Every July, Kyoto's Gion district transforms for a month-long festival that has been held without interruption since the year 869. Enormous yamaboko floats are assembled by hand, ancient music fills the summer air, and the city's normally restrained streets overflow with yukata-clad crowds for the most magnificent and ancient urban festival in Japan.

When October arrives in the highlands of Nagano and Gifu, the Japanese Alps undergo their most spectacular seasonal transformation. From the golden larches of Kamikōchi to the blazing maples of Hida, follow the koyo front as it descends through the mountains, turning the forests every shade of red, orange, and gold.

In a small house in Naha's old Tsuboya district, 84-year-old Miyagi Fumiko cooks the way she was taught by her mother, who was taught by hers. Join her for a morning of champuru and rafute, learning the ancient Ryukyuan flavours that explain why Okinawa has long been one of the world's great places to grow old.

In the breweries of Nada, Kobe's legendary sake district, a small number of master brewers still practise their craft according to traditions unchanged for three centuries. Meet Yamamoto Shigeru, a 74-year-old toji whose family has shaped the same brewery's character for four generations — and who believes the best sake has nothing to do with rice.