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here are destinations that call for the assistance of an expert who's lived in the place in question and who knows life there intimately. Japan is just such a place. After all, it hasn't been labeled "inscrutable" for nothing, has it?

Enter Alex Kerr, our favorite authority on all things Japanese. An American expat (and Navy brat) raised in Japan, he's one of the world's top authorities on Japanese culture and art. He holds degrees in Japanese Studies from Yale and in Chinese studies from Oxford.

The man knows his stuff.

So it's no wonder that R. Crusoe's journey inside Japan goes right to the heart of the nation's soul.

Begin in Tokyo. Get cozy in the cutting-edge Grand Hyatt, an integral part of the Roppongi Hills urban development complex. Beyond, see what the city means to the Japanese. The Edo Tokyo Museum's historical perspective. Asakusa Kannon, the city's oldest temple. Get inside a sumo stable, where the behemoths train. Examine Madame Kikuchi's collection of modern ceramics. And visit the retail-rich neighborhoods that bolster this city's 21st-century side.

A bullet train whisks us off to Kyoto, the soul of traditional Japanese culture. "Charming" only begins to describe this lovely town. Stay in a restored, traditionally appointed machiya (townhouse), if you choose, or head for a swanky hotel. Your choice. Explore the city's geisha culture, its Zen Buddhist gardens and delicate temples. UNESCO's World Heritage committee lists 17 sites in Kyoto alone. But not everything here is old. Consider the Miho Museum, a joint American-Japanese project designed by I. M. Pei and opened in 1996.

Contrasts between old and new abound. Which is the point in Kyoto.

Nara served as Japan's capital city for a mere 75 years, but its time in the limelight proved extraordinarily productive. Kasuga Taisha, built in the eighth century A.D. by the Fujiwara clan, was torn down and rebuilt, as tradition dictated, every 20 years. Todai-ji temple complex within Nara-Koen Park astounds with its Hall of the Great Buddha as well as the 1,200 sacred deer that roam free.

Back home, reconsider whether Japan is, indeed, inscrutable.

Japan Revealed: Shrines, Treasures, Geishas, & Gardens. 9 Days.