Beginning his journey in Osaka, Michael explores the artistic phenomenon of manga, takes a trip on the Shinkansen and...

Michael travels to the cultural heart of Japan, Kyoto, the city that for a thousand years was the capital. He visits ...

Michael takes a luxury, panoramic Shimikaze train to the beautiful Shima peninsula. He visits Nara, the ancient capit...

Michael begins in the city of Kanazawa, where he goes behind the scenes of the Shinkansen operation. He discovers the...

Michael ends the first leg of his Japan adventure on a Shinkansen bullet train, heading to Nagano, the host city of t...

Michael starts a journey in and around Japan's southernmost main island, Kyushu. He begins in Kagoshima, an extraordi...

Michael Portillo takes the ferry to the Amakusa archipelago, visits the town where missionaries brought Christianity ...

Michael visits a Kyushu tea farm and the city of Nagasaki, the only port open to foreign trade when Japan was closed ...

Michael arrives in the home of Japanese porcelain, Arita, where a railway line runs straight through the town’s stunn...

Michael tries the deadly delicacy of pufferfish in the harbour town of Shimonoseki and visits Hitachi’s Kasado Works,...

On board a sleek Shinkansen bullet train, Michael arrives in Tokyo, one of the greatest cities on earth, with a popul...

Michael rides the 21-mile Yamonote line, an elevated railway that encircles the city, and visits the busiest train st...

Michael heads north from Tokyo to Honshu’s Tohoku region, known as the rice granary of Japan. In the city of Sendai, ...

Michael’s bullet train takes him through the undersea Seikan tunnel to Hokkaido. He explores the southern port city o...

Michael explores the history of Hokkaido’s indigenous Ainu people. At Lake Shikotsu, he enjoys a traditional meal of ...