With the help of many of you here, I I went to Japan and Korea with my college grad daughter this May/June for first time for 3.5 weeks 2.5 week Japan and 10 days Korea) and while we really liked Korea, we adored Japan and thought it was our best trip other than our Kenyan safaris. We did 3 nights Tokyo, 3 Takayama with day trip to Kamikochi, bike trip in HIda Furukawa, and viist to HIda Folk Village, Higashiyama trall where we visited a temple and learned how to write a mantra in Japanese caligraphy, week in Kyoto (day trip to Nara, Himeji), 2 nights Miyajima and final night Fukuoka with a visit to Nanzion before we flew to Busan. It was honestly almost perfect. We loved our mix of lodgings-ryokans, family inns, airbnbs, hotels. We liked the ryokan/onsen experiece but didn't always like the food and we liked the onsens when we were the only ones in them! Our locations were a good mix of big cities, Japanese alps, varied spots in Kyoto with day trip to Nara and Hemeji, 2 nights Miyajima was perfect bc it allowed us to spend about 5 hours in Hiroshima before we ferried over. A favorite activity was our 3 hour kayak trip from 3-6 under the Tori gate in Miyajima. Weather was near perfect too-half day of rain in Hiroshima which seemed fitting and a day of pouring rain in Kyoto which gave us a free shopping day and shopped we did! Setouchi pass worked out very well too.

Well today I just booked a March trip 11-25 with my husband who has never been-in to Haneda and out of Fukuoka. Japan air business for 60k miles each way. I feel like I won the lottery! Its less time than my last trip and we won't visit Takayama bc too cold and Kamikochi is closed. Think we'd elilminate Tokyo except for our first night. WE don't land until 8 pm so assume we need to stay near Tokyo Station to get train to Kyoto next day. Thinking Kyoto for a week, one night Hiroshima, one night Miyajima, 2 nights Nagasaki, 1 night Fukuoka. Is Nagasaki a similiar experience to Hiroshima? My husband loves history. I'd like to add a smaller place like Takayama so he can experience the Edo architecture, which he also really appreciates. I am sure there are tons of hidden gems I don't know about so I'd love some suggestions. I also adored the Japanese gardens. I am just worried bc Nagasaki would be the only new location for me.

>> won the lottery!
Great! It's JAL so must be an AAward. AA award flights pop up I would keep looking for an award flight to OSA (optionally check the "Include nearby airports" should get Kobe and others). You can ask AA to add a HND-ITM segment to the ticket for the next day (stay at airport hotel)

>> assume we need to stay near Tokyo Station
No, Shinagawa Station

>> Is Nagasaki a similiar experience to Hiroshima? My husband loves history.
No. What they have in common: both are mid-sized Japanese cities and both were A-bombed. Nagasaki is more attractive, scenic. Nagasaki has history as it was opened to foreigners (Dutch, English, and some Korean influence - am thinking of champon). Nagasaki actually gets cruise ships. Take a look at japan-guide.

You could add a night to Fuluoka.

Only thoughts so far about architecture so far are Magomie (with Tsumago is an endpoint of the Nakasendo walk) and Kurashiki.

The March grand sumo tournament is in Osaka. You will see cherry blossoms. Might be to early for baseball.

There is a famous Japanese garden and a nice castle in Okayama. You would travel to Kurashiki via Okayama. The garden is different from other J-gardens, tho, and some people don't appreciate it. It is one of the top three in Japan, I think.

Thanks so much as always. When my daughter and I were there we looked at the garden in Kurashiki but it looked more like a park than a garden so we didn't visit. So you'd suggest we fly to Osaka rather than train to Kyoto? I did look at baseball but we are too early I think. We did do a baseball game in Seoul which was alot of fun-it was the 2 local teams. Would love to attend a sumo torunament!

Matsue and Hagi always looked interesting but seem diffucult to get to. I am just concerned bc all are mid sized cities except for Miyajima. No rural areas. I was also looking at Kurashiki. Is an overnight worth it or as a day trip from Kyoto?

Am rethinking Nagasaki for maybe a more rural or onsen town in Kyushu. We will have the Sanyo Sanin N Kyushu pass. Appreciate any suggestions. Could maybe do one night here and then 2 in Fukuoka before we depart...

We’ll be staying in Kurokawa Onsen for 2 nights on our next trip. Kurakowa Onsen seems to be the most traditional of Onsen towns in the region. It’s not accessible by train, though there is a bus that goes there.

Kurakowa Onsen:
https://www.kurokawaonsen.or.jp/eng_new/

Yufuin, another onsen town, is accessible by train - an old-fashioned train that looks like a fun ride. Yufuin looks nice, too, if a bit more commercial.

Train to Yufuin
https://www.jrkyushu.co.jp/english/t...n_no_mori.html

There are several onsen towns near Nagasaki - Unzen Onsen seems to be one that came up in my research a lot. There’s also Obama Onsen (yes, that’s the name, and I understand that the name recognition helped the town). My impression (from research) of the towns near Nagasaki are less quaint and charming and more urbanized than the other 2 I mentioned but I could be wrong.

>> suggest we fly to Osaka rather than train to Kyoto?
Yes, if you can, because you can get to Kyoto on the day you arrive in Japan instead of the overnight in Shinagawa. Either connect from an earlier flight to Tokyo or fly from US to Osaka KIX. (which USA airport would you depart from - am asking because JAL has a couple of business class configs and their best business class is on routes to Tokyo)

Matsue and Hagi are worth the trip. Matsue is a small city with some charm, the shinjimi fishers on the lake, excellent castle, garden (with peonys), and nearby is the amazing Izumo Taisha. The train to Hagi goes along the San-in coast, not scenic unless you like close up views of the sea. Weather could be an issue in March (San-in think "sun in" vs San-jo (sunn-y) side of western Honshu). Matsie hosts wedding parties there for the ceremonies at Izumo Taisha (I think this was the reason for the unexpectedly high hotel rates).

Hagi was interesting and I should have spent more than one night there.

Mara enjoyed her stay there, IIRC.

I flew to Fukuoka via Seoul. That immigration line was long because of a widebody from Taiwan.

Unzen Onsen in Nagasaki-ken is a small town that I reached by bus from Isahaya. The ride was scenic and passed through Obama town. The town has a few restaurants and ryokan of different types There is a park with paths among several geothermal features, hot springs. Nice ropeway ride up the volcano, great views. I got a ticket online because it was a busy time of year (late Oct). I did take a bus up to the ropeway and back to town tho japan-guide says taxi: Mount Unzen - Shimabara Travel (japan-guide.com)

I went from there via Shimabara and the fun one-car Shimabara Railway to Ureshino Onsen which I would not recommend for you.

Yufuin was a zoo, overrun with foreign tourists. The Yufuin no Mori train ride was unpleasant and not really very scenic. Nice train cars, though. Might have been nice to look around the train but it was annoyingly busy. YMMV in March, but Kyushu is a short flight from Taipei, Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Korea, so IDK if there is a low season. I did like the ryokan where I stayed, once I was able to get a taxi from the station, and can recommend it.

Took the highway bus from Yufuin to Kurokawa Onsen. The ride was scenic and pleasant enough with a few stops.

I loved Kurokawa Onsen.
Loved Yamamizuki Bettei Miyama Sansou

Kurokawa Onsen Travel Guide - What to do in Kurokawa Onsen (japan-guide.com)

mrwunrfl has an awfully good memory unless he maybe takes notes...lol...I had to look up my notes to find my trip info about Matsue and Hagi which I did in separate trips. Will post more later....

so would you recommend we fly to osaka rather than take train to tokyo? then we'd just stay at airport hotel. we arrive at 5;20 into haneda. wondering if we could get a flight later same evening to osaka

thanks!! agree he has some memory!!

we land into Haneda at 5:20. . looks like last flight is 7:20pm so looks like i need to sleep over.
how complicated is it to go from osaka airport to kyoto? wondering if train is easier. .

wouldn't i just stay at an airport hotel? why would i stay near shinagawa station please?

>> arrive at 5;20 into haneda
Oh, for some reason I thought it was around 8PM.

Yes, you can connect at HND to fly to OSA. There is a limited express train form Osaka KIX to Kyoto and limo buses from KIX and Osaka ITM.

AA award seats on JAL are available for March 12:
To ITM at 6:00 PM, 6:50 PM, 7:05 PM (all are 787-800)
To KIX at 8:55 PM (737-800)

You can call AAdvantage and ask to have the OSA segment to your existing ticket to HND.

The award search shows 7.5K miles for "Main" (economy) and 0K miles for "Business". IDK what that 0K means (the first flight oif the day shows 15K for "Business". Those flights all have what JAL calls Economy and J-Class. You want the latter which you can think of as domestic business class.

By calling, I think you can add the flight to your itin and only pay the additional airport taxes and not pay more miles.

The airfare would be JPY 12,260 for the Special Saver economy. The J-class Special Saver fare is on JPY 14,460 but that fare is not available on that date. Not yet anyway. Would be about 29,000 to ITM or 19,000 to KIX if you bought today. Those fares are refundable under certain conditions (see my thread titled "Japan domestic flights").

If you had to get a separate ticket using money or miles then I think JAL would link the two. They did that for me 20 years ago, anyway.

You could stay at an airport hotel if you wanted. You mentioned earlier that you were planning to go into Tokyo and get the shinkansen from Tokyo Station the next day

Shinagawa Station is a stop for all of the Tokaido shinkansen trains. There is rail available from Haneda to Shinagawa but also limo buses directly to some of the hotels that are very close to Shinagawa Station (either walk from hotel to the station or the hotel might have a shuttle).

Visiting Hagi was part of a trip I did from Kyoto to Fukuyama (just a couple of hours) to Iwakuni (1 night) to Shin Yamaguchi where I got the SL (Steam Locomotive) Yamaguchi to Tsuwano (2 nights ) to Hagi (2 nights) to Masuda on the way to Yamaguchi (1 night) - last stop before return to Kyoto.

On the map it looks like I went out of my way to see Masuda after Hagi when I had gone to Tsuwano earlier but there was a big EQ and the train from Tsuwano to Masuda was not running at that time so I took a bus to Hagi.

Anyway in Hagi I visited Shoin Shrine and Castle Ruins on my first afternoon. Then the next day I visited various residences and museums in the central area. You can see all these places on a japan-guide map of Hagi.

Shrines, temples, castles, museums and gardens are my usual focus of visits to various places....

Hope that helps!

I had a couple of hours in Masuda, changing trains from Hagi to Matsue. Found a nice little restaurant with an imperessive collection of calendars on the walls.

plambers, I see you are on JL 1 from SFO. The scheduled connection to ITM is 7:05 PM, so that would be fine and doable as would a 7:20 PM departure that you mentioned.

Last shinkansen from Shinagawa to Kyoto would be around 9:30 PM. The trains are frequent before that.

As far as staying at an airport hotel goes that would make sense if you were flying next day (and you should be able to have that added to your ticket)

Thanks Mara.

you are wonderful yet again! looks like we could do the 8:55 that gets into kix at 10;15 pm. is it difficult to get to kyoto from here? of do we just stay at airport and take an early flight to itm (assume its easier to get to kyoto from here than kix) the next morning. its cheaper than train.

I would just take the flight that night to ITM. The one at 7:05
second choice might be to take the shinkansen that night.
As far as the KIX flight goes I would not want to arrive at the Kyoto hotel that late.

The shinkansen fare is only 14,370 yen.

OUr flight lands at 5:20 so we won't be done with customs/immigration in time I'd think. And then we need to get our luggage and go back through security, no?