Hi all, we’re in the beginning stages of planning a 13 day trip to Japan in late November and are looking for some input on itinerary. We’re 30 year old M and F and first time visitors. We enjoy history, nature, Japanese culture broadly, food, shopping, pretty much everything but nightlife. Initial thoughts are:
* We obviously want to go to Tokyo and Kyoto; tentatively thinking 6 and 4 days respectively, or 5 and 4 with a day in Hakone for ryokan and onsen stay. We’re pretty set on at least 5 for Tokyo (want to hit a number of museums and stores)
* With the remaining time we’re thinking of adding either:
* One night in Koyasan and two nights northwest of Tokyo, probably in Kanazawa with a Shirakawa-go day trip
* Doing three nights in Kanazawa, or some combination of Kanazawa and Takayama or somewhere else in the region
* Same as the two above options but replace Kanazawa with Hiroshima and the surrounding environs
The order will change depending on where we go and most want to avoid on the weekends, but we’d probably plan to end in Tokyo, so it’d be something like:
* Land in Tokyo, 2/3 days in Kanazawa, 4 days Kyoto, 0/1 day Koyasan, 1 day Hakone, 5 days Tokyo
* Land in Tokyo, 4 days Kyoto, 2/3 days Hiroshima, 0/1 day Koyasan,
We’d do Kanazawa before Kyoto as we’re hoping it’d be less crowded but similar to Kyoto, and based on what we’ve already seen in Kanazawa we might be able to better narrow down what to visit in Kyoto, if that makes sense. Koyasan is very appealing in that it seems a bit more tranquil and somewhat of a remove from the size of Tokyo and crowdedness Kyoto, but after Kyoto and Nara we’re worried we might be a little templed out, similar to what we felt by the end of a couple weeks in Greece.
So without rambling on too much longer: which of these options will give the most distinct third experience outside of Kyoto and Tokyo? Is it worth skipping Arashiyama in Kyoto to add a whole nother day and feel less rushed in hitting both Koyasan and one of the other locations?
by BrotisRedding