99pandas

Headed to Japan and Sotuh Korea in May with my boyfriend. I would be fine with sticking to Japan only, but my boyfriend really wants to visit Korea as well. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity for us. This is what I am thinking:

Tokyo 4 nights (day trip to Nikko)
1 night in private onsen room near monkey park
Kyoto 4 nights
Miyajima 1 night
Osaka 2 nights (I figure that we would do Hiroshima on the way to Osaka, so would get in late afternoon on the first day, want to visit Dotonbori and the aquarium and par take in a cooking class... if time allows we could also do a 1/2 day or day trip to either Kobe or Hemji, or Nara if we are not templed out by this point)

Then it's on to Korea. Which would be:
Jeju 2 nights
Busan 1 night
Seoul 3 nights
OR
Busan 2 nights
Seoul 4 nights


I cut alot of things in Japan once we agreed that we would visit Korea also. But I'm really sad about loosing both Mt Koya and Shirakawa-go especially. Would it be worth it to cut some time elsewhere in Japan in order to add these back in?

I'm also look for tips on unusual / romantic things to do in these cities. In addition, I'm planning one 'special' thing per big city:
Tokyo - Sumo wrestling
Kyoto - Tea ceremony
Osaka - Cooking class
Seoul - Nanta cooking show
But I am stuck on Busan - absolutely stuck here - could be anything, but hopefully something cultural that we normally wouldn't get to experience in the U.S.

Thank you for any advice or insight!

mrwunrfl

monkey park, you mean near Nagano?
you flying to Korea from Osaka?

You have a fine plan. Shirakawago would be out of the way with the rest of your itin.

You can take your time on the day you travel to Osaka. That is, be flexible with your arrival time. You might have enough time to stop at Himeji on the way. The night before your Miyajima stay could be in Hiroshima. Spend the day in Kyoto but travel that evening to Hiroshima. All depends on how you would spend that last night in Kyoto. But you would probably save on lodging and get a jump on your Hiroshima visit the next morning and then Miyajima that aternnon. Time on Miyajima before going to Himeji - planning to get there a few hours before closing. Then night in Osaka.

99pandas

Thank you for your reply! It good to know that my plan is not crazy! Yes, we plan to fly from Osaka to Korea.

Now that I've written it down and thought about it some more... I think we will drop the monkey park near Nagano and add a temple stay on Mt Koya. The idea with the monkey park was to break up so much time in cities and get a little bit of nature in. There won't be any snow in May, and we've both had the chance to see monkeys in the wild elsewhere before. Mt Koya temple stay seems like a more unique thing to in Japan, and would still allow for some time outside the cities. It seems like the best place to fit this in would be sometime between Kyoto and Osaka.

someotherguy

Depends on your definition of romantic, but look up Loveland on Jeju. On the south side of the island there are some pretty good natural sights: waterfalls (including one that lands in the ocean), and hexagonal basalt. And a really spectactular museum of African Art--the collection is splendid and it's housed in a copy of the Mud Mosque of Djenne.

For Busan, you could substitute Gyenongju.

You do know that Nanta is not so much cooking as performance art featuring cooking situations? It is good though.

Depends on your interests but the DMZ is an interesting and sobering experience. Make sure to visit Panmunjom, but the third tunnel is also worth seeing.

thursdaysd

There are direct flights from Japan to Jeju-do, but not every day and not necessarily cheap, you might prefer to go through Busan - there are a LOT of flights between Busan and Jeju-do.

While you're in SK you might try sleeping in a love motel. For things to do in Busan try this site:

http://busan.for91days.com

mrwunrfl

Dropping the snow monkeys is a very good idea. Am glad you got there on your own.

Your original plan worked well with a 7-day JR Pass. The usefulness of the pass comes from the trip to Miyajima. It doesn't do you much good for Koyasan to/from Osaka or Kyoto. You could use it to get from Nikko to Osaka or Kyoto after an overnight in Nikko. Or you might find a nice onsen ryokan in Hakone.

Koyasan can fit in at several places. My personal rule, based on experience, is to keep to 4 hours or less of travel on any day in Japan. There are exceptions and I would go up to 5 hours, maybe more if rearranging the schedule won't work and I had a 2-night stay at the destination. Or if it was something important like making it from Tokyo to a Hiroshima Carp baseball game on time (5 hours on shinkansen).

Tokyo to Koyasan and Koyasan <-> Miyajima are all 5+ hours of traveling.

IIRC, Mara thought the trip from Miyajima to Koyasan is fine, so it might be ok for you. Am not sure I would want to go from Koyasan to either Osaka airport, but it will be short flight to Korea and not long haul.

I'd probably fly from Tokyo to Hiroshima and spend the night there instead of the 4th night in Tokyo. Fare would be USD
97.61. Then Miyajima, a Nozomi shinkansen to Kyoto. Then Koyasan and the 2 nights in Osaka. Travel cost on JR plus the air ticket will be less than a 7-day JR Pass.

crellston

Having been to both South Korea and Japan, I have to say that I agree with you and would be fine just visiting Japan. I liked Korea but it just isn't in the same leagu as Japan on so many different levels.

As far as Korea is concerned, I agree with someotherguy's suggestion of substituting Busan with Gyeongju, although in many respect, Gyeongju was the most "Japanese" like city we visited. Some photos and more detail of our time in Korea on our blog @ https://accidentalnomads.com/category/south-korea/ easy and quick to get between gyeongu - busan and Seoul by train.

In Seoul, depending on how much time you spend there, I would definitely include a visit to the DMZ.

A long time since we were in Japan but there is a lot of stuff on our old blog @ http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog...ai/1/tpod.html entries 25-30

Koyasan is a wonderful experience but it does take a long and involved trip to get there

kja

I’m confused about how you are counting travel time, and think you really would do well – for yourselves and for us – to lay things out in a way that lets us be clear about when you are traveling. As examples, do 4 nights in Tokyo mean 3 days there, or 4 or 5? It’s often easier for ALL of us if you simply state where you plan to spend nights….

I’m not sure it makes sense to include Osaka on such a short time in Japan – JMO.

I think you and your boyfriend really need to think about your priorites for South Korea. Going all the way to Jeju Do for just 2 nights is a subtantial investment of limited time, and a substantial cost in terms of your time in Busan and Seoul – and none of us can decide your priorities. Have you seen my trip report? You might find some helpful informaton there…
http://www.fodors.com/community/asia...outh-korea.cfm
It’s searchable!

Ss for your time in Japan:
- I, personally, would not try to add time for Shirakawa-go – a visit to Kanazawa, Takayama, and Shirakawago is, IMO, best when one can give the area at least 5 nights. JMO, of course, and you might feel differently.

I agree with crellson – I’vve been to both Japan and South Korea, loved them both, but can’t imagine that they might have similar priorities. For me, Japan was a life-long dream. And while I am ncredibly grateful to have spent a month in South Korea, honesly, it was a very low priority in comparison to Japan. I can’t imgine spending the time to travel to South Korea (and skipping some of japans’s most unique treasures), just to go to SK. JMO... And, of course, trying to visit both countries simply means losing time in transit -- you'll see less, and spend more time doing so. Your call.

IMO, Koyasan is a treasure. BUT you can not to everything in the time you have. Personally, I would give up Osaka for just about anything, but I think whether to include Koyasan really depends on your priorities. It might be worth checking with us again once you nail your plans down a bit more….

Sorry, but I don’t understand your questions about South Korea – maybe the information about the Nanta performance and about Busan that are already in my trip rerport will be of help? If not, please ask!

FWIW, I would NOT recommend “Loveland” on Jeju-do – no offense, someotherguy, but IME, Loveland itself is just a mass of love-striuck tourists with no real place to go. My impressions was that the tourism industry on Jeju-Do drives visitors to the most inane and uninteresting places on the island. There are places that I was glad to see on Jeju-do; Im VERY glad that I avoided the island’s tourism industry.

And I would NOT consider Gyeyongju to be a substitue for Busan. They are incredibely different. They are each worth seeing, for very different reasons.

IMO, whether to visit the DMZ is a very personal decision. I think the choice of whether to go to the DMZ is a VERY personal one. The more I thought about it, the ONLY real reason I could identify for me to visit it would be that it is a border between two sides of an ongoing civil war. I have, over the years, felt the importance of paying my respects to those who fought or died in various wars -- including, on my visit to South Korea, a stop at the UN Cemetery in Busan, and in other trips, visits to Auschwitz / Birkenau, Hiroshima, etc. Those visits were, for me, ways to honor those who had lived or died and ways to pay homage to the lessons we can learn about the atrocities of war and the need to find peaceful solutions to even the most intractable of dilemmas. I couldn't find a way to imagine that a visit to the DMZ would engender those feelings for me. Instead, it seemed to me like honoring a war, and it seemed voyeuristic, and it even seemed disrespectful to ask those who guard the DMZ to have to worry about tourists when they have such heavy responsibilities. I just couldn't bring myself to go. It really came down to a gut reaction for me -- it just did NOT feel right to ME. BUT that doesn't mean that anyone else should see it as I did -- vive la difference! Just some thoughts to consider....

thursdaysd

I agree with much of the above. I have been to both SK and Japan twice, and Japan is definitely a more compelling destination. For a short trip that includes Seoul I would agree with substituting Gyeongju for Busan. Busan is the face of modern SK and Gyeongju has good historic sights. I was not particularly impressed by Jeju-do.

Although I have been to SK twice I did not visit the DMZ, and do not feel I missed out. kja has given some excellent reasons not to visit, plus it just didn't sound very interesting. Now, a nature walk through the undisturbed strip of ground would be fascinating, but is not, obviously, on offer. Otherwise, I really can't get excited about staring at a bunch of soldiers who would probably be happier if I wasn't there.

BigRuss

If you really want to see the Japanese macaques, you can do that in Kyoto. We've been to both the monkey park outside Nagano and the one in Kyoto and the latter is a lot more convenient for tourists with limited time - easier to access and takes only a couple of hours (if that) to visit instead of going off to Nagano then a bus ride then an hour-long hike into the woods.

http://monkeypark.jp/en/

pandas99pandas

Thank you all so much!! Here is the revised plan:

Day 1: Arrive Tokyo, check in to hotel (Tokyo)
Day 2: Tokyo (Tokyo)
Day 3: Tokyo (Tokyo)
Day 4: Tokyo - Day trip to Nikko (Tokyo)
Day 5: Tokyo (Tokyo)
Day 6: Travel to Tateyama in early morning, spend afternoon exploring (Tateyama)
Day 7: Nohi bus tour to Shirakawa-go arrive back at 15:10, Nohi bus to Kyoto departing at 16:50 (Kyoto)
Day 8: Kyoto (Kyoto)
Day 9: Kyoto (Kyoto)
Day 10: Kyoto (Kyoto)
Day 11: Travel to Miyajima, arrive by lunchtime. Hike up Mt Misan (Miyajima)
Day 12: Explore Hiroshima in the morning, afternoon train to Osaka (Osaka)
Day 13: Osaka (Osaka)
Day 14: Fly to Busan, South Korea in the morning (Busan)
Day 15: Busan (Busan)
Day 16: Train to Seoul (Seoul)
Day 17: Seoul (Seoul)
Day 18: Seoul (Seoul) DMZ zone
Day 19: Seoul (Seoul)
Day 20: Depart Seoul


I omitted Mt Koya and Jeju due to the extra travel time they needed. I did add an extra day to Tokyo because hopefully one day will be spent at a sumo match. I know that only have a 1/2 to explore Tateyama us not ideal. Still looking for a "special" Busan activity.

kja

Many people visit Nikko as a day trip; I'm glad I spent overnight so that I had time for Kegon-no-Taki, a bit of Lake Chuzenji, and part of the Kanmangafuchi Abyss.

Your choice, of course, but it seems that you are spending a LOT of time to get to Shirakawa-go, for just 1'20" there.

Unless you have a specific interest in Osaka, you might want to shift your time there to Kyoto or Nara.

I think skipping Jeju-Do on this trip was a wise decision. If the things I described doing in Busan don't match your interests, I'm not sure what else I can tell you....

Good luck!

kja

BTW, if you don't already have it, I strongly recommend Seoul Selection Guide’s <i>Korea</i>.