide. These are famous because they're genuinely extraordinary.
The rituals
Sleep on tatami in a ryokan and let an attendant serve kaiseki in your room. Soak in an open-air onsen while snow falls. Sit through a real tea ceremony and understand why every movement matters. Make a wish at a shrine — bow twice, clap twice, bow once.
The flavours
Eat a sushi breakfast at Tsukiji. Slurp ramen at a vending-machine counter shop. Try Hida beef sushi on a rice cracker in Takayama, okonomiyaki in Hiroshima, takoyaki in Osaka. Do a sake tasting in a 300-year-old brewery. Trust a chef with omakase at least once.
The seasonal one-offs
Picnic under peak cherry blossoms. Watch snow monkeys bathe in Nagano's hot springs. See Kyoto's maple gardens lit at night in November. Dance at a summer matsuri in a yukata as fireworks crack over the river.
The ones nobody tells you about
Send your luggage ahead by takkyubin and travel with a daypack. Visit a sento (neighbourhood bathhouse) with a local. Browse a depachika food hall until you can't decide. Stay up in Golden Gai's four-seat bars talking to strangers. Ride a local line with no destination at all.
Want all of this woven into one trip? That's our job — tell us which of these made your heart beat faster and we'll build around them.