Must see Cities in Japan

How do you plan to travel around, are you planning on using a JR 7 or 14 pass?

When you say besides Kyoto do you mean that you do not want to go there or are already planning it and to suggest other cities?

What is your rooming budget per day?

What are your interests in Japan?

Hiroshima is a good place to visit because of its historical significance. Hakone is a lovely resort town with hot springs baths and traditional inns. Nara is a great city with very old Japanese history. a walkable town. interesting temples. those are three important cities to start with.

Go to Shirakawago and stay in a gassho zukuri. Get there via Takayama or Kanazawa or both. For example, Tokyo- Takayama- Shirakawago- Kanazawa. (I am assuming the Takayama-Shirakawago bus will be running at that time, but not sure).

Then go to Kyoto and Hiroshima/Miyajima, with a stop to see the castle in Himeji. Then Nara and back to Tokyo.

Thanks so much. Yes, I think we will get the 14 day JR pass. It is expensive but it will allow us to see more without thinking about what each additional train trip will cost. At the moment we will spend 3 days in Tokyo with a visit to Nikko. Takayama will be very cold (have alread been there) and not sure that the gardens of Kanazawa in December justifies the time in going. Weather is an issue. So we will spend 4 nights in Kyoto visiting Himeji. Then spending two nights in Osaka, One night in Hiroshima/Miyajima, maybe one night in each place. Now for the tricky part, should we go to Matsummoto and Kurashiki? Should we visit Nagoya and spend the night or just do a day trip. Will spend 2 nights in Hakone before going back to Toyko for the night before we leave. Would have left out of Oska but could not get a ff mile flight. Thank you again for your help and suggestions.

You can skip Nagoya, unless you have a specific interest in something there. Just north of Nagoya is the Kiso Valley, which may be of interest, but maybe not given that you have visited Takayama.

I was just looking at the Takayama & Shirakawago travel guide at the JNTO website.

It says that the Takayama - Shirakawago bus runs all year now. Half of the runs are by reservation only. Only 50 minutes.

We spent just over 2 weeks in Japan in April and travelled around almost exclusively using the JR Railpass. We are on a year long trip and so stayed mostly in budget accomodation (which was still v.nice). Our outline itinerary was:
Tokyo 3n
Kyoto 5n (inc Himejei day trip from Kyoto)
Nara 1n
Takayama 2n
Koyasan 2n
Tokyo 2n

Not sure how this would wor weather wise in Dec but it was one of the major highlights of a year long trip around the world. The downside is we want to go back again and again as there was so much more we had to leave out!!
For more detail inc photos and places we stayed see our blog:

http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog/candcthai/1/tpod.html

Japan starts at entry 25

Clive and Carolyn,

Many thanks for sharing your wonderful travel blog! I love the level of detail and accompanying photos. We plan to travel to Asia (China, S Korea and Japan) in late April/May 2010 - we have one week in Japan (arrive and depart from Tokyo).

Given your experiences, what recommendations would you have for us, to enjoy a full week in Japan? We love scenery, seeing how locals live, walking, etc.

Cheers,
Pamela

You've received all the standard suggestions. Let me propose
somewhere different: Matsue. It's on the San-in coast, so
gives you a look at a different part of Japan. It has an excellent
hilltop castle (one of only 12 original castles in Japan), a famous
Tea hut and garden (Meimei-an), which has a good view of the castle
(Kanden-an, an even more famous tea hut is a bit further out), and a
very interesting old quarter with a samurai house, and the house where
Lafcadio Hearn lived for a couple of years, with a museum about him next door. (Google him, if you do not know who Lafcadio Hearn was.)
There's a temple, Gessho-ji, full of fascinating and somewhat
mysterious tombs. The town has two lakes, and you get excellent
sunsets over one of them--watch from the nice promenade by the Shimane
Art Museum.

A convenient circular bus route covers the main sites (buy a day pass
when you first get on). The food is good: soba noodles are a local
specialty. These come in stacked bowls, 3 is standard, 6 if you are
really hungry.

The Izumo Taisha (Grand Shrine) is a short day trip away. This is the
oldest and one of the most important shinto shrines and a facinating
place to visit. It's much more approachable than the Ise shrines, and
has the famously massive shimenawa (straw rope) you'll have seen in photos.

Another day trip (which I have not done) is to the Adachi Art Museum,
which has one of the best gardens in Japan (it's generally voted
the best)

You get to Matsu by train from Okayama or Kurashiki (both interesting
places in their own right) which are on the Tokyo-Osaka main line.
The train goes through Bicchutakahashi (sometimes spelled
Bitchutakahashi in English) on the way to Matsue, and this is worth a
stopover. It has the oldest and highest castle of the orginal 12
(take a taxi up there), and a very beautiful zen garden in the
Raikyu-ji temple, a short walk from the station.

Pamela, thanks for your kind comments. - There is so much to see in Japan that it is almost impossible to answer your question. We were there for 16 days and found it to be almost an impossible task to choose where to go and really only scraped the surface of the country.

With one week, I would say Kyoto is a must with something like 17 UNESCO world heriatge sites it truly is unique.
Himeji is a great side trip from Kyoto (but do check the status of the castle - its was due to be closed for refurbishment).
Staying in a monastery in Koyasan for two nights was an experience I will never forget and the scenery is great but it is a long way to get there.

Nara I was less impressed with than other places we visited but again, it is an easy side trip from Kyoto. I enjoyed Takayama partly for the town but mostly for the Sumiyoshi Ryokan that we stayed at and I would definitely recommend staying in traditional Ryokans wherever possible.

Have fun, it is an amazing country!

Morningstar, I think the gardens at Kanazawa would actually be great in December. It was only autumn when we there but the photos of the garden under snow and the incredible towers they build to protect the trees from the snow (a work of art in themselves) made me wish I could see it at that time. However, given that you have already been to Takayama it is probably not worth travelling all the way over to Kanazawa.

In terms of the Kiso Valley, a place I adored, I'm not so sure about visiting in December. I don't think you would get to see it to its best advantage. One of the highlights for me was simply wandering around the lantern lit streets at night in our guest yukatas and mingling with the others. There is little to no nightlife in terms of places to go, it is simply meandering along the streets. I have no idea how well the actual walking track is kept if it gets muddy or slushy with snow.

Likewise, if you are going to skip all the above places, I wouldn't rush over to see just Matsumoto. The castle is very good but you intend to go see Himeji anyway.

I think you could make a bit of a round trip with Kyoto, Hiroshima/Miyajima, then Kurashiki and Osaka or vice versa. You will be doing a lot of train travelling anyway so keeping to this area keeps the distances more manageable. Kurashiki, whilst hardly a must see city, is a lovely town for a one night stop and will give you a chance to see a much smaller Japanese town than the huge Tokyo/Osaka/Kyoto combination.