Japan Pictures Photos Outstanding holidays on every continent from Explore. Extensive Asia travel options include small group tours of Japan. Japan Tours | SE Asia | Brochure | Shogun Trail | In Fuji's Shadow The gate to the Kiyomizudera temple complex, Kyoto. Click on the image above to enter the 18 page Japan Photos gallery or see: Takayama Festival | Kawasaki Festival | Kamakura | Meiji-Jingu Shrine | Tokyo Pictures

Japan is a fascinating enigma. The size of the Great Britain but with only one third of the land usable due to mountains, this is still the world's second largest economy - in spite of being embedded in a long term recession - with a GDP that equals Britain, France and Germany.
The country is dedicated to high technology, but also loves and maintains ancient traditions, a contradiction that is far more interesting to a visitor than the regular sights of Tokyo and Kyoto. Blue-suited, gold-rimmed salarymen [office workers] step out of their Blade Runner office buildings after work and stoop into dark little akachochin bars where the staff all shout 'irrashaimase!' [welcome!] and knock up another batch of fried grasshoppers or whale sashimi to go with the Asahi Dry.
After getting totally and acceptably plastered the salarymen will return to their tiny apartments by train, taking off their shoes before venturing onto the tatami mats. The wives will be waiting up late with a pretty porcelain cup of green tea, before heading for the futon [mattress] on the floor. There but for the grace of God...
Tokyo is the traveller's number one target, a huge, congested city, with a deliberately confusing road system designed to prevent invaders from reaching the Imperial Palace, and consequently no effective centre, so a tourist just has to get used to the superb underground train system in order to get from the Ginza, to Asakusa, Shibuya, to Shinjuku, to Roppongi and wherever else.
Thus Tokyo is a city that needs a lot of walking and watching if you are to find the charming contradictions and pictures that lurk along the busy streets. And don't forget to walk on the left of the pavement! I'm not joking!
The other great draw is Kyoto/Nara, south of Tokyo, but that's a more traditional sightseeing experience, with ancient gold and red temples, tea houses, Zen gardens and the rest.
Irrashaimase!

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Japan Pictures by Julian Loader, Ikuko Koga and Photos marked * by Tim Clipstone

Images from interesting countries nearby: China | Russia | Vietnam