I’ve been planning a trip to Japan in April with my partner, and was hoping to get some feedback on my itinerary. We’ve done a Tokyo/Kyoto/Osaka/Sapporo trip in the winter 4 years back, and wanting to spend a little bit of time in some of the smaller cities. Our interests are in food, hiking, and visiting cultural sites, and prefer self-navigation over tours. We’ve always enjoyed doing classes whether it’s cooking, or pottery. We are not really bar/night-life people. So far we have only booked Tokyo and Osaka accommodation, it seems like it’s still too early to book ryokans and accommodation in smaller cities, as there are very limited options.
Mainly looking to get a sense of how much time to spend at each place and how realistic it is, although any other tips/recommendations are most welcome!
* Days 1-5: Osaka – We’ve been to Osaka before and will be flying here in the morning to start. Will revisit some of our favourites including Osaka castle, Sumiyoshi Taisha Shrine, USJ, a day trip to Nara (day 4 non-JR pass) and Himeji Castle (day 5) starting our 14 day JR pass timer on day 5. There’s an escape room which seems to have a good vibe too which we are considering based on time
* Day 6: Travel to Shirakawago via shinkansen to Kanazawa in the morning, then bus to Shirakawago in the afternoon. Just planning to stay at a farmhouse and walk around/relax
* Days 7-8: Travel back to Kanazawa via bus and explore for 2 days. Visiting Kenroku-en, Kanazawa Castle, Oyama Jinja Shrine, Ishiura Jinja Shrine, and Myoryuji ninja temple.
* Day 9: Travel to Takayama via shinkansen and stay at a ryokan overnight. Mainly planning to just enjoy the ryokan, maybe walk around the neighbourhood and try the local ramen.
* Days 10-13: Travel to Nagano. See the Yamanochi snow monkeys (even though its spring, not sure if it’s still worth it? I heard the baby monkeys are very cute), visit some sake breweries, day trip to Kamikochi. From what I can tell online, Kamikochi seems to be fully open from April 17th every year, which is the day we are planning at the moment. Wondering whether we should reduce Nagano by a day and extend Kanazawa instead.
* Days 14-16: Travel to Niigata via shinkansen. Planning a day trip to Sado Island with car rental, quite excited to sit in a bucket boat. Mainly just planning to eat a lot of seafood and soba here. Not sure if its worth hiring a car to travel the mainland and visit Hoshitoge rice terraces, or whether we can keep ourselves busy just walking around Niigata eating food for the two days we are not at Sado Island.
* Days 17-21: Travel to Tokyo via shinkansen. Planning a day trip to Nikko (final day of JR pass), otherwise we will be doing the stuff that we enjoyed most last time we were in Tokyo. Pretty happy to have this flexible at this point other than Nikko considering the strict schedule the days before. Flying out after this in the evening
P.S. Thanks to the mods who helped clarify how to better structure the post
1 comment
Do Shirakawa-go as a stop between Kanazawa and Takayama.
Kamikochi could be done as a stop on the way between Takayama and Matsumoto and you can continue to Nagano from Matsumoto.
Doing these to as day trips instead seems quite inefficient.