Hi, I am just after some feedback before we start fine tuning our stops. We are first time travellers to Japan. Two mates from Australia in their early 60’s.
Style: Active but not hectic. By that I mean we like nothing better then cycling or walking an hour or two to a site, having a look around at the attraction, then explore backstreets or local areas on the way back and grab a coffee or a beer and chill at an out of the way bar.
Aim: See most of the big sights and participate in experiences, old and new, but have time to chill and experience locals going about their day to day life especially in some non tourist areas.
Interests: stereotypical basically – culture old and new including sumo, samurai, ninja, geisha, pop culture, technology, people watching. Also sport, cycling and natural and man made historical sites and scenery. And food, and whiskey and beer, but we can’t forget food!
Will this rough itinerary give enough time and hit enough places to experience all this.
1. Tokyo – 6 days. Focus: Technology, modern life, pop culture, people watching, sport. Activities to be determined and fine tuned.
2. Hakone -2 days Focus: Scenery including Mt Fuji, cycling lakes, small villages, out of the way places. Is Hakone the best place to stay or somewhere smaller and more interesting?
3. Nagano – 2 days (stay at an Onsen near park?) – 2 days Focus: Monkey Park, Onsen
4. Kanazawa – 2 Days Focus: Sumarai village, geisha, castles historical.
5. Kyoto – 6 days Focus – history, autumn scenery, bamboo forest with day trips to include
Hiroshima – 1 or 2 days ie day tour or overnight?
Itsukushima – Torii Gates under reno – should we give a miss?
We intend to cycle basically everywhere in Kyoto. Is that sensible and where should we stay to be central to most places?
6. Onomichi – 2 days, 1 night Focus: the Shimanami Kaido cycle ride to Imabari
The cycle ride to Imabari is the sole focus. Is it worth the detour? Are there other similar or better brides along the way which are closer. How do we transport luggage? Do we get to the other end and then bus back straightaway
7. Imabari – 1 day Focus : Overnight then return to Tokyo next day.
8.Tokyo – 1 day overnight Focus: Pitstop and souvenir buying before fly home that day.
Thoughts or ideas much appreciated, especially in where you would lengthen, shorten or add to our stays and whether you would change the order? I take it a JR pass would be the go?
Cheer and thanks for any help.
2 comments
I recommend to focus on one area of Japan than going cross-country within your limited days. As the traveling with one night stays will be a tiring and some places have more to see than just planning a day. Also, please count for bad weather and closed days for each site.
Focus on a area like 100 miles (160 km) would give you plenty of activities and see most of the place you want to see. You could have a central base camp to easily relax when things look not so great. Many area have their own famous sites like Torii Gates. You don’t need to travel to same sites as everyone other person had heard about. You will have a better story with your trip by going someplace different than others.
If you narrow down to area to focus. It is easier for us to suggest things that won’t make us feel we giving too many options in a limit time.
Hakone is a nice place where to stay, on top of all the things you can do around Hakone, staying there for a night you can stop at a ryokan with onsen. If you want to do a onsen elsewhere in the area, then it could be either Kawaguchiko or Izu peninsula. One thing to keep in mind is, where are you going next and does it make sense. For example, if you plan to go to Nagano next, then it could make more sense to do one of these place as an overnight trip from Tokyo, like you leave your luggage in Tokyo (can ask your hotel if they can keep it), go to one of these place for a night and return to Tokyo before going to Nagano. Otherwise, you would likely spend most of a day in the train to reach Nagano/monkey park.
Hiroshima can be a daytrip from Kyoto. If you do Miyajima in the morning and Hiroshima itself in the afternoon, it is possible, but that will be a pretty full day, and a bit the opposite to what you describe as your style of travel. Going overnight would give you a bit more time to leisurely explore Miyajima and Hiroshima.
Is Miyajima worth it with the torii gate under renovation ? I think it can be. You can still hike Mount Misen, go see the deer, and there is different temple and shrines on the island.
If you decide to skip Miyajima, then it could work as a daytrip from Kyoto, but it kind of make no sense as Onomichi is right in the middle.
​
On where to stay in Kyoto. I think that the area around Kawaramachi/Gion/Sanjo is nice, good access to transport and closer to more interesting stuff. The other area is close to Kyoto station, less interesting places nearby, but close to the station if you are to do several trips using the shinkansen.
​
Concerning Onomichi, I really like the city itself, there is not a ton to do there, but it’s relax and the view on the inland sea is great. The cycling will offer you great scenery. As to know if there is something similar, probably no if you want to have that kind of view on the sea and islands.
As for luggage logistic, yes you can use a forwarding company to send your luggage to the next location. As for logistic on how to get out of Imabari, there is different options. Can take the bus back to Onomichi via the shimanami kaido. Can take the train to Matsuyama, from there you can take a ferry to Hiroshima or you can fly out of Matsuyama. You can take the train toward Okayama, then shinkansen toward Hiroshima or Osaka/Kyoto/Tokyo.
For the JR Pass, the best way to know is to calculate the cost of all travel and compare to cost of the pass. Going to Hakone you would likely want to use the Hakone Free Pass. You can also check to not return to Tokyo, for example you could decide to do Kyoto, Shimanami Kaido, Matsuyama, Hiroshima and fly out of Hiroshima. Doing that you would want to check for a multi-city ticket, it might be a bit more expensive than round trip ticket, but it will cost less on the train. If you are to use the pass, then it should be 14 days pass, there is no reason to do it on 21 days pass.