There are few more memorable spectacles than witnessing Japan’s feet-stamping, salt-tossing, body-hurling national sport: sumo (sumo.or.jp/en). This summer, grand tournaments take place in Nagoya (9-23 July) and Tokyo (10-24 September).
For baseball fans, Tokyo Dome (tokyo-dome.co.jp/e/dome) is the place to head: the iconic structure is home to around 60 professional baseball games a year plus near-daily games throughout the summer months – as well as music concerts.
The world’s top tennis stars fly in for the Japan Women’s Open (11-17 September), which takes place on outdoor hard courts in Tokyo’s Ariake Tennis Forest Park (jw-open.jp).
Meanwhile, pampering is on the menu at the serene spa of the Four Seasons Kyoto (3) – the city’s newest luxury hotel – with highlights including an ultra-deluxe 24-karat gold leaf scrub (fourseasons.com/kyoto/spa).
Alternatively, take a train from Tokyo to Hakone, near Mount Fuji, to the recently opened Hakone Kowakien Ten-Yu (4), a minimalist Japanese ryokan: indulge in a private, outdoor onsen surrounded by forested mountains, followed by a massage in its garden spa (hakone-tenyu.com).
Cathay Pacific flies to Nagoya from Hong Kong 21 times a week, including seven flights via Taipei.
