If I could give any advice to a traveler who wants to come and see Japan it would be simple: do not try to see everything and try to spend as much time away from Tokyo as possible.

Japan has such a variety of things to offer and such a well developed transportation system that it is easy to yield to the temptation that one should try and see it all as quickly as possible. Tokyo too has the allure of being so large and well documented, either popularly in films such as Lost in Translation or in guidebooks, that it is all too easy to hop from place to place while actually experiencing very little.

Instead I would advise breaking the journey into two segments: megapolis and countryside. See the big cities and resist the urge to stay. Try to be fully aware of the crowds, the concrete, and the looks of exhaustion you see everywhere. Did you make any real connections with anybody or were they merely being polite?

Next, travel to the countryside and notice how everything improves: the temples, the food, the prices, the people. Stay in a Ryokan. Bathe in an onsen. Eat the local specialties. Talk to the people that are interested in talking with you, often their interest is genuine. Above all, try to forget yourself for awhile.

If you want the Lost in Translation experience it is actually very easy to come to Japan and have it. It is entirely possible to arrive in Tokyo with grand dreams of acquiring a new cultural awareness only to find that hope somehow dashed when dotting from tourist cliché to cliché and attaching oneself from one lonely and alienated foreigner to another. It is the busiest emptiness you may ever experience. Is that what you really want?