We (a couple in our 50's) are traveling to Tokyo on Sep. 7th for 11 frull days. WE plan to stay in tokyo at least untill the 13th (or maybe the 14th to have a Sunday).

We wanted to see Hakone, Kyoto and Naoshima - but the time limits seems to tight.

any ideas?


Thanks

Dror

You can see some wonderful things in the time you have, but you'll need to be selective. None of us can tell you what to choose, but I offer three specific recommendations:

• If you commit to including all of these locations, or even just Tokyo and Kyoto, fly open jaw if at all possible -- into Tokyo and out of Osaka (Kyoto) or vice versa.
• Think about your priorities in some detail.
• Spend time -- a lot of it! -- with japan-guide.com to help you decide.

Japan is delightful!

I am in the midst of planing a trip to Japan in January for a similar amount of time (10 nights). I did look at Hakone, Hiroshima and a few other places but eventually decided on:

4 nights Kyoto (possible side trip to Hiroshima)
2 nights Kinosaki Onsen
4 nights Tokyo (possible side trip to Nikko)

This is a very short trip for us as we usually travel for 3-6 months at a time. I have found this shorter trip much harder to plan for than our longer trip, perhaps because on longer trips we can pretty much change our plans as we go, on this one we have to be more focussed.

I spent a lot of time on http://www.hyperdia.com/ working out train routes and times for our trip. Very useful once you get used to it. Google maps is also very useful. As an example, Kyoto to Naoshima is 2.5 hours so an easy trip from there.

Japan-Guide has a lot of useful info and is easily accessed but perhaps has less depth than I would need.

There are various websites that will help,you analyse if the JR Railpass is worthwhile which you should investigate.

With 11 days you would have time to cover all of those places but spending 6 in Tokyo will limit your options considerably. Your choice of course but I doubt I would spend all that time in Tokyo just to be there on a Sunday.

Please look at the JNTO information, and if you can find it, a copy of Japan Solo, now sadly out-of-date, but with extraordinarily in-depth coverage.

Which airport(s) are you using and what are your arrival and departure times? With :"Tokyo to Osaka" in the thread title, that could mean arriving at one of two Tokyo airports and departing from one of two Osaka airports.

>>stay in tokyo at least untill the 13th (or maybe the 14th to have a Sunday)

Rather than "until", I take that to mean "through". That is, you would leave Tokyo on the 14th or 15th.

Arriving on the 7th and 11 full days means (to me) that you are leaving Japan on the 19th. If you leave Tokyo on the 14th after 6 full days (8-13th) then you will have less than 5 days for Hakone, Kyoto, Naoshima.

That is plenty of time for Tokyo. You will have a Sunday in Tokyo, the 8th, so staying the night of the 14th in Tokyo so that you can have a part-day there on the 15th doesn't really add much to Tokyo and it is at the cost of time in Kyoto, etc. It means that you have no/little weekend time in Kyoto, basically.

I will assume that you actually have a Tokyo plan that will consume those 6 full days. If you don't have a plan for the evening of the 13th in Tokyo then you could transfer to Kyoto, if you are staying in a hotel, at that time so that you will wake up in Kyoto on the 14th.

I will stop here as it just occurred to me to ask the question at the top of this post. I had not considered that you might be departing from Osaka when I wrote the advice above.

Thanks kja, I will take a look

we arrive in Narita Tokyo on sep. 13 late evening, leaving Tokyo on the 13 (or 14). We leave Japan on the 19 mornings from Osaka. so it is more like 10 full days.

I understand we cannot make Hakone, Kyoto, and Naoshima. It is a hard choice, and I'll appreciate any advise.
Thanks

Dror

>> we arrive in Narita Tokyo on sep. 13 late evening

Did you mean Sep 7 late evening?

If you are departing from Osaka Kansai (KIX) then you could consider staying the last night, the 18th, at the hotel at the airport.

Personally, I wouldn't rent a car -- I'd use public transportation. YMMV.
https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e6906....tion_get_there