Explore Japan's icons with Wendy Wu Tours

Tea ceremonies, onsen bathing and a unique Christmas tradition to remember; our love for Japan keeps us coming back for more, but it’s those iconic experiences that become ingrained in our core.

Delivering contrast and harmony in equal measure – ancient temples beside neon skylines and centuries-old craftsmanship alongside cutting-edge innovation – Japan’s allure is difficult to deny. Add to that a breathtaking landscape of snow-dusted mountains alongside bubbling hot springs, a world-class cuisine plus a cultural identity unlike anywhere else, and it’s easy to see why Japan has never been hotter with Australian travellers. The question is: how best to see it?

Award-winning tour specialist, Wendy Wu Tours has been living and breathing Asia for 27 years, creating fully inclusive, culturally immersive itineraries that go beyond standard bucket-list sightseeing. Led by knowledgeable guides who understand your desire to taste every dish (or photograph every cherry blossom tree), they’ll handle all the logistics so you can sit back and enjoy the best of what Japan has to offer.

The key experiences every Australian should enjoy at least once? You can start your journey with the following:

1. Christmas in Japan

Christmas Hachimanzaka Hakodate Hokkaido japan — Experience Western Christmas cheer with Japanese traditions. (Image: Getty/ Wiphop Sathawirawong)

Who can say no to a festive feast of mountains of fried chicken and strawberry shortcake, best enjoyed under the glow of millions of illuminations? Christmas in Japan remains a joyful fusion of Western cheer and Japanese charm, and there’s no better way to immerse yourself in local Yuletide traditions than with Wendy Wu’s 17-day Christmas In Japan tour.

Slip into your kimono on Christmas morning for a traditional (and relaxing) tea ceremony and wagashi sweet-making experience, and admire the Kyoto skyline from your window as you indulge in a Christmas lunch to remember. No stress, no fuss – only an unforgettable festive experience.

2. Sumo tournament

Sumo wrestling, Japan bucket list — Witness an exciting Sumo wrestling match. (Image: Bob Fisher)

Sumo: some call it Japan’s national sport, but others prefer to think of it as a captivating event where Japan’s sacred past and modern-day spectacle collide in perfect harmony. With roots stretching back over 1500 years to ancient Shinto rituals performed to entertain the gods and ensure a good harvest, a visit to Japan isn’t complete without at least one sumo tournament.

Available on selected dates in Tokyo, sumo is a uniquely Japanese activity to be enjoyed on Wendy Wu Tour’s 18-day Japan Uncovered tour. Between tournaments, join a Gokayama masterclass in the art of traditional washi papermaking.

3. Hell Valley & Samurai culture

Samurai District of Kakunodate, japan — Walk through the Samurai District of Kakunodate. (Image: Getty/ Ntrirata)

Disregard the unsettling moniker; Hell Valley (better known as Jigokudani) is actually a spectacular volcanic wonderworld teeming with steam vents, hot springs and sulfurous streams. Take a soak in an onsen – the perfect end point to a hike through the dramatic caldera – before a visit to Kakunodate, an old samurai stronghold still known for its samurai traditions embodying honour, discipline and loyalty.

Happily, an education in all things samurai is taught via immersive visits to Aoyagi Samurai Manor Museum and Ishiguro House, a traditional samurai residence – all of the above experiences included in Wendy Wu’s 15-day Journey Through Japan tour.

4. Ride the bullet train

Shinkansen or JR Bullet train running pass through Mt. Fuji and Shibazakura at spring — Shoot along the Japanese landscape. (Image: Getty/ Blanscape)

A marvel of speed, precision and weirdly, serenity; there’s no greater way to take in Japan’s neon cities, quaint country landscapes and misty mountains than from the comfort of a shinkansen (bullet train). Gliding along at up to 320 km/h, it’s customary to enjoy a bento box (in relative quiet) as you watch the scenery unfurl.

Can’t get enough of the experience? The Wendy Wu Tours Japan by Rail itinerary is an all-encompassing 22-day rail journey which takes in all the highlights of all three main islands: Kyushu, Honshu and Hokkaido, with the adventure taking place mainly by bullet train.

5. Relax in an onsen

Hells of Beppu — Relax in Beppu’s famous onsens. (Image: Emily Murphy)

Improved circulation, muscle pain relief and stress reduction; there are plenty of health benefits to be gained from soaking in the mineral-rich waters of an onsen. But soaking can also be about fun.

With over 25,000 hot spring sources across Japan, you’ll be spoiled for choice. Wendy Wu’s 14-day Japan & the Scenic South tour ensures you have plenty of opportunities to make the most of that literal and metaphoric cleansing experience. Beppu, one of Japan’s most famous hot springs resorts, and Yufuin, a popular hot springs destination located at the foot of Mount Yufu, are both on the itinerary.

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6. Aso-Kuju National Park

sun is setting over mount aso — Gaze on the dramatic peaks of Mount Aso. (Image: Winged Jedi)

Welcome to a realm of steaming volcanic peaks, hot spring valleys and lush grasslands. Dominated by the dramatic peaks of Mount Aso, you’re not only here to enjoy the wildflower-dotted landscape, which beckons the trekkers and horseback riders among us. But to experience the soul-stirring display of traditional drumming set against the park’s natural backdrop.

Combining the powerful rhythms of traditional taiko drums, shamisen and flutes, what’s known as ‘Theatre in the sky’ is performed by the Japanese taiko drumming group DRUM TAO. It’s just one of many standout moments during the 12-day Hidden Japan: Spirit of Kyushu itinerary with Wendy Wu Tours.

7. Morning prayers with monks

Monks heading to the temple in Koyasan, Japan — Join monks for their morning prayers. (Image: Hanna Eberhard)

Tap into a deeper spiritual rhythm that’s endured for centuries by joining the sacred chanting of Buddhist monks. Join them for their morning prayers in a 13th-century temple.

Created for those who want to delve deeper into Japan’s traditions, Wendy Wu’s Off-Beat Japan Go Beyond group tour is perhaps their most culturally immersive holiday, offering a slew of once-in-a-lifetime moments across 14 days. Meet the snow monkeys of Yudanaka, stay in a Buddhist lodge, take a walking tour of Koyasan, one of Japan’s holiest sites – and yes – embrace an opportunity to reach spiritual enlightenment and embrace peace.

8. Gold-leaf paper making

woman in Kimono peeling off sticker in gold leaf workshop — Try your hand at gold-leaf paper making. (Image: Getty/ Satoshi K)

Deep in the heart of Kanazawa, a castle town with over 400 years of spellbinding history (and seriously good sake), an opportunity to immerse yourself in the intricate art of gold-leaf making presents itself. Symbolising beauty, purity and craftsmanship, the paper – created by beating pure gold into tissue-thin sheets – is used to decorate temples, artwork and ceremonial objects.

Happily, there’s no need to seek out the experience yourself; it’s all part of Wendy Wu’s 14-day Discover Japan tour, which journeys across the Japanese Alps to the cultural centres of Takayama, Shirakawago and Kanazawa.

Visit Wendy Wu Tours for further information on these experiences and tours.

After youth-led protests in 2025, this year Nepal elected a 35-year-old former rapper as Prime Minister. In a country where tourism is its biggest industry, what’s next for travellers?

In 1986, Nepal changed its clock. It had used India Standard Time since 1920 so, to differentiate, it wound its clock 15 minutes ahead of, not behind, its big-brother neighbour. Boss move. “Nepal is strongly opposed to the idea that our identity is connected to India,” says Community Homestay Network (CHN) guide Bikal Khanal.

Tharu dance is traditionally set to hand drums. (Credit: Kate Lewis)

Today, Nepal is the only independent country with a 45-minute deviation to universal time; an oddity that’s become a symbol of national pride. The quirk is nearly as endearing as Kathmandu’s Tribhuvan airport where carved varnished wood and shiny red bricks rule. One sign points to a ‘Travelator’ and another to a ‘Grievance Handling Desk’ while visas are noisily stamped at customs for US dollars, cash only. When am I?

Spot the endemic Nepal gray langur. (Credit: Simon Urwin)

The 15 or 45 minute anomaly sees me tap out completely on timezone calculations. Why bend my brain calculating if it’s quarter to or quarter past elsewhere when I’m in the honking here and now of Kathmandu where the air is high-altitude crisp, the prayer flags flutter and the street dogs howl?

How tourism is changing in Nepal

Bardiya National Park is rich with wildlife. (Credit: Simon Urwin)

India is not the only association many Nepalis would like to shake. With eight of the world’s 10 tallest mountains, including Mount Everest and Annapurna, Nepal has long attracted mountaineers and trekkers, and expedition numbers are continuing to rise.

Tourism is one of the country’s biggest sources of foreign currency, so this growth is not negative, per se. But according to Ang Tshering Lama, who co-founded Phaplu Mountain Bike Club, being reduced to a mere trekking destination is limiting.

“Trekking is just one layer of our identity,” says Ang. “When it becomes the dominant narrative, it limits how we’re seen and how we see ourselves.” Nepal’s recent success, however, in diverting trekkers to less-trafficked areas such as Manaslu mofuntain, where visitor numbers rose by 117 per cent last year, offers hope that tourism can diversify even more radically.

Local men in Bhada village. (Credit: Simon Urwin)

The founder of CHN, Shiva Dhakal, wants that change. “The whole idea of the Community Homestay Network is to promote experiences outside of trekking,” he says. “Community tourism changes lives and helps kids stay home instead of coming to the city or migrating to the Middle East.”

Ang grew up seeing people leave, “not because they wanted to but because there weren’t enough opportunities to stay”, he states. Yet from remote villages to living traditions; food, art, music and emerging subcultures, “there’s so much that’s not being seen.”

CHN is opening some of those doors. It doesn’t own, or fund, any homes. Rather, it promotes homestays to travellers on a single, slick platform, while fostering entrepreneurship in places where women, marginalised castes, Indigenous people and the youth stand to benefit the most.

A new generation demanding more

Dalla Town Hall, where volunteers discuss anti-poaching tactics. (Credit: Bheem Thapa)

The future prospects of next-gen Nepalis can no longer be ignored. On a Kathmandu tour with 33-year-old guide Monica K.C, we pass buildings torched in the September 2025 ‘Gen Z protests’, including the Supreme Court and Parliament House. Seventy-two people died. “They were anti-corruption protests,” says Monica. “Politicians’ children are living a lavish life but the airports are crowded with youngsters leaving to find work.”

We stop in ‘little Tibet’ at the wondrous sixth-century Boudha Stupa. “The wheel of life is Buddhism in a nutshell,” says Monica. “Things such as hate, ignorance and anger keep you rotating around the wheel, so you must follow the principles of Buddhism to detach. If you can’t, there’s no nirvana for you.”

Boudha Stupa's prayer wheels — Boudha Stupa’s prayer wheels are used to recite Buddhist prayers. (Credit: Kate Lewis)

In a sun-drenched twist to the usual temple visit, we ascend the stupa’s sloping plinth and roam its whitewashed dome. Tendrils of diaphanous prayer flags stream from a steeple-like structure where the Buddha’s unblinking eyes stare out. No nirvana for you…

bouda stupa prayer flags — Tibetan-style prayer flags embellish the whitewashed dome of Bouda Stupa, a Buddhist temple. (Credit: Kate Hennessy)

The dome is delightfully free of guard rails or chiding from security. There is, however, a stern ‘No TikTok’ sign, perhaps in response to the youth’s newly flexed power. The booted-out Prime Minister, K.P. Sharma Oli, was replaced in a resounding election victory in March by 35-year-old Balendra Shah of the Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) – a former rapper and mayor of Kathmandu. The RSP’s manifesto indicates tourism is a priority, and that Nepal’s cultural identity in areas such as gastronomy will be strengthened.

Boudha Stupa vendors — Vibrant souvenir shops and cafes around Boudha Stupa. (Credit: Kate Hennessy)

A more confronting stop awaits at Pashupatinath Temple. Today is Bala Chaturdashi, a Hindu festival where thousands of devotees gather to honour their dead ancestors. Vendors hauling foam mattresses do a lucrative trade as people set up for a night of vigil. This includes burning the bodies of recently deceased relatives on bamboo pyres in the Bagmati River, which flows into the sacred Ganges.

A woman at annual Hindu festival Bala Chaturdashi, in Kathmandu. (Credit: Kate Hennessy)

Wrapped in a shroud, the bodies are positioned with their heads facing north to the Himalayas where Lord Shiva resides. They’re covered with flowers and straw and set alight by male family members.

Hours later, the ashes are swept into the river where devotees will take a holy dip the next day. As much as Monica assures us it’s not voyeuristic to watch, I struggle to do so. “Here you see the reality of life because everyone ends up there,” she says, gesturing to the river.

Life unfiltered in the Terai region

tharu woman — Tharu woman and master weaver Parbati Chaudhary in Bhada Village. (Credit: Bheem Thapa)

The reality of life needs processing time, which the western Terai region delivers in spades. The Terai is largely separated from India by the Karnali River and Bardiya National Park, where elephants, rhinos and the elusive Bengal tiger roam.

Once a nomadic tribe, the Indigenous Tharu people are now the largest ethnic group here. “They didn’t know their daily life was interesting for international travellers but they’re starting to understand now,” says CHN founder Shiva.

Take a Jeep safari through Bardiya National Park. (Credit: Bheem Thapa)

We fly Buddha Air to Dhangadhi airport and drive five hours to stay in Tharu homes. The journey to Bhada village is a blur of roadside fruit stalls, traffic-stopping sacred cows and fields sown with wheat, rice, mustard, spinach, cauliflower and potatoes. Nepal’s agriculture feeds only Nepal.

Marigolds are an important part of Hindu rituals. (Credit: Simon Urwin)

“The only thing we export is young people,” says our guide Bikal. As the light dims and we plunge evermore rural, mysterious mounds of compacted hay – some house-sized – loom like the creatures from Where The Wild Things Are. Even our trusty driver gets flummoxed by a dirt road that abruptly ends and we find ourselves hurtling across a paddock.

On arrival, some are ferried to mud-walled cottages greened by gourd creepers, with thatched roofs and rustic-chic mosquito nets. Myself and two others are ushered to the home of corner store owner, mechanic and mushroom farmer Man Kumar Chilaruwa and his wife Rajkumari.

community homestay entrance — A warm welcome at a community homestay. (Credit: Simon Urwin)

They escort us to a bunker-esque back building with steel doors and a folding security gate, behind which is gleaming linoleum, dolphin-printed tiles and a shower cavity that must be gingerly stepped through to reach the toilet.

The ceiling lights emit a rainbow of colours (the bathroom light gets stuck in, frankly, a quite frightening red). We’re nevertheless touched that our hosts invested in all this bling when the average salary is around $275 a month.

In the coming days, we participate in Tharu traditions such as making moonshine, dancing, weaving straw handicrafts and gold-panning. We’re fed well with staples of rice, mustard greens, lentil pancakes, daal, curried chicken and tomato chutney served on antibacterial saal leaves.

food at community homestay — Dig in. (Credit: Kate Hennessy)

Sonara community homestay president Indradevi Tharu tells us river snails are often served, and the boiled and pickled flesh of rats hunted in the rice fields. “Perhaps next time?” we say and all have a laugh.

The power of community homestays

community homestay owners in Nepal — Barda community homestay owners Parbati Chaudhary and Ram Krishni Devi Chaudhary. (Credit: Simon Urwin)

Immersing Western visitors in foreign cultural practices is not new. But with the Tharu, I never get that uneasy sensation that I’m being performed for. Despite being the only tourists, there’s no ‘othering’; just warm, composed and ultra-dignified welcomes. Like we’ve always been here.

“I love to have travellers in my village so I can see the world,” says local woman Parbati Chaudhary. “Why would I travel the world when the world comes to me?”

The graceful acceptance the Tharu offer, as well as the slow pace, works miracles on my frazzled nervous system. One day I even take a nap on a vacant homestay bed.

Sonara community room — An authentic stay in the Sonara community. (Credit: Kate Hennessy)

Roosters strut and goats bray as we sit on the ground in al fresco kitchens, rolling rice flour into cylinders steamed to make dhikri (dumplings). When water is needed, we fetch it using a hand-operated pump as a family of ducks strolls by, side-eying us like curious neighbours.

Animal lovers will delight in Tharu villages. Kind and resourceful inventions are everywhere, such as snacking stations where two posts lean together, with leafy boughs dangling on rope for baby goats to forage from.

CHN’s CEO, Aayusha Prasain, nods knowingly when one in our group says she cried when she left her host, Shayam Chaudhary, in Bhada. Shayam’s 17-year-old son, Prashant, had translated, which deepened the connection.

“Community tourism turns travel into a relationship, not a transaction,” says Aayusha. “It places decision-making power in the hands of local communities, especially women and youth.” Since 2018, CHN has hosted more than 4000 travellers from 52 countries in 408 households, and estimates women’s participation has increased by 381 per cent.

In the Bardiya community, where vexing human-animal conflict has been a balancing act for decades due to elephants raiding crops, long-time homestay operator Salik Ram Chaudhary says young people keep the older ones on their toes.

“We can’t keep homestays stagnant,” he says. “We have to upgrade our service and redefine our product or young people won’t see it as an attractive business. If we can keep evolving with this travelling trend we’re confident the youths will stay and continue it.”

Back in Kathmandu, Monica explains that after the deaths of young protestors in September, a determination had spread to not let their sacrifice be in vain. “We want to keep holding the government accountable,” she says. “We don’t know what situation we’re facing, but we’re ready to face it.”

Interested in Nepal but prefer to experience it in total comfort? Read our guide to luxury travel in Nepal.

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