Japan has become a fantasy destination for Europeans due to Marco Polo’s exploits there. He was the first person who was able to tell a meaningful story dating back thousands of years. The small city of Edo gradually grew into today's gigantic world metropolis of Tokyo, which became the residence of Tokugawa Ieyasu in 1600 A.D.

The Tsukiji Fish Market is the world's largest trans-shipment centre, surrounded by small stalls with freshly caught fish and well-prepared food for the many visitors who experience it. North of the Imperial Palace is the Koishikawa Corora Garden, one of Tokyo’s most important landscaped gardens. Stone bridges were built and various of Japan’s famous landscapes created in miniature.

South of Tokyo, on the island of Honshu, is the seaport of Kamakura, Japan’s ancient seat of government and city of the first Shogunate. Shogun Yoritomo of the Minamoto Clan, left the courtly life of Kyoto in 1192 and built numerous temples and shrines there. The teaching of Zen, imported from China, filled large areas of both cultural and social life.

Osaka, the third largest city in Japan, was once the country's most important trading centre. Ships with goods from China and Korea moored in the protected natural harbour. Toyotomi Hideyoshi had a large castle built around it from which emerged the first great blossoming of a self-confident bourgeois culture. Today, tourists from all over the world visit this lively city and particularly the castle.

The Okunoin Cemetery is considered to be the holiest location on Koya-San, a tranquil grave landscape with cedars towering high into the sky. Containing around twenty thousand graves, the largest cemetery in Japan extends within a mystical forest of ancient cedar trees, a "whispering forest" that contains ancestral spirits.

Although the Land of the Rising Sun has opened itself to the world, its mystique, aesthetic and exotic character have been well-preserved!