Hey Folks,
Im planning Japan for fall 2023 and would like your input on the locations I’m planning to visit. I recently posted my itinerary for option 1 (north), but after some more research, I’m not 100% sure where exactly I would like to go. To save a bit of space, I won’t go into exact detail about what I’m planning each day, but of these two routes, which would you prefer from your experience? I would also like to mention that the outermost bullet point would be a city that I would use as a hub city to minimize the amount of travel I need to do.
Option 1 (North Route):
* Tokyo ( 8 Days):
* Day 0: Fly in and maybe some Shinjuku depending on the time
* Day 1: Harajuku/Ikebukuro
* Day 2: Shinjuku
* Day 3: Chuo/Asakusa
* Day 4: Hakone
* Day 5: Shibuya
* Day 6: Kawaguchiko
* Day 7: Akihabara
* Day 8: Toyosu and other stuff I missed
* Travel (1 Day):
* Day 9: Tokyo -> Sapporo
* Hokkaido/Sapporo (6 Days):
* Day 10 and 11: Sapporo
* Day 12: Otaru/Hirafu
* Day 13 Noboribetsu
* Day 15 Hakodate
* Travel (1 Day):
* Day 16: Hakodate -> Yamanouchi
* Yamanouchi (1 Day):
* Day 17: Yamanouchi
* Takayama (2 Days):
* Day 18: Takayama
* Day 19: Shirawkawago
* Kanazawa (2 Days):
* Day 20 and 21: Kanazawa
* Kyoto (4 Days):
* Day 22, 23, 24, and 25: Kyoto
* Osaka (5 days)
* Day 26 and 27: Osaka
* Day 28: Nara
* Day 29: Himeji
* Day 30: Osaka (Fly Home)
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Option 2 (South Route):
* Tokyo ( 8 Days):
* Day 0: Fly in and maybe some Shinjuku depending on the time
* Day 1: Harajuku/Ikebukuro
* Day 2: Shinjuku
* Day 3: Chuo/Asakusa
* Day 4: Hakone
* Day 5: Shibuya
* Day 6: Kawaguchiko
* Day 7: Akihabara
* Day 8: Toyosu and other stuff I missed
* Yamanouchi (1 Day):
* Day 19: Yamanouchi
* Takayama (2 Days):
* Day 10: Takayama
* Day 11: Shirawkawago
* Kanazawa (2 Days):
* Day 12 and 13: Kanazawa
* Kyoto (4 Days):
* Day 14, 15, 16, and 17: Kyoto
* Osaka (5 days)
* Day 18, 19, and 20: Osaka
* Day 21: Nara
* Day 22: Himeji
* Hiroshima (5 Days)
* Day 23 and 24: Hiroshima
* Day 25 Miyajima
* Day 26: Sandanko Gorge
* Day 27: Okunoshima
* Fukuoka (3 Days):
* Day 28 and 29: Fukuoka
* Day 30: Fukuoka (Fly Home)
2 comments
>Day 16: Hakodate -> Yamanouchi
I do not especially like that, it’s easily 7+ hours in the train on that day.
I’m also not a big fan of Yamanouchi-Takayama, this is easily 4 hours+ in transport and you kind of skip other interesrting area, like I would stop for a day in Matsuyama, and take a day to reach Takayama, stopping at Kamikochi/Hirayu onsen.
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Maybe just for the fact that transportation is a bit more logical, I would say option 2.
Whereever you will see fall foliage. October? North. November? South.