lmayalal

Hi all,

My wife and I are planning our first trip to Japan on late November and would love to read your suggestions regarding our proposed plans. We arrive in Osaka at noon and plan to stay overnight. Next 4 days, we are heading out to Kyoto and then on to Hiroshima/Miyajima for the next 2 days. We are then planning to head out to Takayama and spend there the next 2 days, heading then to Tokyo for the last 4 days of our trip. In short,

Day 1: Osaka
Days 2-6: Kyoto
Days 6-7: Hiroshima
Days 7-9: Takayama
Days 9-13: Tokyo

What are your thoughts on this proposed itinerary? I realize we are planning for a lot of places but we are really looking forward to see as much as we can and are a bit overwhelmed with all Japan has to offer. We appreciate your inputs and suggestions.

Thanks very much!

thursdaysd

Looks reasonable to me, except I'd just head straight to Kyoto the first day. The time difference won't be that great.

You know about Hyperdia for checking train times and fares, right?

kja

Welcome to Fodor's Imayalal!

Japan is a fascinating destination, IMO, and I'm sure you'll see some wonderful things. That said, I'm afraid I'm less sanguine about your proposed itinerary than thursdaysd (with whom I rarely disagree).

First, you can't actually have day 6 in both Kyoto and Hiroshima, or day 7 in Hiroshima and Takayama, or Day 9 in both Takayama and Tokyo. Although how much time you actually have depends on when, exactly, you would plan on your transitions, many of us find it easier to understand itineraries laid out by nights, with qualifying notes as necessary.

If I understand correctly, you plan a single night in Hiroshima. That's certainly an option, but would make for a couple of LONG travel days. Maybe that will work for you; just think about it.

From what I can tell, I'd say that your time in Takayama stands out as extremely short -- you have a day and maybe parts of two others, and I'm one of many people who found 2 or 3 (full) days more suitable for that city. Are you sure that spending all of that time in travel will be worth it when it means potentially shortchanging Kyoto? Or, if your fully comfortable with your allocation of time to Kyoto, you might want to consider adding that time to Tokyo so you have time for a day trip or two (e.g., to Kamakura or Nikko). Just options to consider.

I'm not sure if you have specific interests in Osaka, but you should be able to easily move on to Kyoto on your arrival day. And many think about 6 days reasonable for a first visit to Kyoto / Nara.

If you haven't already done so, spend time -- LOTS of it! -- with japan-guide.com

Hope that helps!

janisj

Following up on kja's post - Here is what you actually have:

Day 1: Osaka (Half a day at most so I agree you should probably just head straight on to Kyoto)
Days 2-5: Kyoto (3.5 days)
Day 6: Hiroshima (half a day)
Days 7-8: Takayama (1.5 days)
Days 9-13: Tokyo (and if you fly out on Day 13 - then you'll have Days 9-12 free in Tokyo, or 3.5 usable days)

And as she says, it often is helpful to think in terms of nights rather than days

Adastra2200

I would say it is not bad, and you could make use of a 7-day JR Pass quite nicely, used for Days 3-9 (or 4-10, etc depending on how you tweak your plans). For getting from KIX, you could use the Icoca & Haruka discount ticket.
As already mentioned, since you are arriving around noon, there is no reason to go to Osaka at all - you can take the Haruka train all the way to Kyoto. You can always go to Osaka in the evening when the city is really at its best - Dotonbori, Shinsekai, and many great city views like the Cosmo Tower and Abeno Harukas. For your time in Kansai, you should definitely include at least a half day for Nara. Since you are putting in 2 days for Hiroshima, you also have the option of seeing some of Himeji along the way - the castle and Kokoen Garden are extremely worthwhile. For Hiroshima City, please don't cheat yourself like so many others do by just seeing the Peace Park/Museum and leaving the city. There are many more very nice places there - the Shukkeien Garden, Mitakidera Temple and Okonomi-Mura to name a few. Presumably you will also go to Miyajima - be aware that the iconic 'floating torii' at the Ikutsushima Shrine is undergoing renovations. It may mean the loss of a nice photo but otherwise it's sightseeing as usual, and there are other nice places besides the shrine such as the Daishoin Temple and Mt. Misen. You probably won't have the time, but seeing Iwakuni just a bit farther south from the island is also a wonderful place, with one of Japan's most beautiful old bridges.
If you want to put in 3 days for Takayama, there is also the chance of seeing a bit of Kanazawa and Shirakawago along the way - the latter is crowded with day trippers though, like Takayama. Bus is the only public transport way to get there from Kanazawa (not covered by the pass). It only takes a few hours to see. Kanazawa of course could take a couple days to leisurely sightsee, but the crown jewel, the Kenrokuen Garden, is among Japan's very finest and shouldn't be missed. Looking at your plans, you could add a day from Tokyo if needed and if your last day is not an early departure.
Unfortunately nobody has yet told you that you will be in Japan during the height of the autumn leaves changing. You may know that already and planned it that way; at any rate there are many good spots to see them - but many in Kyoto for example will be crammed with tourists for it. The many beautiful gardens in Tokyo will also be good and are usually not swamped, plus if you can see the Icho Namiki in the Meiji-jingu Gaien Park you'll likely be very impressed.
I also highly suggest you stop by the tourist info offices you'll find at the major stations like in Kyoto (2nd floor) - you can get good info, free maps, and the latest info on if anywhere is closed or under renovations etc that might make you alter your plans. You can also explore what each city has to offer by looking the JNTO Page, plus the official city website's tourist guides (like Kyoto, Tokyo, Hiroshima, etc) with great places listed nowhere else.

One more thing you could do is find a hot spring (onsen, 温泉) somewhere and spend a couple hours there - they are all over the country, so you should be able to fit in something somewhere - and no first time visit is complete without one.

lmayalal

Dear all,
Thanks very much for all your kind replies and wonderful suggestions. Both Hyperdia and Japan-guide.com have been absolutely helpful in planning the trip. Based on your feedback, we are now thinking:

Kyoto: 4 nights, daytrip to Nara
Hiroshima: 1 night (possibly 1.5 days)
Takayama: 2 nights
Tokyo: 5 nights

I would have liked to spend more time in Hiroshima, but I am really struggling to take time from the other destinations. Is this itinerary more sensible?

lmayalal

Dear all,

Thanks very much for your replies and wonderful tips. We will make good use of Hyperdia and Japan-guide.com to make the most of our trip next month. Based on your feedback, we've made some adjustments to our original itinerary. Please let me know how this looks.

Kyoto: Nights 1-4 (with daytrips to Nara and Osaka);
Hiroshima: Night 5 (1.5 days);
Takayama: Nights 6-7;
Tokyo: Nights 8-12.

We would love to spend more time in Hiroshima, but unfortunately, cannot find the way of doing so in our trip's duration.

Do you believe this is a more sensible itinerary? Thanks again for all your help!

kja

Much better! It isn't the itinerary I would want (as noted above, I would want much more time in Kyoto and would skip Takayama with the time you have), but it's not my trip!

I'm sure that all of us who have been to Japan have places that particularly spoke to us. Adastra2200 apparently loved Hiroshima, and tells almost everyone to find more time there; I would have enjoyed more time there, but was satisfied with 4 or 5 hours. But of course, that means I can't speak to what I missed. I adored Nara and would have loved mored than the 48 hours + I had there (and those were very full, busy days!); many people are satisfied with just a day trip or even half-day trip. The bottom line is that only you can decide what you want to include. You have a tone of awesome options, way more than you can fit into the time you have. So give some thought to how much time you are willing to spend in transit relative to time on the ground, think through your priorities, and know that you will have some wonderful experiences not matter what you choose.

crellston

"we are really looking forward to see as much as we can and are a bit overwhelmed with all Japan has to offer." I sympathise! I have just finished planning our second trip to Japan and must have changed my mind a dozen times! We are there for a slightly shorter trip of 10 nights, which, because of flight timings, allows us 10 full days.

I started off with and itinerary very similar to yours but eventually settled on 4 nts Tokyo and 6nts Kyoto. In Kyoto we are splitting our time between an very nice (and expensive) ryokan for the "real" Japan experience and a "normal" hotel in for sightseeing.

Given the ease and efficiency of getting around in Japan we have decided to use Kyoto as a base for some day trips. Hiroshima is easily done as a day trip but I do appreciate that will be a bit of a box ticking excursion, but on such a short trip, I don’t feel we have the time for longer. If we start early enough we may even include a Himeji on the way back, we have been before but it is THE most spectacular castle I have ever seen ( and my office used to overlook the Tower of London!). Nara is getting a second look, mainly down to the recommendations of kja & thursdaysd. Osaka will probably be an evening trip for food and nightlife.

Takayama was very high on our agenda despite having been before ( we loved it), in the end we just felt the ryokans on offer in Kyoto were far superior (although we did have a fantastic time in Sumiyoshi Ryokan on our first visit). Some photos and info from our first time there on our blog @ https://accidentalnomads.com/2008/04...ans-miso-sake/

My one concern with our itinerary and I suppose, by reflection yours, is that it is very focused on the urban rather than rural.

Following an off forum conversation with CaliLady, I have been looking again at hiking a short section of the Nakasendo Trail from Magome to Tsumago. This was reinforced the other evening by watching a Joanna Lumley documentary on her time in Japan ( well worth watching if you can get ITV Hub outside of the U.K. ) . This looks like it would give me the rural fix I think I need.

In addition to the excellent websites mentioned above, I have been finding the following to be exceptionally useful for Tokyo and Kyoto:

https://trulytokyo.com/

https://www.insidekyoto.com/

Both are written by one of the authors of the Lonely Planet guide for Japan and are great for the filtering down te sightseeing for those cities.

lmayalal

kja, thanks very much for all your helpful tips and suggestions! I definitely wish we could have fit more into our trip, but with some many wonderful options to choose from, it has been really hard. Hopefully, we get a good taste of Japan and save the rest for a future trip.

lmayalal

@crellston: thanks very much for your reply and great photos in your blog; we've really enjoyed reading your experiences in Takayama! Unfortunately, that makes our decision to spend there only two nights a bit harder. We are also concerned that we are somewhat biased towards the urban, "modern" parts of Japan, but we figure since this will (hopefully) be our first time there, we would like to have an itinerary that gives a good introductory taste to the country, so in our second trip we can filter out which destinations and activities align better with our interests. Many thanks too for the wonderful websites on Tokyo and Kyoto. We look forward to reading about your experiences on your second trip.

Best wishes!

mrwunrfl

Looks good. I suggest you work out how you will spend your Tokyo time to see if you can cut one night. Maybe you have it planned out. But, the time you have for your other stops is at the minimum while the Tokyo time (4 full days) is not.

You could take a night from Tokyo and add it to Hiroshima. With your 1-night plan you would want to leave Kyoto in the morning, boarding a shinkansen before 10 AM so that you arrive Hiroshima before noon. The trip the next day to Takayama takes 4.5 hours, so you will want to board a shinkansen at Hiroshima by noon. With second night, you could leave Kyoto later and take your time to visit Hiroshima and Miyajima.

Or, maybe you could move a night from Tokyo to Kyoto, depending on your interests.

Or your most recent itinerary is fine as is.