In our “24 Hours In” series, we present ideas for how to spend a full day in a featured city. The cities we’ll be covering include places often traveled through, but not in. These cities often act as international flight hubs, and layovers can extend from hours to a full day at times. So if you’re in a city on your way to or from your destination, following are some of our favorite things to do there!

Japan is a familiar place, whether we as Americans recognize it or not. Think of a foreign culture with more instantly recognizable symbols. Samurai, geisha, castles, cherry blossoms, anime cartoons. Despite this, between the language and the private nature of its people, Japanese culture can be a tough nut to crack. Global Basecamps' Japan tours aim to change this, by making it as easy as possible to experience old and new Japan. In an effort to pierce the veil just a bit before your trip, we will do our best to outline what to expect in a common day at a sumo wrestling tournament.

Where to See Sumo

Japan’s most popular tournaments are held in a rotation throughout the year in Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya and Fukuoka. These cities all have international airports and are easily accessible by other means, but foreigners tend to attend Tokyo and Osaka tournaments in greater numbers. Of these, the most popular venue by far is Tokyo’s Kokugikan, which hosts the January, May and September tournaments and seats 13,000 people.

Getting to Lake Titicaca

You get an idea of why Titilaka is so special as you land at nearby Juliaca airport. As excited as any traveler is to see stunning Lake Titicaca, the cities of neighboring Juliaca and lake-side Puno are… not a good introduction. There is poverty in Puno, there is an indigenous culture forgotten by modern civilization, there are incomplete brick buildings, there is a growing urban haze. And bad news for most travelers: most of the hotels on Lake Titicaca are within view of all of this.

But then your private driver keeps driving, and driving, and driving. Almost blissfully, the city gets left in the rear view mirror. City sounds and sights give way to family farms and the families that work them. Long views of the lake compliment the wide open sky that feels closer at this high elevation. And thirty minutes later, you arrive at your country estate.

You’ve been told for years that you need to get there. That there’s nothing like it. That it’s an experience you’ll never forget. The mystery. The history. My goodness, the beauty. Any traveler worth their salt wants to get there, period.

After years of dreaming, months of planning, and days of hiking, you finally turn the corner and see it. Machu Picchu.

Now what?

This is the first question that our Colombia travel specialists often get when planning travel there. Americans in particular have concerns about traveling to a country so recently known for its centrality to the drug trade, and the violence that was born of it. I’m going to be honest with you. There’s part of us here at Global Basecamps that wants to lie to you. Part of us wants to say “wait 10 more years for things to settle down,” or “the security is not quite there yet.” There seems to be an exclusive club of travelers these days, a secret cabal of people in the know. They know Colombia tours have been safe for years. They know its beaches are top notch. They know it is absolutely one of the best countries to travel in almost because so few people go there.