[Itinerary Check] 14 days Kyoto/Osaka/Nara -> Hiroshima -> Tokyo

23 comments

1. Can tell you right now, no way you’re making all that in Osaka in one day.
   But as someone who lives in Osaka I can tell you this, Osaka ain’t that great so you ain’t missing much.

2. Are we fitting too much in too little time? – some days definitely yes! Reduce the amount of sightseeing spots to around 4 major ones.

   Add eating destinations or select dishes you want to eat is also a major thing or two, so after all 5-6 big points per day.

   I haven’t looked at the route of your bullet points but they should be on the shortest route possible 😉 even then, check the time needed to reach a spot from the last destination.

3. day 1 kyoto: thats almost impossible, and if you can do it, it will be checkboxing, not enjoying…

   day 2: kyoto: also almost impossible

   both suffer from too much planning for a day and overestimating what you can get done in a day.
   I expect you want to actually enjoy the trip, and not just rush between points and do checkboxes. so I suggest you start with the must do points and see how muich you can fit in, or put the stuff without opening hours to the end…

   day 4: thats is feasible, but I expect the hike to kibuneguchi to be less than fun after the whole day. I am also not sure that there is a good way to hike, and if you can find it. I suggest you take the bus

   I can not speak to the other areas since I dont know them personally.

4. Maybe you can go to Kurama on day 3 and then Osaka on day 4 instead. I think it might be good to get a hotel in Osaka for days 4-6 instead of having Kyoto be your main hub for the first 6 days. Then when you explore Nara on day 5, you can possibly fit in some Osaka activities when you return at night.

   In Hiroshima, you could also visit Okunoshima, the rabbit island, if you’d be interested in that. Though, it might be difficult to fit that in with ferry travel times and whatnot, but just throwing out a suggestion. I’d choose Miyajima over Okunoshima if it came down to it though.

5. If it’s in your budget spend at least a night in Miyajima. It’s magical at night when all the day trippers have left the island.

6. I lived in Japan for 12 years. My strong advice is skip Kyoto, absolutely skip Osaka. Two weeks is barely enough time to scratch the surface of Tokyo.

   I grew up in NYC, went to university there, and worked there for a decade. Tokyo is to NYC as a T-Rex is to a gecko.

   Follow my advice and you’ll have an amazing trip!

7. Do you or any of your friends speak Japanese? If not, definitely factor in language mix-ups and trying to understand how something operates such as a train, bus or where the entrance is to an exhibit. Japan has in recent times started to offer English options in their public transport but many other venues and services are still mainly Japanese-oriented. Give yourself some extra time such as in restaurants deciding what/how to order and the such.

8. For your first time to Japan, you have a very heavy Shrime/Temple list. Personally, I love them and would gladly take a month off in Kyoto to see all them with the proper amount of time.

   However, I lived in Japan and know exactly what I like and don’t like.

   MOST people can’t stomach nearly this many Shrines & Temples as you have on your list. Two or three in a day will probably be enough to satisfy you. Then, you fill the rest of your day with other stuff. Temple & Shrine burnout is very real.

   All in all, I feel like you have a very ambitious list and will struggle to fit in everything given travel times and need to navigate a train system you don’t know that well.

   Another option in Kyoto would be to rent bicycles. It’s a great way to get around the city and see as many shrines as you want.

   Not having a list of stuff to do in Tokyo is a good idea. The first week or so of your trip, you can think about what you want to do in Tokyo, which literally has anything you could possibly want to do.

   If you are burnt out with Shrines/Temples, then you don’t have to see any in Tokyo, although I would recommend seeing Asakusa. It’s a great part of the city and you can go to Ueno park/zoo near it as well. And there is a river boat ferry/tour a couple of blocks from Asakusa. It’s a great combination of seeing Ueno Park (and maybe the zoo or a museum in there), then going to Asakusa temple (Sensō-ji), then taking the River boat down a few stops.

   I do like that you are only staying in three places, it gets old changing hotels and cities several times on a short trip. It’s much better to stay for several days in the same location.

9. Just for day one, even with an early start at Fushimi Inari, you might not have time to go all the way to Ginkaku-ji before it close at 5pm. I think it’s a good plan, but be ready to drop things if you are short on time, just try to enjoy where you are instead of just rushing to the next place to check all the location on your list, same goes for the other days.

   Day 3 is all over Osaka, so you likely have to cut it down a bit. I can easily say remove Sumiyoshi taisha and the aquarium to make it more realistic.

   Day 6, stop by Himeji to see the castle, then you can remove Osaka castle to do something else there.

10. Holy.. I am wondering how you can fit all of that everyday. You won’t even be able to do half of that.
    I think you really really underestimate time you need to reach the place and how many hours you will stay in each place. Unless you just wanna come, take photo in front of the gate and move on, no way you can do all of that (yes I mean all, day 1-5, 7-8)

    Don’t forget you also need to eat for at least lunch and dinner, give around 1 hour for lunch and 1 hour for dinner.

    And, you need to factor in that most of these place close at 5 or 6 in the afternoon.

    And lastly, your body won’t be able to take that much abuse everyday

    IMO, get your priority straight, which one you really wanna go and which one not really. Get 3-4 places max and then the rest in list of “maybe will do it if I have enough time”. Then plan on where you wanna go after dark.

    Travelling from one city to another takes a lot of times, for example, kyoto to nara:
    – check which train you want to use ahead of time
    – you need to calculate time from your accomodation to kyoto train station
    – time to look at map and signs to reach the right platform
    – then train time (45 mins – 1 hour)
    – then time from train station to your destination

    Multiply that by 2, you already spend easily 2 1/2 hours just for tavelling in 1 day (yes I learned that from experience)

    Also, 9 days is a nightmare for jr pass. Jr pass only comes in 7 and 14 days, unless you wanna pay for 14 days jr pass, IMO, limit it to 7 days and use your day 7 jr pass to reach tokyo (can be afternoon of day 7)

11. Reiterating what others have said a bit here, I did a two and a half week trip from kyoto to fukuoka to okinawa.

    I did in four days most of what your two day itinerary is in kyoto, almost all the same ones, as a fit young married couple, and it was exhausting. However I found myself not adhering to the plan a lot, a lot of places and shrines… sitting and contemplating is part of the experience. Being present there.

    I would say one to two shrines in a given day, with time to explore food and shops and other variety. If you’ve never been to Japan small things like convenience stores or just walking between routes can have interesting things to discover, with that pace you listed you won’t even be able to see the whole shrine, nevermind really enjoy it.
    Keep in mind these shrines often are very up and down too, so you get tired fast.

    Side things I’d recommend besides food stuff is to see if you can catch a sumo match, amazing experience and very foreigner welcome.

    The monkey park is, tbh, not that amazing to me, but other people enjoyed it. If you’ve seen monkeys before then it’s a long walk of a relatively less pretty area to feed monkeys from the inside of a small shack. It felt like a fun thing for kids maybe and a nice way to get exercise, but I found it otherwise scenically lacking some of the other sights in Arashiyama.

    I would recommend prioritizing and having stretch goals for the day, go to your most wanted first even if it doesn’t geographically efficient way to get through max of them.

    A few years later, my memories are of the discoveries, like a park I didn’t know was at the back of the bamboo forest, and how beautiful the saga line train station was, and of stopping in a park to eat and chatting with a ship engineer, or an old man turning 68, or a young woman curious about international studies.

    I found a hole in the wall hamburger place owned by a young wannabe racer and we chatted about his love of volkswagons, in terribly broken english and japanese.

    I didn’t get even half my checklist marked off but I sure had a great time, and I wouldn’t have if I was rushing.

12. I would consider spending more time in both Osaka & Tokyo. Especially Tokyo, since one of the days is a travel day. I only spent 2 days in Tokyo on my 14-day trip and highly regretted it, because there is so much to see/do. If you can add more time to Tokyo, I would.

    Also like I saw someone else say, maybe cut back on some of the shrines to add more time for other things. Ultimately, these places in Japan are so so rich, so make it a point to really soak everything in rather than try and knock things off of a list. This just means you’ll have to take multiple trips to Japan 😉

13. You have a lot on each day. Japan is full of interesting distraction so it always takes longer to see and do things as you may make unexpected detours. My suggestion would be to look at what you have planned and work out what your must sees are. If you want to see everything in Osaka/Kyoto then you might need to skip Hiroshima this trip.

14. I spent 3 weeks in Japan , and let me tell you , I didn’t think it was enough time to enjoy Tokyo and parts of Hokkaido. I’m a slow moving soul though , who prefers to stop and smell the roses and bbq everywhere he goes. You’ll enjoy yourself , and I can’t wait to go back.

15. I’d recommend spending a night in Miyajima if you can. After everyone leaves on the last ferry the whole vibe changes. It’s peaceful and serene and nice to stroll around with no crowds. There are some decent onsen you can stay in for the night. I went with Ryoso Kawaguchi, decent stay and the breakfast was amazing.

16. We had a great fun in Kabukiza. There’s a tour that you can take with videos and props where they explain about kabuki theater and you can watch a little snippet of a real live show from the back of the theater.

    I think you have a great list of possible things to do and visit every day and depending on weather and how your feeling you can do the things but leave room to relax, get a drink in an interesting bar, have a stroll through a park ,…

17. People have already commented on your packed schedule so I won’t pile on there, just share suggestions!

    Kyoto by bike is absolutely magical and surprisingly time-efficient. Many shrines have places to park your bike, so you can ride along pretty easily. Not that kiyomizu does not have bike parking and you should visit on a non-bike day if that makes sense for your journey. Be aware of shrine closing times too! Also, wandering along the river and going to the market in Kyoto were highlights for me.

    I’d also recommend looking for a ryokan to stay in because that experience is so special. I’m sure there are wonderful options along your itinerary.

    Also, for a rainy day in Tokyo, going to the onsenland theme park was super fun if you can’t go to a bath/hot spring/ryokan – just a fun experience!

    Have the most fun and enjoy yourselves 😊😊

18. I would hike from Kibuneguchi to Kurama (ie do the path in reverse). We did that and it was amazing, plus you end up in Kurama and can swing by Kurama onsen for a dip afterwards. Then when you get on the train you’ll be able to score a seat.

19. I had similar itinerary back in 2019 (also from Melbourne) and as few people mentioned below, it would not end up like holiday. You would be rushing or racing to cover grounds.

    I missed quite a lot of spots but I really enjoyed my trips.

    The best part of JP for me was getting lost and wonder around in new areas. Plenty of detours happened.

    I went again in early 2020 just before COVID happened and went to few spots I missed and still wondered around enjoying new places.

    Have fun with the trip, hopefully we all can go back there this year.

20. I’m not understanding why you are flying into Osaka, then traveling to Hiroshima, then backtracking to Tokyo. My experience is tickets are cheaper as round trips instead of open jaws. Maybe buy a one-way ticket HND-HIJ the day after you arrive but the order of cities seems ineffective.

21. I’m late to this thread but I wanted to say something I haven’t seen mentioned: if you’re going there in November, the sun will go down early. Like 17:00ish. If you’re planning in 6+ things to do in a day, you won’t even have daylight to do them all. Many things close before sunset in winter. Plan to get up very early if you’re wanting to have a full and busy day, and take sunset into consideration as far as what order you do things during the day.

22. Some days are definitely packed. You have to consider how many hours you’ll be spending at one spot! Enjoy 😊

23. Each of your first 3 days has about two days’ worth of stuff crammed into them.