Along Japan’s “Golden Route” connecting Tokyo, Osaka and Kyoto, the three most popular cities for international visitors, reservations for lodging and other activities have become increasingly challenging to come by. For those without insider access, many experiences remain tightly gate kept. Having been an isolationist state for most of its national history, Japan opened up to a select class of foreigners at the turn of the 20th century, only to shut its gates at the onset of the Second World War. After the cessation of armed conflict, with large swaths of the imperial heartland reduced to bombed out ruins, the postwar era saw an intense reconstruction effort in which tourism took a backseat. Even after Japan’s ascension as an economic powerhouse at the tail-end of the century, it was only in 2013 that the government oriented the national economy toward the tourism sector. But the country’s most popular tourist hubs have..
