By Kate Whiting

There is something uniquely spiritual and otherworldly about Japan,

and it hits you almost the minute you step off the plane - a Zen garden

awaits in arrivals at Tokyo's Narita airport.

Encased in a glass shell, and so unassuming you would miss it if you

hurried past, lies a carpet of carefully raked gravel and delicate

foliage, designed to soothe the weary traveller.

Unlike other airports, Narita doesn't feel hectic. There are

hundreds of people heading in all directions, but it's a very ordered

bustle. And this is also true of Tokyo.

From Shinjuku, the city's skyscraper district, to the trendy

shopping streets of Shibuya, you rarely feel harried as you might in

London or New York.

With its towering neon signs and hi-tech industries lying

side-by-side with rice fields and ancient temples, Japan has long

fascinated tourists.

Part of its charm is bound up in the Zen Buddhist philosophy of 'Ichi go, ichi e', which means 'One chance, one meeting'.

It's the spirit of the tea ceremony: as we have only fleeting

encounters with others as they pass through life, those moments we

spend together must be exquisite.

And this is the spirit in which I am welcomed to Japan, on a trip carefully timed to coincide with cherry-blossom

season in early April. From the bus, our guide Akiko gleefully

points out the trees that are more than 80% in bloom.

To the Japanese, the cherry blossom, like the seasons, represents

the transience of life and should be celebrated as long as it's there.

Cherry-blossom viewing is a national past-time and, as soon as the

trees are deemed in full bloom, plastic sheeting magically appears

under the bows and picnic parties jostle for the best spots.

Our first taste of Japan is an evening of shabu-shabu at Seryna, a

traditional restaurant tucked beneath Tiffany's in Tokyo's chic

shopping district Ginza.

Shabu-shabu, which describes the sound that raw beef makes as you

waft it through boiling water to cook it, is an event in itself.

Like many Japanese meals, it's very hands-on and requires good

chopstick control as you cook a thin slice of beef and then dip it in

sesame or soy sauce.

Before dawn the next morning, we head to Tsukiji fish market, arriving just in time to catch the tuna auction.

It's a crazy place, but an unmissable sight. Hundreds of mini trucks

zoom around a network of some 1,700 tiny stalls, selling slimy snails

and sea slugs as well as more appetising seafood.

The auction is held in the market's inner sanctum, and only a

handful of tourists can watch at any one time. Row upon row of enormous

whole frozen tunas will sell for as much as £90 a kilo.

Later, we drive across the city, past the vast landscaped grounds of

the Imperial Palace, to Senso-ji - Tokyo's most sacred temple and also

known as Asakusa Kannon - with its iconic huge red lantern hung beneath

the entrance gate.

In AD 628, so the tale goes, two fishermen fished a small gold

statue of Kannon, the goddess of mercy, from Tokyo's Sumida river and

the temple was built to enshrine it. Today, a row of shops leads up to

the temple, selling tourist nick-nacks.

Dinner that evening at the Michelin-starred Sens et Saveurs

restaurant on the 35th floor of Tokyo's Marunouchi Building gives us a

unique view over the ancient Imperial Palace grounds by night.

Built in 1590, the white palace sits like a crane about to take

flight over Tokyo, protected by moats and connected to the city by

elegant bridges.

The next day we head to the hillside hot-spring resort of Hakone,

via the pretty seaside town of Kamakura. Here we gaze at the Daibutsu

(Great Buddha), a 13m-high seated bronze statue that has survived

tsunamis, fires and earthquakes since it was cast in 1252.

En route to Hakone, we're promised views of Mount Fuji, Japan's iconic peak, but no such luck - it's raining.

Hakone sprawls across the collapsed remains of a huge volcano, which

has left a legacy of hot springs and steam vents. We take a boat trip

across Lake Ashi in a Western-style square-rigger, which looks

incongruous against the forested hills.

A cable car takes us up a hill to Owaku-dani (valley of great

boiling), where sulphurous steam vents belch out of the ground, filling

the air with the smell of rotten eggs.

Here, you can try the local speciality: eggs boiled in the bubbling

springs until their shells turn black from the minerals. It's said each

egg will add seven years to your life - I eat two.

Arriving at The Prince Hotel on the lake's edge, we brave the rain

to indulge in the onsen (hot spring). It's a soothing end to a busy day.

The next morning, as if by magic, the sun comes out and we finally

glimpse ice-capped Fuji in all its glory. There's time for a photo

shoot before we're whisked off to catch the Shinkansen (bullet train)

to Japan's cultural capital Kyoto.

There, a Buddhist monk gives us a guided tour of Kinkakuji - the

temple of the golden pavilion - and then we visit Kiyomizudera ('pure

water'), a wooden temple perched on stilts overlooking the city with

clean springs flowing through its complex.

We're here for the cherry blossom, now well in bloom this far south,

and the geisha women - another symbol of transience - as they are

fleetingly glimpsed heading to teahouses at dusk.

At the Kobu Kaburenjo theatre in Gion, we are treated to a tea

ceremony - matcha green tea in a bowl with a sweet bean-paste bun to

counter the bitterness.

And then 30 maiko (geisha in training) and geiko (fully-fledged

geisha) take to the stage in a flourish of multi-coloured kimonos for

the annual Miyako-odori, the dance of the old capital.

The springtime performances are an annual treat for residents and

tourists who can't afford the cost of having geisha to entertain them

in a restaurant - it's definitely worth seeing.

After several graceful dances depicting the seasons, we file out

into Gion's Maruyama Park, where the cherry blossom parties are in full

swing.

As families gather under the trees, sharing gossip and bottles of sake with strangers, it's clear this is the real Japan.

Info

As an introductory tour to Japan, Inside Japan offers a seven-night

'Price Cruncher' from £600, including three nights in Tokyo, a night

with traditional accommodation with hot spring baths in Hakone National

Park and three nights in Kyoto, on B&B basis (land-only).

Flights, with KLM, from London start at £500.

Inside Japan Tours reservations: 0870 120 5600 and www.insidejapantours.com