Still off-limits: Why I can’t wait to get back to Japan

Sign up to Simon Calder’s free travel email for expert advice and money-saving discounts Get Simon Calder’s Travel email Get Simon Calder’s Travel email SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Many have hot-spring baths where you participate in Japan’s ancient onsen bathing ritual; mine had a delightful women-only, sea-view tub, where little Japanese girls giggled at my pinkness as the heat warmed my bloodstream. As we waited out those early Covid weeks, I vowed I’d go just as soon as the pandemic finished, in autumn 2020. open image in gallery Bamboo forests like Arashiyama are the stuff of ‘Alice in Wonderland’ fantasies Following a strict travel shutdown, when borders were sealed to nearly all visitors for more than two years, Britons were finally been allowed back in on a group tour in early June, with self-guided tours to be allowed from 7 September – but all international tourists must still visit on an organised tour arranged by an operator. open image in gallery City lovers will thrive on Tokyo’s buzz For a spa fan, Japan’s onsen – ritual baths like the one I pottered down to in my lockdown daydream – are even better than you picture them. If I’m lucky, I may even find those rural ryokan still hushed, not quite back to full, and fly home with an even better morning to meditate upon.