My husband and I along with our 21 year old daughter and 18 year old son are planning a trip to Japan this summer. We will be in Japan for two and a half weeks - arriving in Tokyo on 06/20 and flying out of Osaka on 07/06. We have never been to Japan and have gotten several guide books but are a little overwhelmed with all the possibilities. Our plan is to stay in Tokyo for 4 days and then in Kyoto for 4 days. We would love to get help filling out the rest of the trip. We have so many questions but here are some of the top ones:
1. Where to book a one night stay at a Ryokan? How do we book?
2. Any recommendation for the Japanese Onsen? Where is the best location? I read that some Ryokans have Onsen too?
3. Is Mt Fuji a day trip from Tokyo or should we book a night somewhere closer?
4. We are also planning to visit Osaka. Should we take day trips from Kyoto or should we look for accommodation in Osaka?
5. Any input about Kobe and Hiroshima?
6. Some guide books are saying that it is very hot in June/July yet other books say that it is the rainy season then?

I'm sure you'll have a great trip!

4 days is not much for a first visit to Kyoto; you might consider adding at least 2 days.

1. Check japaneseguesthouses.com
2. Again, check japaneseguesthouses.com. Also consult japan-guide.com
3. Consult japan-guide.com
4. Kyoto and Osaka are close enough that you do not need to relocate unless you want to. Consult japan-guide.com. And if you are planning to visit Osaka from Kyoto, add even more time to Kyoto.
5. I haven't been to Kobe. I thought Hiroshima extremely moving, and well paired with Miyajima.
6. It's a hot, steamy, humid, sticky kind of rainy season. Consult japan-guide.com and weatherbase.com

Hope that helps!

Thank you for your input. We have added Hanoke to your itinerary and now are perusing Japaneseguesthouse.com to look for a ryokan in Hanoke.

Thank you for your reply. The two websites you suggested are extremely useful. We have now updated our plans to stay 5 days in Tokyo, one day in Hakone, 6 days in Kyoto, one day in Myajima. That still leaves us with 4 unplanned days. Any suggestion as to where to spend it?

It would depend on your interests, about which you have not spoken.

This is our first time to Japan so we are pretty much interested in everything. That is probably why it is so difficult to chose . We like to experience the culture, nature, food.

I would encourage you to continue browsing / studying japan-guide.com. Many people include Kanazawa and Takayama in a first visit, and although I generally think visiting the two of them is best if you can give them 5 nights, it might fit. Or you could add a day to Miyajima to have plenty of time for Hiroshima and maybe Kurashiki or Okayama. Or add a day or two to Tokyo so you have time for Nikko and Kamakura. Really, you have a ton of options.

We have updated our itinerary: Tokyo (5 nights) -> Hakone( 2 nights) -> Osaka (1 night) -> Mt Koya (1 night), Miyajima (1 night), Kyoto (6 nights). Let me know what you think. We put in one night in Osaka because we are afraid that it would take too much time to go directly from Hakone to Mt Koya and thus will not allow us enough time to enjoy the Mt Koya area. Please let me know whether this is necessary. If not, we will skip Osaka and look to stay at another place since we will be spending 6 days in the Kyoto area and can easily visit Osaka from there.

IMO, much better!

I'll leave it to others to comment on the value of stopping in Osaka en route to Koyasan. I would suggest that if you do decide to go straight through, adding the night to Kyoto might make sense, so you have time for Nara and maybe Uji or other places easily reached from Kyoto. Just something to consider.

You have enough travel (Odawara- Miyajimaguchi- Kyoto) to cover the cost of a 7-day JR Pass. It could start on the last full day in Tokyo.

You could do better by just buying a ticket from Odawara (JR station near Hakone) to Osaka and then use a JR West Kansai - Hiroshima Pass: https://www.westjr.co.jp/global/en/t...sai_hiroshima/

Making that stop in Osaka is a good idea because the trip all the way to Koyasan would be over 5 hours. For the same reason I would re-think the Koyasan to Miyajima because that is over 5 hours and a bit complicated. I recommend adding a stop for 1 night in Hiroshima. You could visit the Peace Park and Museum in the morning and have an easy trip to Miyajima in the afternoon.

Making the Osaka or Hiroshima stops, or both, because I don't think you want back-to-back 5 hour travel days.


You will need to make a luggage plan and use the baggage delivery service.

On the day you leave Hakone plan on using a Hikari shinkansen from Odawara to Shin Osaka with no change of trains. The Hikari are not frequent but you want to avoid the Kodama shinkansen which are much slower and would require a change of trains.

Please help advise about ryokan. When I use japaneseguesthouse.com, the price is much higher than what is listed at other websites such as booking.com.

For example?

Ryokan rates will depend on the number of guests, meals provided, and room type. The charges are per person and some places require two guests. Typically, a ryokan rate includes dinner and breakfast.

Some ryokans have lodging-only options and you would likely find the rate would be less than half of the room+dinner rate.

The rate options could vary by date. A ryokan on Miyajima might accept a 1-guest stay with no meals on a January weekday but might require a 2-guest stay with meals in November when the maple leaves turn color.

Your third option would be to go directly to the website of the ryokan that interests you to see what options and rates they offer, Compare that with booking and jgh.

Typically the meal options, if any, are meal or no meal, but I have seen places that had dinner options at different rates.

Regarding ryokan, I see that booking.com and japanican.com have much cheaper prices with breakfast and dinner included for the same ryokans as on japaneseguesthouse.com. I do not know whether these sites are reliable for booking ryokans. Please help advise.

For example, we are looking at Iwaso ryokan in Miyajima. Japaneseguesthouse.com quoted us 190,080 yen for two rooms for 6 people including breakfast and dinner. Japanincan.com quoted us $1200 for 2 rooms for 6 people with dinner and breakfast. I believe that is $133,867.

Rather than wait a few hours for a response, the OP has started a new thread:
Best way to book ryokans

My advice: Make sure that you really want a ryokan before you book one. You have many other lodging options!

When you see different prices, they can be real -- or they can be because of different cancelation options, different amenities, whatever. If you haven't already done so, be sure you study all the details of the offers carefully.

And if you really want to stay at Iwaso, book through its website, quoting the prices you were given and asking them to meet or better any offers you have.

I checked booking dot com for June 13 and got¥142,560 for Japanese-Style New Builoding
At the Iwaso site it is 149,940yen for Shinkan Annex Deluxe Room

So, same building, probably same room types. The Iwaso site said that the two 3-person rooms would be connected and I think that means that it could arranged as one big room for 6 people.

kja gave great advice about contacting Iwaso to see if they can meet or beat the booking rate. AND to make sure that the two quotes are for the same accommodations and meals.

I could see that Iwaso could offer a discount simply because booking is the first link in a google search. You have to scroll down past tripadvisor and a couple others to get to the iwaso website link.

I recommend https://www.japaneseguesthouses.com because it gives a lot of information about ryokans, including descriptions of ryokan styles and the ryokan experience among other good stuff.

Use the Resources tab first to learn. Take a look at the styles to understand them. Most people are probably looking for a tradtional ryokan. They understand that they will be sleeping on a futon and having a kaiseki meal while sitting on the floor. There is a bit more to it than that and JGH describes it. For example, there is a traditional form to the room, with the tokonoma, the little table/chairs by the window, other items. There is a tradtional process and etiquette.

The JGH resources can help you learn about and enhance your ryokan experience.

JGH also has good descriptions of nice lodging in different areas of Japan. I have used the options under the Destinations tab to identify places to stay. They have fewer options in a destination than a typical travel booking site and I think that is a good thing - like a guide book. The site makes it easy to compare different lodging options.

JGH is less useful for getting rate quotes or making reservations (when I went there for Iwaso I would have to sign up to JGH and then wait until JGH contacted Iwaso during Japan business hours).

Did you try www.ryokancollection.com?

I was surprised at how long in advance many of the high-end ryokans sold out. So do not tarry too long if you have not already booked..

OP, maybe check out whether the Japanese home stay program is still active and available to you. Time was when the program was titled 'PTP' (People to People) and it was administered by the federal government plus if memory serves, certain banks. Likewise, the SERVAS peace organization has always had a presence in Japan, and operates in a home stay kind of way. Good luck!
I am done. The end.