Uzbekistan tours from Japan: the Narita flight, visa-free entry and the Buddhist Silk Road

The nonstop flight. Uzbekistan Airways flies between Narita and Tashkent with a Boeing 787. In the autumn and winter 2026/27 timetable it leaves Narita on Fridays at 11:05 and lands in Tashkent at 16:10 local time, after 9 h 05 min. The return leaves Tashkent on Thursdays at 22:05 and reaches Narita at 09:40 the next morning, 7 h 35 min later.

A Friday arrival and a Thursday departure give you seven days on the ground, and our Buddhist Silk Road tour is built around exactly that week.

Via Seoul. On other days, connect at Incheon: Uzbekistan Airways, Asiana Airlines, Centrum Air and Qanot Sharq fly from there to Tashkent in about 7 h 10 min to 7 h 45 min. More on routes and airports is in our guide to flights to Uzbekistan.

Tashkent is four hours behind Japan all year round. Timetables change with the season, so check the days of operation for your dates before you buy. On arrival we can arrange fast-track passport control and a car to your hotel.

Xuanzang set out for India in 629, and his road ran through Samarkand. In Termez, on the Amu Darya, he counted about ten monasteries and a thousand monks. At Yakushiji, the murals Hirayama Ikuo painted for the Genjo Sanzo-in retrace that journey. In Uzbekistan you can stand on the ground it crossed.

The monasteries of Termez are excavated sites today: Fayaz Tepe, Kara Tepe and the Zurmala stupa, built in the first centuries AD. Kyuzo Kato began to dig at Kara Tepe with Uzbek archaeologists in 1998 and came back twice a year, in spring and autumn. From 2014 to 2017 a team from Rissho University excavated the northern hill with Uzbek colleagues every September, with Kato as its adviser. He was made an honorary citizen of Termez in 2002 and worked there until 2016, when he died in Termez at the age of 94.

About 60 km north-east of Termez lies Dalverzin Tepe, a city of the Kushan period. In 1972 it gave up a gold treasure of 115 objects weighing 36 kg. Archaeologists from Soka University excavated its second Buddhist temple together with Uzbek colleagues in 1989–1993, 1995 and 2006–2007.

Begin in Tashkent: the State Museum of History, reopened in July 2026 after renovation, keeps the alabaster Buddha found at Fayaz Tepe in 1968. In Termez, start at the Archaeological Museum, then see the sites. The visit to Kara Tepe is arranged in advance, and we confirm it for your dates. How we plan the south is in our guide to Termez, and if you want more days there, see the five-day Buddhist South tour.

You book the flight, and we arrange everything on the ground: hotels, train and domestic flight tickets, guides and transfers, timed to your arrival. Three routes work especially well from Japan.

The Buddhist Silk Road, 7 days. The museum in Tashkent, three days in Termez, then Samarkand, where the Afrasiyab museum shows wall paintings of the mid-7th century: envoys, among them a delegation from Tang China, arriving at the court of the Sogdian king. They were found in 1965. With two more days you can add Bukhara; one theory traces the city’s name to the Sanskrit vihara, a monastery. This is our Buddhist Silk Road tour.

The classic week, 8 days. Tashkent, Samarkand, Bukhara and Khiva on our 8-day classic tour. How we lay out such a trip is in Uzbekistan in 7 days and Uzbekistan in 10 days.

Tashkent and Samarkand, 5 days. With a connection via Seoul, five days are enough for the capital and Samarkand, 2 h 30 min away by the Afrosiyob fast train. In Samarkand you can book a walking tour with a guide; what to see is in Samarkand in 1, 2 or 3 days.

Our guides work in English and Russian. If you would like a guide who speaks Japanese, tell us when you book, and we will check who is available for your dates. Not sure which route fits? Try our tour finder.

Golden Week. In 2027 the holidays fall on Thursday 29 April and Monday 3 to Wednesday 5 May. With the weekend that makes five days in a row from 1 May, and seven if you take Friday 30 April off. In Tashkent and Samarkand the average May afternoon is 27–28 °C and the night 14 °C. Termez is warmer, so we see its open sites early in the day.

Silver Week. Respect for the Aged Day falls on Monday 20 September 2027 and the Autumnal Equinox on Thursday 23 September. Take 21, 22 and 24 September off, and you have nine days, from 18 to 26 September. September is the driest month of the season, with afternoons around 30 °C.

October and November. Afternoons drop to about 22 °C in Tashkent and Samarkand and around 26 °C in Termez; Sports Day, Monday 11 October 2027, gives a long weekend. From June to August afternoons in Termez average 38–40 °C, so if summer is your only window, we keep the route to Tashkent and Samarkand. Month by month: May, September, October, and when to go.

Uzbek food is built around meat, mostly mutton, and around rice and bread. Plov, the national dish, is rice cooked in a cauldron with meat, carrots and onions; non, the round bread from a clay tandir oven, comes with every meal; green tea is poured unsweetened into small bowls all day. Our guides to Uzbek cuisine and plov explain what is on the table.

Tashkent also has restaurants that serve Japanese food, if you miss home after a week. Tell us about allergies, diets and what you would rather not eat, and we take it into account when we plan your meals. In Bukhara, a dinner with a local family is a good way to see home cooking.