One month itinerary – May 2023 – Solo travel

3 comments

1. Strictly speaking from the feasibility standpoint:

   * Matsumoto is fairly easy trip from Tokyo; Kanazawa is an extremely long day trip from Kyoto with 6 hours spent on trains.
   * Niigata (unless you have specific location in mind) is not a major tourist destination (not in May anyway)

   Thus said, I would imagine that a plan that went like this:

   Day 10: Odaiba+Sumida; Days 11+12: Sendai (arriving on the evening of 12th in Nikko), Day 13: Nikko (arriving on the evening of 13th in Kanazawa), Day 14: Kanazawa (two nights there)

   would be much more sensible than all this going back and forth.

   Days 22: What do you mean by Hyogo? Kobe is in Hyogo, and so is Kinosaki Onsen and Himeji.

   Also: it would make more sense to group Kyoto/Shiga and Osaka/Hyogo days together.

2. 10 – Kanazawa and Matsumoto are not especially day trips from Tokyo, would make more sense to at lest spend a night there. Between the two, Kanazawa would make the most sense, but as a stop between Tokyo and Kyoto. Doing both on the same day would basically be sitting in the train all day, absolutely unrealistic. Same for Niigata/Nikko, impossible in a single day.

   11-12 – I have nothing about Sendai, but I do not see it as a must, It would be a good base to explore more of Tohoku, but not sure I would go.

   14 – Nikko is in general a better choice if you ask me. Doable as a day trip if you focus only on the temple/shrine area, but better as an overnight trip if you are to go to lake Chuzenji and waterfall.

   20-21 – If you are to stay overnight in Osaka, then finish Kyoto, then move to Osaka. You can do Kobe daytrip from Osaka. Make no sense to change hotel twice to do Kyoto-Osaka-Kyoto.

   22 – day trip to Hyogo, what do you mean ? it’s a whole prefecture and Kobe is in Hyogo.

   25 – I would consider stopping by Himeji on the way to Hiroshima…. or stop by Okayama It does not make that much sense to do it as a daytrip when you pass by.

   28 – While Fukuoka is at a daytrip distance from Hiroshima, it’s also a place where you can easily spend 2 days.

   If you are going to change accommodation between Kyoto and Osaka, I would consider doing Kyoto-Hiroshima-Osaka, so you can split the Hiroshima-Tokyo train ride in two.

   If you fly out of Narita, it would make much more sense to split the Tokyo stay in two and that is for two reasons, 1, to avoid doing Hiroshima-Narita on the day you fly out of Japan and 2, focus shopping in Tokyo at the end of the trip, otherwise you have to carry souvenirs and stuff all around Japan.

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   I personally fell in the trap of wanting to visit as much of Japan in a single trip. At the end, I realized that I went a bit fast over many regions and that I would have to go to these places again because I missed a lot. For example, there is someone who posted about going to [Tohoku for 3 weeks](https://www.reddit.com/r/JapanTravel/comments/wz6ced/tohoku_itinerary/) and he listed way much more than he can do in 3 weeks, while you have 2 days for Sendai. Same could be true for Kyushu, I am planning at least 3 weeks there (and have already been for about a week) and you are just planning a single daytrip to Fukuoka.

   Just between Tokyo-Hiroshima, there is much more you could add that you did not list. Around Tokyo places like Hakone, Izu peninsula, Kawagoe, Chichibu/Nagatoro. On the way to Kyoto, can go to Matsumoto, bus to Takayama via Hirayu onsen/Kamikochi, bus to Kanazawa via Shirakawa-go. Between Kyoto and Hiroshima, Himeji, Kurashiki, Onomichi. Daytrip from Hiroshima, Iwakuni. And those are just some ideas.

3. In general – I think you would be much better served spending at least two nights in further cities like Sendai and Kanazawa. You can adjust how much time you actually spend in those cities by adjusting what time you travel to/from but having at least one full day without travel is important, I think.