Kantō

Kantō is the flat, populous plain that spreads out from the head of Tokyo Bay, and it is the gravitational center of contemporary Japan. Nowhere else concentrates so much energy, and yet the region’s great appeal for a traveler is how quickly that intensity gives way to shrines, forests, coastlines, and hot springs — all reachable on a short train ride and back before dinner. This is the part of the country most visitors see first, and its combination of a world-capital and a ring of gentler escapes makes it an ideal introduction to everything Japan can be.

At the center, of course, is Tokyo — less a single city than a constellation of districts, each with its own character, from neon-washed crossings and glass towers to wooden temples, backstreet izakaya, and quiet residential lanes. It rewards endless exploration and never quite resolves into one thing. On its eastern edge, Tokyo Disney Resort draws families in their millions to two of the most polished theme parks in the world, an easy and joyful counterpoint to the city’s grown-up pleasures. Just south, the port city of Yokohama offers a breezier, more open waterfront, a lively Chinatown, and a skyline that glows over the bay at night.

The day trips are where Kantō really earns its keep. Kamakura, an hour from the city, was once Japan’s medieval capital, and it keeps that legacy in a giant bronze Buddha seated in the open air, wooded temple valleys, and a laid-back surf coast. Northward, Nikkō hides an astonishing complex of gilded, intricately carved shrines and mausoleums deep in a cedar forest, set amid waterfalls and mountain lakes. And to the west, the hot-spring valley of Hakone pairs its steaming baths and mountain railways with views of Mount Fuji rising across a lake — a classic first taste of onsen country.

Travel in Kantō is almost effortless, laced together by one of the densest and most reliable rail networks on earth. You can base yourself in the capital and fan out day by day — to the coast, to the mountains, to the shrines — or use it as the launchpad for the rest of the country. Either way, this is the plain where modern Japan is made, and where its ancient and futuristic faces sit closest together.

How I’d Plan Kantō

Most trips to Japan start here, and the temptation is to treat Tokyo as a box to tick before the “real” Japan begins further west. That is backwards. Tokyo is not one city, it is a dozen neighbourhoods that happen to share a rail map, and the difference between Asakusa, Shinjuku, Shibuya and Yanaka is larger than the difference between many European capitals. Give it a week. We gave it eight days and I would happily have taken more.

The practical advice I wish someone had given me: pick your neighbourhood deliberately, because it determines your evenings more than your days. We stayed in Asakusa first — low-rise, old-Tokyo, quiet after dark — and then moved to Shinjuku for the nights. Both were right for what they were. Somewhere central and characterless would have been wrong for both.

Do not overplan the day trips. Kantō’s real luxury is that Hakone, Kamakura and Nikkō are all close enough to reach on a whim, so leave a day unbooked and decide it over breakfast based on the weather. Nikkō in rain is atmospheric; Hakone in cloud means you paid for a view of the inside of a cloud, and Fuji does not care about your itinerary.

If you are travelling as a couple and want one deliberately unserious day, Tokyo Disney Resort is genuinely world-class and I say that as someone who arrived sceptical and left converted. If you would rather not, teamLab Planets delivers a similar amount of joy in a quarter of the time.

When to go: Late October to early December for clear skies and the best odds of seeing Fuji from the western edge of the region. March and April for blossom. August is hot, humid and hard work in the city.