On the Hint app map, you'll find more than 700 of their spots, tailored to the way you travel. Even the all-time classics—at just the right time to enjoy them.
And you have 30 days to try it out: if it's not right for you, we'll give you a full refund.
What You're Buying, in a Nutshell
Choose the cities you want to visit and open them on your phone in the Hint app. Each map shows places recommended by people who live in Japan, and with just one tap, you can get there.
You can use the Japan Pass for all of them, or visit them one at a time.
Each one with its own description in Italian and photos.
The Hint app is free for iPhone and Android: just log in with the email address you used for the purchase, and the maps are already there.
No subscription, no expiration date. And you have 30 days to change your mind.
Japan Today
In 2025, Japan welcomed nearly 43 million foreign visitors. There were more than 300,000 Italian visitors, a third more than the previous year.
And almost all of them end up in the same places, because everyone searches for them the same way: the same videos, the same saved lists, the same questions asked of an AI.
You spend months planning a trip like this. The flight is long, the days are numbered, and every hour spent waiting in line—or sitting in the wrong restaurant—is an hour of Japan that no one can give you back.
There's another way to experience it.
And it doesn't involve another list.
Sources: JNTO, 2025 arrivals; City of Kyoto, 2025 tourism survey.
What Makes Hint Different
Travel apps show you the most-clicked-on places. AI algorithms give you the average of what people have read, and sometimes they make up a place that doesn't exist. Neither of them has ever lived in Japan.
Hint does one thing: it connects you with people living in Japan who are most like you in terms of tastes, lifestyles, and travel styles. The places you see on the map were chosen by them. Not because they’re trending. Not because an algorithm picked them. Because they actually go there.
We call them “Hinter”: people who live in Japan and share stories about the places they actually frequent. They aren’t just passing-through reviewers, nor are they people who’ve only been there once.
No venue is added to the map simply by paying. Every place is reviewed by our team before it reaches you: if you see it there, it’s there because it deserves to be.
Tell us about yourself, and we'll match you with people who travel like you. People who love visiting temples at sunrise and those who stay out late at izakayas don't see the same map.
Side by side
Same question: “Where can I get some good ramen in Shinjuku tonight without waiting in line for an hour?” One answer comes from the internet, the other from someone who lives in Tokyo today.
In Giappone, non lo è.
In Japan, it isn't.
Before You Leave
It’s quick and easy: just type “two weeks in Japan,” and in ten seconds you’ve got an itinerary that looks perfect. It looks perfect even when it isn’t. And in Japan, you don’t realize your mistake from the comfort of your couch— you realize it right there, standing in front of a cable car that’s already closed.
Here's what AI doesn't tell you, in five points.
An AI has read more about Japan than you’ll ever read in your entire life, but it’s never sat at a bar in Shinjuku. It responds with what it’s read most often. And the places people write about most are the ones everyone goes to: the temple packed at ten in the morning, the market where you can’t even walk.
It’s a limitation well known to those who study these technologies: an AI knows a lot about what’s written about frequently, and very little about what’s written about rarely. When it comes to travel, this means it makes fewer mistakes about popular destinations, but more mistakes about quiet places—the ones you’re looking for —suggesting places that are on the other side of town or don’t even exist.
She writes it herself, in small print below the chat: she might make mistakes. But she doesn't tell you which ones. The incorrect information comes across with the same confidence as the correct information, and sometimes she even makes up things that don't exist.
Japan, 2025
A couple asks an AI how to watch the sunset from the summit. Answer: The last cable car down leaves at 5:30 p.m. They leave at 3:00 p.m. By the time they want to go down, the cable car has already stopped running. They get stranded at the summit.
Source: BBC Travel, September 26, 2025
Peru, 2025
Two tourists had themselves driven to a remote mountain road to reach a canyon described in detail by an AI. It doesn't exist: the AI had mixed up two real places, hundreds of kilometers apart.
Source: BBC Travel, September 26, 2025
These are not isolated cases: in a survey of travelers, one in three respondents said they had received false or misleading travel information from an AI.
On the English-language web, about half of all new articles are now written by AI. And even among the articles that two of the most widely used AI systems cite as sources, nearly one in five was written by another AI. When it recommends a place to you, you don’t know if there’s actually someone behind it who’s been there.
Starting in August 2026, one of the most widely used AI platforms in Italy also began displaying ads. If you ask where to stay in Kyoto, an ad tailored to your query may appear below the answer. It’s labeled as “sponsored,” and the company assures users that it doesn’t alter the answer. On a Hint map, however, no business can pay to be listed.
in vacanza in Giappone
on holiday in Japan
Thirteen nights, maybe fourteen. And all it takes is one wrong answer to lose one of them.
Then there are the places that AI doesn't know about, and you miss those without even realizing it. You only realize it later. You realize it when you get home, watching videos from people who went there with the right tips. You realize it when the trip is over—and you can't go back.
With Hint, every night you can choose from spots recommended by people who live in Japan. If it’s not for you, we’ll give you a full refund within 30 days. But no one will reimburse you for a night spent in Japan.
Sources: BBC Travel, September 26, 2025; Kandpal et al., ICML 2023; Mallen et al., ACL 2023; and Drápela, 2025; Squaremouth, October 2025; Graphite on Axios, May 2026 , and Graphite, October 2025; Sky TG24, August 19, 2026; Japan Tourism Agency, Foreign Visitor Expenditures 2025.
And starting today, you can carry the people who live there right in your pocket.
Why in our app
It takes you from Tokyo to Okinawa, shows you the places that are right for you, and answers your questions whenever you have one.
In Italian: Why go there, what to bring, when. With photos.
Tell us who you are in two minutes—it's more like a game than a questionnaire—and the map will show you the places that are right for you.
Have a quick question? Message Scout in chat: it'll connect you with the local experts best suited for you, right when you need them.
Find the location, tap it, and your phone's GPS will take you there.
Who's about to leave and who's just returned: ask, compare, and find travel companions.
Travel from Tokyo to Kyoto, from Osaka to Okinawa, without switching apps.
Inside the Japan Pass
From your first bowl of ramen in Tokyo to your last dip in Okinawa—all in one app.
A city made up of neighborhoods, each with its own rhythm. You know which ones to visit, where to eat, and what time to go.
Temples, gardens, and wooden alleyways—the best time to see them without the crowds.
The city of green tea, less than half an hour by train from Kyoto.
They call it Japanese street food: you eat it on the street, on every corner. You know where to stop.
Deer roaming freely in the park and temples dating back more than a thousand years, less than an hour from Kyoto.
Kenroku-en Garden, the tea house district, and the fish market—off the beaten path.
Tropical seas, islands, and cuisine you won't find anywhere else in Japan.
Here's how it works
Two minutes, from your phone or computer.
You'll receive an email. The Hint app is free on the App Store and Google Play.
Your maps of Japan are already there. They don't expire.
Two minutes of questions—more like a game: the map adapts to the way you travel.
Who's Behind It
On December 23, 2024, we launched the first Hint map: Tokyo. In the first month, 145 people who didn't know us bought it.
Since then, more than 1,400 people have chosen our maps of Japan, and more than 3,000 travelers have purchased a Hint map. Today, we’re a team of more than ten people, and Hint is an app covering 17 cities.
We want to change the way people travel, one city at a time. Japan is where we started.
The Japan Pass
The classic tour—Tokyo, Kyoto, and Osaka—costs €73.80 when purchased city by city . The Japan Pass includes all three, plus Okinawa, Nara, and Kanazawa—destinations that can’t even be purchased individually.
If you visit three or more cities in Japan, the Japan Pass costs less than buying the maps individually. If you're staying in just one city, that's all you need.
The 7 Cities of Japan
senza scadenza
no expiry
For those who stay in a city
Same app, same 30-day guarantee.
Zero risk
Buy it, open the app, and check out your maps of Japan. If, within 30 days, you decide it wasn't the best purchase you could have made for your trip, just send us a quick note and we'll give you a full refund. No questions asked, no forms to fill out.
Pay once. No subscription. No renewals, ever.
If you need clarification
You'll receive an email with the steps. Download the Hint app—it's free on the App Store and Google Play—log in with the same email address you used to make the payment, and the maps of Japan will already be there.
People who live in Japan: we call them Hinter. They share the places they actually go to, and every recommendation goes through our team before it reaches you.
No. No venue can pay to be included on a map. Hint: If you see it there, it's because the people who live there actually go there.
Yes. Fushimi Inari, Senso-ji, and the deer of Nara are all there, along with tips on when and how to visit them to enjoy them to the fullest. And in the surrounding area, there are places you won't find in guidebooks.
In Italian.
Yes. The maps don't expire: you'll find them in the app when you set out, and in the meantime, you can already browse through them to plan your trip.
Yes. The Hint app is free on the App Store and Google Play.
Yes, just like the other maps on your phone: in Japan, all you need is a data connection.
Your travel buddy right in the app: just ask a question, and it'll connect you with the local recommendations that are best suited for you.
Yes: Tokyo, Kyoto, Uji, Osaka, and Okinawa are popular destinations on their own. Nara and Kanazawa are only included in the Japan Pass.
No. You pay once: no subscription, no renewal, no expiration date.
You have 30 days from the date of purchase. If it's not right for you, just let us know and we'll give you a full refund.
Your Trip
How many evenings will you spend comparing lists, videos, and conflicting answers? How many times will you sit down at a restaurant just because it was there, when the one where the locals go is just two blocks away? How many times will you wait in line at places everyone’s been to? How many photos will you bring home that look exactly like everyone else’s? And when they ask you, “Where did you eat the best ramen?”, what will you say?
Your trip could go like this. Or it could be the kind where people who live in Japan tell you all about it. Book it now: we take all the risk—30 days and a full refund.
