Japan - Experience

Combining space-age architecture, serene temples and colourful festivals, Japan is at turns a place of fast-paced excitement, wild innovation, quiet contemplation and quirky oddities. Whether it's manga or meditation you're after, you'll find it here.

Temple-hop around bustling Kyoto before hitting the jungle of skyscrapers and neon in Tokyo and Osaka. Slurp steaming bowls of ramen noodles at street stalls in Fukuoka. In Nagasaki, steep lanes of Dutch colonial buildings and Chinese temples surround the Peace Park, a chilling reminder of the city's encounter with the atom bomb.

Contemplate the snow-capped peak of iconic Mount Fuji before seeing explosive nature in the form of Mount Aso, Kyushu's hyperactive volcano. Hike through the primeval beech forests of Tohoku's Shirakami Sanchi or take a riverboat through Miyazaki's lush, steep-sided Takachiho Gorge. Ski in the Japan Alps and escape to the verdant open spaces of northern Hokkaido.

Tokyo's Aoyama dori is a fashionista's Mecca, while the latest, tiniest electronic gadgets fill the shops of the capital's Akihabara district. Visit any department store at sale time to pick up lavish silk kimonos at bargain prices, or pick up organic-looking pottery from historic Hagi in southwest Honshu, or rural Bizen in Okayama.

Try sukiyaki , made with melt-in-the-mouth Kobe beef, or okonomiyaki , Osaka's savoury pancakes, cooked on a hotplate at your table. At an izakaya, (Japanese tapas bar), snack on yakitori (chicken skewers), fresh grilled fish, delicately flavoured tofu and crunchy lotus root. You'll find super-fresh sushi everywhere. Wash it down with Chu-hai , a cocktail made with shochu (Japanese vodka).

For a novel bath-time experience, head to the southern Kyushu town of Ibusuki, where old ladies bury willing victims in hot, black sand on the beach facing the volcano of Sakurajima.