2022 Very rough iteneray, but would like advice. 3-4 guys early 20s from U.S. Never been to Japan before.

24 comments

1. Osaka -> Hiroshima -> Kyoto sure is… something. Why not do Osaka/Kyoto in succession while you’re in Kansai?

2. Local travel within cities (and between close-by cities like Osaka-Kyoto) is relatively cheap, so you don’t really gain anything by having a JR Pass during those days – it only saves you money when you’re traveling relatively long distances. Also a lot of intra-city travel is by subway.

   So if you stick with your current itinerary, I’d suggest buying a 7-day pass, and don’t activate it until Day 4, when your’e going to Hiroshima.

   Or if you skip Hiroshima altogether (which I’d recommend), I think you will save money by paying regular fares and skipping the JR Pass. I think the JR Pass just about breaks even with one round trip between Tokyo and Osaka/Kyoto, but you only need to go one way.)

3. Yeah that looks good. I’m just not sure on the JR pass, can ypu activate it at the airport? I always had to go to Shin-Osaka JR to activate mine.

   And even then I don’t think the trains going from the airport to Osaka are JR trains?

4. Tbh your schedule is very hectic, and doesn’t sound very enjoyable if you try to do all of those things. I think you should spend longer in Kyoto and maybe save Hakone for another trip, especially as you’re limited to 12 days.

5. – Do not go to Japan in July and August if you can choose. Rainy season is not *kawaii romantiku* like in the anime movies, IT SUCKS. Either you boil in your own juices thanks to the downright perverse humidity, or a typhoon destroys all your plans for the next 2-3 days at a time.

   – Hiroshima/Miyajima is a two-day trip, not a oner, if you want to be able to take your time. Sure you can do it in one, but the memorial museum alone is so impressive and haunting that it just feels off to be just coming through just to say been there done that.

   – Same goes for Kyoto. Not a chance in hell you’re doing this sort of itinerary without being miserable and regretting half of your choices.

   – Kinkakuji and Nijo Castle together are a day’s work. You need to consider transportation and lunch/dinner, and I’d always rather have a bit of extra time on my hands than have no margin for mistakes or bad decisions.

   – Fushimi Inari Taisha with the quaint streets around the station in itself is a day trip if you want to get any real impression, and that time of year it’s a disgustingly grueling hike up that’s more likely to give you a heat stroke than great memories. I would combine this with a relaxed evening stroll around Gion aka where the Geishas are, with dinner in that part of Kyoto.

   – Skip the Monkey Park. I mean it. It’s a dirt path with at times 40 degree incline that ends up on a dirt patch of about 100sqm with a few manic monkeys chained to tree stumps and a snack “kiosk” that wouldn’t look out of place in the worst slums of Manila. That’s it. That place survives on word of mouth alone and needs to be shut down, yesterday.

   – Arashiyama is nice, I would argue to take a day just for that area alone. It’s a short walk From the bridge to the bamboo grove, and there are many other temples worth visiting around the area. Get yourself a map of the greater neighborhood and just start strolling. Very rewarding.

   – Forget about your plans from Kyoto to Hakone. It takes you 3 hours 15 minutes from Kyoto to the ground station of the cable car alone. If you leave a 9, it’ll be around 1PM by the time you reach Owakudani and Lake Ashi. Lake Views, Festival atmo? No time to breathe, no time for mistakes, eh? Then all the way back down to Odawara, which takes another hour or so, and a visit of Odawara Castle on top! And again, during the summer heat. No. way. Travel to Odawara from Kyoto, see the castle and rest. Do Owakudani and the festival the next day.

   – Day 8 sounds like another absurd 14-hour day. It takes you 90 minutes plus from Odawara to Shinjuku, provided you don’t get lost. Then you need to Check In, which isn’t possible before 4PM, which in turn means slogging around Shinjuku with your luggage until then, in an area of the city where temperatures reach 45 degrees Celsius around Noon that time of year thanks to all the steel, concrete and glass. Not fun. If you’re lucky, you can leave your luggage at the hotel before check-in.

   – Golden Gai and Kabukicho are essentially the same area, and it’s just a few streets of adult entertainment and bars. Not sure what you expect from it. But for a nightly pub crawl, sure, nice location.

   – Day 9: Hahahahaha. Noooo. Akiba is not a day trip destination. You’ll be done within 4 hours or less, lunch included. The funky anime part of the neighborhood is not big, not interesting during the day (at night at least you get cool neon lights), and pretty pointless unless you are into overpriced anime merch and raunchy sex shops. But hey, this gives you a few hours for other things somewhere else. How about a nice stroll around Ueno Park? It’s nearby.

   – Day 10: Another day where the planning is just off. Meiji Shrine is a 2 hour thing in itself, provided you don’t take your time. Yoyogi Park on the other hand is a forest with… little in it for tourists. Takeshita Dori is great for a short stroll and lunch after visiting Meiji Shrine, as it is right next to it. Shibuya Crossing and Hachiko can be reached from there within 20 minutes on foot or 3 minutes by train, and are done after 20 minutes, and then what? Ebisu Garden Park… I don’t know. That’s something worth visiting if you *live* in Tokyo. Might as well find something that really interests you.

   ______________________

   In other words, this itinerary needs some serious reconsideration.

   Source: Lived in Japan for 4 years. Not an absurdly long time, but I do speak from experience.

6. your hakone day is too full – you can make those sights but youll have to spend a lot of foot time and train / bus / taxi time traveling

7. Cut this schedule down in half. Reading the first real day (osaka/himeji), especially in the soul sucking heat of late July, made me recoil in fear.

   An example of a day you could actually enjoy:

   Day X:

   * Travel Osaka to Himeji
   * Himeji castle
   * Depending on energy levels, visit Shoshasan (the last samurai temple). Skip if too hot/tired.
   * Stay night in Himeji

   Day Y:

   * Travel Himeji to Hiroshima
   * Genbaku dome
   * Peace museum
   * Night out in Hiroshima (okonomiyaki).

   Day Z:

   * Travel Hiroshima to Miyajima
   * Miyajima exploration (temples, mountain, sea)
   * Spend night back in Hiroshima.

8. From where are you flying? If jet lag may be an issue then don’t spend the first day at the hotel. Get outside. Eat a good full meal. Make it your goal to stay up at least until midnight local time your first night there.

   If you want to go a little further off the path on Akihabara learn about maid s runner.

9. This would be my recommendation, going with your general plan, but making it doable:

   July 29th

   Fly to Osaka International Airport

   Use JR Pass (ordered online) to hotel in Osaka : JR pass: 14 Day

   Day 1;jul 30 Osaka

   Settle into hotel, relax

   Day 2, jul 31st

   Himeji Castle

   Go out in Dotonbori, Bar hop

   Day 3, Aug 1st

   Sumiyoshi Shrine (if time)

   Watch a show at National Bunraku Theater

   Explore Osaka

   PL founders firework show

   Day 4, aug 2nd:

   Hiroshima

   Bullet Train to hiroshima

   Miyajima Island Ferry

   Itsukushima shrine

   Day 5, Aug 3rd:

   Hiroshima

   Peace Park

   Explore city

   Eat Hiroshima-style okonomiyaki

   Day 6 Aug, 4th:

   Kyoto

   \-Train from Hiroshima to Kyoto, Kawaramachi

   \- Arrive Kyoto hotel

   \-Kinkaku-ji Temple and area

   \-Nijo Castle and City Center

   Day 7 Aug 5th:

   \- Fushimi Inari Taisha Shrine

   \-Explore Southern Kyoto

   Day 8 Aug, 6th:

   Western Kyoto

   \-Arashiyama Excursion

   \-Monkey Park

   Togetsukyo Bridge

   \-Adashino temple

   Day9, Aug 7th:

   Train to Hakone

   Lake Ashi

   \-Torii Yaki Festival

   Mount Komagatake Cable Car

   Owakudani geo-thermal

   Hakone open air museum (if time)

   Day 10, Aug 8th

   Drop luggage in locker at Odawara Station

   Odawara Castle as soon as opens

   Train to Shinjuku, Tokyo

   Lunch

   Check-in hotel

   Explore Shinjuku

   \-Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden

   \-Samurai Museum (if time)

   Bar-hopping, Golden Gai

   Day 11, Aug 9

   Train to Akihabara

   Shop all day

   If bored and/or have time: Meijijingu Gaien, Kumano Shrine, Kabukicho District

   Day 12, Aug 10th: Take train to Harajuku

   Meiji Jingu Shrine

   Takeshita Street

   Walk down to Shibuya from Harajuku

   Shibuya Crossing & Hachiko

   Yoyogi Park (sucks, but if you really want to go…)

   Ebisu Garden Park

   \-Womb nightclub if show is happening? (fit in at end of any other tokyo day)

10. You might end up speedrunning certain things on the more packed days. When I went, we tried to have several “rest days” which we usually spent doing 1 leftover thing from the previous day. I tend to be on the more energetic side compared to most people but even I was pretty beat most of the time so just be wary. On the other hand I tend to be super thorough with every attraction I visit so while we usually only scheduled about 2-3 things per day we managed to do them to completion. If you’re not trying to be as thorough you can maybe get away with packing your day more but try to still remain cautious.

11. Tbh, depending on where your hotel is in Osaka I wouldn’t bother with the JR pass on arrival. The non JR Rapit goes right in to Namba station and is the fastest and easiest way there. Tickets aren’t that expensive, and it means you don’t have to stand in line at the airport all jet lagged.

    I’d also use one of your extra days in hakone. You won’t have time to do all of what you’ve mentioned in an afternoon- hakone shuts quite early. But two nights there spreads it out, and the ryokan is fun and interesting.

12. Thanks for all the input, probably should’ve mentioned most days are really full because I haven’t gone over what exactly we want to do each day with my friends, so there are extra ideas we can cut from the itinerary. Also many of the smaller stuff i haven’t put in order yet.

13. I am very dumb. Is Japan allowing tourism again? I did some looking and I must have missed something.

14. JR Pass 14 days is a bad value for you, it you only need 7 days and do the trip to Hiroshima and going to Tokyo within that.

    I can understand wanting to put a lot, but there is times what you put in a day that make no sense.

    Day 2, that is all over the place. Yes if you do a day trip to Himeji, you can plan something for the end of the day in Osaka, but Sumiyoshi-taisha is not in an area that would make sense to go with Himeji. It would make more sense to put Sumiyoshi on day 3 while you “explore Osaka”

    Day 4, for me it would make more sense to go to Himeji on the way to or from Hiroshima, that would save you roughly two hours in the train. While it’s possible to do Hiroshima and Miyajima in a single day, it will be really full and you won’t have time for going on to of Mount Misen in Miyajima. I would also start by Miyajima as everything will close around 5pm and on the other hand, once you are done with peace museum, it’s easy to go toward downtown for shopping, lor or restaurant and potentially bar.

    Day 5, this is really full and all over the place, Kinkaku-ji is northern Kyoto, Nijo-jo, central, and Fushimi Inari-taisha south. Would make more sense to focus on center/east side of Kyoto, so Fushimi Inari and Nijo-jo. Keep Kinkaku-ji for next day, it make more sense transportation wise.

    Day 7, I’ve been to Komagatake cable car, but don’t really bother, it will be quite a detour to go to the pier for the boat to cross lake Ashi (I think it’s worth using Hakone free pass and to do it). Would make sense if you want to do some hiking there, but I doubt you would have that much time for it and I’ve seen sign that say the trail can be closed depending of chemical concentration in the air (because of volcanic activity). Also skip Odawara castle, reconstruction and make no sense to go all the way to Odawara from Hakone just for that.

    Day 10, this is clearly not in the right order. Just a note on Yoyogi park, in my opinion can easily be a skip depending on the situation. The obvious reason to go is to do people watching during the weekend. Otherwise, I think it’s only good if you want to exercise, like run around the park, or to eat outside in the park with your friends. Otherwise, it’s just a park, it’s not a garden, so appart from sakura time, you should go to a proper garden if you want to see a garden.

    ​

    If you have two extra days, there is a lot of options. You can add one to properly have 2 days to do Hiroshima/Miyajima/Himeji. Can easily add one day for Kyoto itself and one for a day trip to Nara. And Tokyo is a really big city, you could easily add 4-5 days. I would say that you might want to have some idea of things to do on your day 1 if you have energy.

    ​

    I can understand having a lot in your schedule as it can be easy to remove things during the day, but don’t try to rush and do everything, take time to enjoy and skip things you see you won’t have time for.

    ​

    Edit : from the timing, I assumed you were from Europe, but title say US, so you may have made a mistake.

    If you take the plane the 29 in the US, you will land the 30. If the airplane land in afternoon, you just have time to take the train, go to hotel, check a bit around, eat and go to sleep ideally at the same time you would back home. Next day the jetlag is not bad if you were able to stay awake from around noon (Japan time) when in the airplane. On the other hand, if you fly out the 11, you will land in the US the same day. Actually, if you take a 12h flight to east coast that have a 12h difference with Japan, you will land at the same time you took off.

15. Extra day idea:

    Whilst you’re in the Osaka/Kyoto area, take a train to Nara and go and check out the bowing deer at Nara park

16. Sorry if this is off topic but did you guys apply for the tourism visa and THEN book your flight, or vice versa?

17. Akihabara can be a full day if you’re really into arcades and pop-up anime cafés, but for shopping, you’re better off visiting Nakano Broadway. Also, there are thrift stores called “Book-Off” and “Hard-Off” virtually everywhere in Japan that have a ton of cheap, gently used goods like video games and anyone figures, if that’s what you’re into. Also a ton of very, very cheap manga if anyone in your group knows/is learning Japanese.

18. Hey don’t want to be off topic but I’m also wanting to plan a trip to Japan, are you required to present your covid pass to enter into the country and do you know if all places/sights will be available to visit?
    Thanks in advance.

19. Since you’ll be in the area, I would really recommend an extra day for Nara. The deer in Nara Park were the highlights of the trip for me and my wife and we can’t wait to go back! You could do a half day Nara and half day exploring Osaka!

20. I’d really recommend staying in hostels as opposed to hotels. I saved so much money and made way more friends than I would if I had stayed in a hotel.

    You seems like you’re packing a LOT into a short time. I’d consolidate if I were you.

21. I’ll second (23rd?) what several others have said – your itinerary is very full, and you should probably look more into train schedules and the such, to work out kinks in timing. Also, your itinerary assumes you won’t be hit too badly by jet lag. Of course, keeping busy until crashing in the evening is a good way to deal with jet lag.

    If you still want to add something to the itinerary, i would suggest going from Kyoto up to Kanazawa (in Ishikawa prefecture). Only a couple of hours from Kyoto by express train – if you really wanted / needed to, you could go up in the morning and back at night.

    Kanazawa has:

    * Kenrokuen (park / garden – considered one of the 3 best in all of Japan)
    * Kanazawa Castle (meh, but if you’re into castles …)
    * the 21st Century Art Museum (we were all shocked when it was actually good)
    * the samurai district (bukeyashiki)
    * the tea district (higashi chaya)
    * the ninja-dera (old ninja house or temple?)
    * Omicho market (old market with lots of local sellers – great fresh stuff but also pretty touristy at this point)
    * a really cool train station
    * great wonderful fresh food
    * Oyama-jinja (shrine with stained glass from the Tokugawa era, iirc.)

    * when I was there they had insanely high quality performers come. We saw Norah Jones, Sonny Rollins, the Ulfuls, and several other famous Japanese bands / singers at the Kohminkan or other venue in Kanazawa. Back then Kohrimbo Playguide and Daiwa were the places to get tickets. Not sure today.

    All of those except the ninja-dera are within walking distance (or a few minutes and maybe 300 yen on the bus – maybe a good idea in July or August). Seriously, you could walk from the station, see Omicho, then Oyama-jinja, then the samurai district, then the museum, then the castle and the park, then double back to Kohrimbo / Katamachi / Teramachi for lunch or dinner. (I forget exactly where the tea district is, but it wasn’t that far from the main area, iirc.)

    Teramachi, Katamachi, and Kohrimbo are all right there also and have great restaurants (a friend of my wife runs Olive near Kohrimbo 109) and decent nightlife (of course it doesn’t compare to Tokyo or Osaka, but for anyone who didn’t grow up in Tokyo / Osaka / New York / Hong Kong it should be acceptable).

    Source: I lived in Kanazawa for 10 years.

    Edit: great wonderful fresh food is separate, not a station thing. The fish in Kanazawa is really good – noticeably better than what you get in Kyoto.

22. Just one comment because others have been really helpful with the itinerary itself: unless you’re from a tropical country (/area of the US) the temperatures and humidity in august are gonna be REALLY tough. Bring good, working deodorant so you don’t stink after 5min outside (been there), make sure you use sunscreen and the first purchase should be a parasol (men use them too here, and trust me you’re not surviving prolonged times outside without one).

    Have fun!!

23. Consider including Nara – rich history and lots to see

24. This is extremely ambitious. I think if you had another week this would be much more practical.

    The JR Pass purchase looks like a bad value for this trip even if you keep some of the inefficiencies I’m seeing (e.g., doing Himeji as a day trip). The ***ONLY*** advantage to using the pass is saving money, so if you’re not saving money with it, there is no reason to get it.

    As for where to add more time–definitely another day in Kyoto and an additional day in Kyoto/Osaka for a day trip to Nara. Honestly though, some of these days are much more than what I would consider reasonable. You’re underestimating both the distances between some things and the sheer density of things to do. Days 2, 4, 5, and 7 are particularly egregious and could probably each be split into at least 2 full days and still be packed. I’m baffled that you’re skipping almost all of eastern Kyoto (Higashiyama), which is generally considered the most Famous part of the city. For efficiency’s sake it would also make more sense to do Himeji on the way to or from Hiroshima than to do it as a day trip from Osaka.

    Other than that, I would suggest not going in August if you have any choice in the matter. It’s miserably hot and humid, and travel tends to get more crowded and expensive as Obon comes closer. Even July would be better because, despite also be miserably hot and humid, there are loads of cool festivals to experience.