Me and my partner will be in Japan 31 Oct – 24 November. We’ve already made an itinerary for most of our stay, but have a lot of trouble planning the hiking part of the trip (around 5 days).
Our first idea was Kamikochi, but we’ve found so much contradictory information concerning hiking the Japanese Alps in November (some sources say the first half of November is okay, some sources say it won’t be too beautiful as the koyo season will already be over and it might be too cold). Also, it’s difficult and expensive to get there, the accommodation is quite limited and it will probably be too late for koyo.
So then our idea was to rent a car in Kyoto, drive south and explore the Kii Peninsula. I see there is quite a lot of accommodation to choose from, getting there by car seems easy (we don’t mind public transportation, it just seems much more expensive) and the foliage should be really nice at this time of the year. We like the idea of hiking the Kumano Kodo trail (the Yunomine Onsen to Kumano Nachi part), but we’d love to explore some other trails around as well (preferably less crowded).
The second idea is to explore the Nikko and Oze national parks, probably by taking a train from Tokyo but I’m afraid it won’t be too convenient to do day hikes there without a car. Taking buses to get to the starts of the trails or to get back to the ryokan at the end of the day will probably be time consuming and expensive. Renting a car in Tokyo on the other hand seems a bit overwhelming.
Which idea makes more sense to you? Is there anything I should take into consideration that I haven't thought of yet?
PS. If you’d like to suggest some other areas that would be good to stay at for a couple of days with easy access to day hikes (we hope for some beautiful mountain views) at that time of the year, please do! We will be in Tokyo, Kyoto and Onomichi / Imabari, so those areas would be the most convenient, but we’re happy to drive away.
by Narrow_Tea_9337