My boyfriend and I are travelling to Japan for 2 weeks and any advice would be greatly appreciated! Our main priorities are nature, food, history and culture. We tend to do a lot of walking when we’re on holiday and get up quite early.
**Some questions -**
* We don’t like shopping but a lot of itineraries I’ve seen (especially for Tokyo) include a lot of shopping. Obviously we want to experience Japan and part of that is walking round the shopping areas but I don’t want to dedicate too much time to it.
* If you also don’t like shopping, are there any areas you particularly liked or didn’t like?
* I’ve only really put time in for shopping in Tokyo, is it worth also going in Kyoto / Osaka / Hiroshima?
* My boyfriend really likes Pokemon but not enough for us to really go out of our way.
* Is it worth going to more than one Pokemon Centre / centres in different cities? If not, which one is best?
* I’ve also seen that the Toyko mega centre in Toshima is good but it’s pretty far out – is it worth going to / is there anything else to do nearby that isn’t shopping?
* Most of our holiday itineraries include walking tours (we usually find a free one to do on our first day in a new place) and museums (we’re particularly interested in local / national history and culture) but none of the itineraries I’ve seen really mention any apart from paid for food tours – any reccommendations?
* We our obviously really excited for all the food and I want to make sure we’re having the specialities wherever we go – I’ve haven’t had time to properly look at restaurants etc yet but any recommendations would be appreciated!
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**The itinerary**
**Sat 18th (Hiroshima & Miyajima)**
* Fly into Hiroshima (from Seoul so short flight and no jetlag) arrive around 9:30am
* Explore Peace Park and eat Okonomiyaki
* Ferry to Miyajima where we’ll spend the evening (and eat oysters)
**Sun 19th (Miyajima & Onomichi)**
* Climb Mount Misen, explore Miyajima
* Train to Onomichi when we feel like it (has temple trail to do if we leave early)
**Mon 20th (Shimanami Kaido)**
* Set off early to cycle to Imabari – going to do test cycle and will hire e-bikes if we think we’ll struggle. Will get luggage transported.
* Train to Himeji
**Tue 21st (Himeji & Osaka)**
* Choosing to stay here to avoid having to travel back from Osaka – assuming it’s a nice place to spend an evening but could go to Osaka instead if that’s miles better?
* See Himeji castle then train to Osaka
* Explore Osaka (castle, Kuromon Ichiba market, Shitenno-ji, Minami)
**Wed 22nd (Osaka & Nara)**
* Morning in Osaka (Nakanoshima park, museum of housing & living)
* Train to Nara (Kofuku-ju, Todasji, Kasuga Taisha)
**Thurs 23rd (Nara & Kyoto)**
* Morning in Nara (Nara park)
* Train to Kyoto (Ninenzaka, Sannenzaka)
**Fri 24th (Kyoto)**
* Arashiyama (using itinerary on [japan.com](https://japan.com)) – that uses bikes, presumably it’s pretty easy to hire bikes and park them at temples etc?
* Gion
**Sat 25th (Kyoto)**
* Eastern Kyoto (again based on itinerary on [Japan.com](https://Japan.com))
**Sun 26th (Kyoto & Tokyo)**
* Fushimi Inari
* Train to Tokyo (Shinjuku)
**Mon 27th (Tokyo)**
* Shibuya
* Yogyogi park / Meji Jingu
* Harajuku (get crepes)
**Tues 28th (Toyko)**
* Tsukji market
* Imerpial palace
* Akihabara
* Ueno park
**Weds 29th**
* Hamarikyu garden
* Shiba park
* Tokyo tower
**Thurs 30th**
* Day trip to Lake Kawaguchi (will move to a different day if weather is better)
**Fri 31st & Sat 1st**
* Possibly go to Hakone or spend more time doing things in Tokyo that we’ve missed
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Does that seem reasonable? Have I missed anything worth doing? Obviously we have a couple days at the end that I haven’t assigned to anything so we could add in a daytrip at any point if there’s somewhere worth going? Thanks!
by Status-Inevitable925